fisher@dvinci.DEC (03/12/85)
I notice that the 800XL has no protection against pulling out or putting in a cartridge while the power is on. Has Atari determined somehow that it is OK to hot-swap cartridges? I don't intend to try it, but since I intend to have my kids using it, and that cartridge sticking out of the top is very tempting. Burns
ravi@mcnc.UUCP (Ravi Subrahmanyan) (03/13/85)
Distribution:net.micro.atari Organization: Microelectronics Center of NC; RTP, NC Keywords: There is NO protection; you could conceivably wreck a cart. I guess atari thought it was dispensable, it certainly wasn't essential, and besides it made it somewhat easier to copy cartridges onto diskfiles.. I'd say you'd better tell the kids that their favourite games may get wrecked.. Ravi
ugthomas@sunybcs.UUCP ( Timothy Thomas) (03/16/85)
> There is NO protection; you could conceivably wreck a cart. I guess atari > thought it was dispensable, it certainly wasn't essential, and besides it > made it somewhat easier to copy cartridges onto diskfiles.. I'd say you'd > better tell the kids that their favourite games may get wrecked.. When atari first put the XL's out, they claimed that removing and inserting cartridges while having the power on would not do any damage to either the computer or the cartridge. I have never tested this out (i have an old atari 800), but I know some people who do (and have removed carts before) and never had any problems. -- ...Tim Thomas ...{burdvax, rocksvax, bbncca, decvax, dual, rocksanne, watmath}!sunybcs!ugthomas Remember...... Only you can prevent software piracy.
ravi@mcnc.UUCP (Ravi Subrahmanyan) (03/17/85)
This is the same thing as pulling out MOS chips with the power on;
nothing happens most of the time, but manufacturers strongly
recommend against it anyhow. There certainly is a danger that something
will pop, in spite of the elaborate precautions taken by most
manufacturers. The Atari carts. do not have any special protection,
they're just pcb's with ROMs, or perhaps EPROMS, and the same
precautions ought to be taken.
cdshaw@watrose.UUCP (Chris Shaw) (03/21/85)
Pulling out carts while the power is on should be OK, as long as you don't short the contacts of the edge connector. Most board failures caused by pulling the board out with power on are in fact caused by pulling the card out crooked & shorting all the bus pins together. Pulling the board out straight is probably OK. However, if your kids are doing it, there is no guarantee that a non-crooked pull will happen !!!! Chris Shaw