rcj1@ihuxi.UUCP (10/24/83)
I am experiencing a problem with BOOT type cassettes. (Atari 400, 810 recorder.) Seems that after an hour or so the game goes berserk!!! This has occured with two different machines and two different games.... For instance, while playing Stellar Shuttle, the meteorites would suddenly appear as half-moons, the shuttle would travel at a slower speed, and subsequent restarts would not affect the game, thereby calling for a tape reload, which is a real pain... Eventually, all control of the game would cease. I feel that possibly I am experiencing flakey memory! Could even be a heat problem. Any comments? Anyone have a good memory test program to donate? P.S. I might add that this problem is very consistant. Also, anyone know of a disk available in the price range of the Comm. disk? I'm getting tired of the cassette, however I'll be darned if I'm gonna pay the price they're asking for Atari disks when Comm. is so cheap.. (Seriously thinking of C64 if the price goes down to the $125. range...) Thanks, Ray Jender ihuxi!rcj1
mjg@aplvax.UUCP (10/28/83)
I haven't had the problem exactly like you described it, but I did have a home-made (Atari) Basic program which I wrote to monitor my air conditioner operation. (Yah, it was in August; even we Italian's don't run our air conditioners in November.) After about 3 days, the program just died, and wouldn't restart. In fact, READY wouldn't come on, and it wouldn't boot. This (mad EE's) solution was to: 1) Open the cartridge cover, 2) Jam a piece of paper in the interlock, so the power was restored to the machine, 3) Removed the cover from the Basic cartridge, so only the printed circuit card and ROM where there, 4) Set the machine on a book to encourage convection cooling. They solved the problem. I did not look for a minimal subset of all those tricks, I just wanted to get back on the air. The machine is a 400, purchased about 6/83. The cartridge was new in about '81. Good luck, Mars Gralia Applied Physics Lab Johns Hopkins University