johnj@knor.prl.philips.nl (John Janssen) (05/27/91)
As I stated in my previous message, I finally (!) got my Mega STe. I love the machine, it is good, except for the booting process (and the noisy fan). I only had a 1MB ST without hard disk before, so I do not know if the following questions are particular for a Mega STe. Is the following normal? 1. When I switch on the computer, it takes very long (>30s) until it boots from hard disk. 2. When there is no floppy disk in the floppy drive the light of that drive stays on forever (after booting). Please reply (see below) quickly, as I do have a one week money back garantee in case of problems. I found out the following (undocemented) sequence for a quicker start-up, however I do not like it: 1. Switch on all peripheralls (monitor, printer, etc). 2. Switch on computer, having an empty formatted disk in the FD. 3. Sometimes the light of Floppy drive flashes(=on) shortly. or: replace 1.- 3. with: Press Ctrl-Alt_RightShift-Del. 4. Light of Floppy drive flashes aprox. 1-2 seconds. 5. Light of Floppy drive flashes aprox. 1-2 seconds once again. 6. Press Return. 7. Boot starts from Hard disk immediately now. The same is true when no disk is in the FD, but then 5-6 changes in: 5. The light of the floppy drive goes on and stays on. 6. Wait until the disk-head crash noises are over and press Return then. (Note the drive light stays on, even after the system has started and when running applications. It will only go off after using the FD at least once). Any comments? Please! Thanks! BTW, I will be off the net for some day from May 31th onwards because of a physical moving to another location, so I may not be able to read all replies on the net, as net replies takes a few days (sometimes). So what I mean to say is >>> PLEASE REPLY BY EMAIL <<<, as it is faster (normally). I will summarise when I'm back on the net. -- John Janssen Check the email address in the header, as this J.v.Deventerstr.1 may have been filled in wrong by the system. Venlo Holland +31 77 513177 Reply to: johnj@idms.prl.philips.nl
johnj@knor.prl.philips.nl (John Janssen) (05/27/91)
As I stated in a previous message I finally received my Mega STe. Unfortunality, it came with 2MB RAM only, but I did not like to wait another month for a 4MB machine, as I sold my previous ST weeks ago. So my questions: 1. Is it true that updating from 2MB to 4MB is easy to do? 2. What type of SIMMS (spelled?) do I need? Size, Pinning, Speed, etc. 3. Is it true that you only have to unscrew one screw, lift up the hard disk and place these SIMMS in their sockets? 4. What price do I have to expect? Dollars (Am.), DMark, or NL-Guldens, any is ok. Thanks. Please REPLY BY EMAIL, as net-replies may take too long (I'm moving to another location Friday 31 May and may not be able to read news for some days = not reading replies!). I will summarise ofcourse. -- John Janssen Check the email address in the header, as this J.v.Deventerstr.1 may have been filled in wrong by the system. Venlo Holland +31 77 513177 Reply to: johnj@idms.prl.philips.nl
ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen) (05/28/91)
In article <2820@prles2.prl.philips.nl> johnj@idms.UUCP (John Janssen) writes: > >As I stated in my previous message, I finally (!) got my Mega STe. >I love the machine, it is good, except for the booting process >(and the noisy fan). > >I only had a 1MB ST without hard disk before, so I do not know >if the following questions are particular for a Mega STe. > > >Is the following normal? > >1. When I switch on the computer, it takes very long (>30s) > until it boots from hard disk. Apparently, this is Atari's wonderous delay for allowing the hard drive to come up to speed. I think there's a way to cancel the delay with a keypress, but I don't know what it is. Hey, BTW, isn't there a PD program called ROACH or something that changes the delay?! Jerry Pournelle in his 'review' in Byte also commented on this delay. He made it seem like his TT waited for several minutes however. > >2. When there is no floppy disk in the floppy drive > the light of that drive stays on forever (after booting). > There's some programmer at Atari who likes having a lot of lights on his machine. If he had his way, the ST would have an oscillating red glow like the car, KITT, on "Knight Rider." I heard this is the same guy who decided that they should put the joystick/mouse ports on the underside of the STFM/STE machines. This is also the guy who decided that the keyboard port on the MegaSTe/TT detachable keyboard should be on the opposite side as the keyboard port on the main console. This floppy light phenomenon has been around forever and ever. I can't believe that they call this a feature. I agree that it is annoying. When I got my STe and it did the same, I called Atari Technical Support and asked them about it. They said that if it doesn't hurt anything, don't worry about it. >Please reply (see below) quickly, as I do have a >one week money back garantee in case of problems. > > >I found out the following (undocemented) sequence for a quicker >start-up, however I do not like it: > >1. Switch on all peripheralls (monitor, printer, etc). >2. Switch on computer, having an empty formatted disk in the FD. >3. Sometimes the light of Floppy drive flashes(=on) shortly. According to Allan Pratt, the floppy light always comes on during a reboot to initialize the keyboard. #2 helps so the computer doesn't choke on the drive waiting for a disk to be installed. >or: replace 1.- 3. with: Press Ctrl-Alt_RightShift-Del. which is a coldboot and is very handy. > >4. Light of Floppy drive flashes aprox. 1-2 seconds. >5. Light of Floppy drive flashes aprox. 1-2 seconds once again. >6. Press Return. >7. Boot starts from Hard disk immediately now. > >The same is true when no disk is in the FD, but then >5-6 changes in: >5. The light of the floppy drive goes on and stays on. >6. Wait until the disk-head crash noises are over > and press Return then. >(Note the drive light stays on, even after the system >has started and when running applications. It will only >go off after using the FD at least once). > >Any comments? >Please! > Having the floppy light on is quite annoying. No, I don't lose sleep over it, but it is a pet peeve. I also don't understand why the floppy waits so long until it 'decides' that there's no floppy in it. There was some discussion about this a while ago, and it was mentioned that MS-DOS systems do this too. But I've found that they don't wait nearly as long! >So what I mean to say is >>> PLEASE REPLY BY EMAIL <<<, A copy of this article has been sent to John. I just thought you'd want to hear me bitch and moan. :^) -- ||| Ed Krimen [ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu or al661@cleveland.freenet.edu] ||| Video Production Major, California State University, Chico / | \ SysOp, Fuji BBS: 916-894-1261
johnj@knor.prl.philips.nl (John Janssen) (05/28/91)
My question about the boot sequence of the Mega STe seems to be not totally clear. So I try to add the correct information here and come straight to the point: 1. My Mega STe waits 30 seconds before it boots from hard disk, although I do have an empty (formatted) floppy disk in the floppy drive. 2. The special point of my start-sequence was, that I could only decrease the idle time (in front of the booting process) by pressing the 'return' key on the correct moment. This correct moment is immediately after the 3rd switch-on of the FD-light after switching on the computer, or immediately after the 2nd switch-on of the FD-light incase of a reboot by means of the Ctrl-Alt-RightShift-Del key press. Note that the first flash of the three flashes mentioned above is very short, and not noticable if you do not pay attention, while the other two flashes (in both re-boot situations) are very obvious as they last for a second or so. So please let me know if these two procedures are correct. As I stated before, I will be off the net for a few(?) days from Friday May 31th onwards, so I probably won't be able to read replies on the net, as they sometimes take a few days... and my money back guarantee expires in a few days! So please REPLY BY EMAIL . I will summarise when I'm back on the net. -- John Janssen Check the email address in the header, as this J.v.Deventerstr.1 may have been filled in wrong by the system. Venlo Holland +31 77 513177 Reply to: johnj@idms.prl.philips.nl
csbrod@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod) (05/28/91)
johnj@knor.prl.philips.nl (John Janssen) writes: >Is the following normal? >1. When I switch on the computer, it takes very long (>30s) > until it boots from hard disk. Wait ca. 5s after coldboot, then press a key. The Mega will then boot immediately. >2. When there is no floppy disk in the floppy drive > the light of that drive stays on forever (after booting). This is perfectly normal for any ST. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2, Things. Take. Time. D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, Germany (Piet Hein) csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de Claus_Brod@wue.maus.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------
csbrod@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod) (05/28/91)
ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen) writes: >Jerry Pournelle in his 'review' in Byte also commented on this delay. He >made it seem like his TT waited for several minutes however. Which sheds some light on the way he likes to test gadgets. He would only have to press any key... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2, Things. Take. Time. D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, Germany (Piet Hein) csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de Claus_Brod@wue.maus.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------
ralph@laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) (05/28/91)
In article <1991May28.113735.22168@informatik.uni-erlangen.de> csbrod@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod) writes: | >2. When there is no floppy disk in the floppy drive | > the light of that drive stays on forever (after booting). | | This is perfectly normal for any ST. As just a reminder, there exists KILLDRV which turns off that darn floppy disk light. It was either posted to USENET or is available from atari.archive. Both source and binaries should be available: -rw-r--r-- 1 ralph 3188 Jan 2 11:22 lzh/killdrvb.lzh -rw-r--r-- 1 ralph 1618 Jan 2 11:24 lzh/killdrvs.lzh Cheers, -- Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU =============================================================================== Proud owner of a Mega 4 ST. Wishing it was a Mega STe! :-|
csbrod@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod) (05/29/91)
ralph@laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) writes: >As just a reminder, there exists KILLDRV which turns off that darn >floppy disk light. It was either posted to USENET or is available >from atari.archive. Both source and binaries should be available: KILLDRV will just turn out the LED and not the floppy motor, right? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2, Things. Take. Time. D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, Germany (Piet Hein) csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de Claus_Brod@wue.maus.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------
redmond+@cs.cmu.edu (Redmond English) (05/29/91)
>>As just a reminder, there exists KILLDRV which turns off that darn >>floppy disk light. It was either posted to USENET or is available >>from atari.archive. Both source and binaries should be available: > >KILLDRV will just turn out the LED and not the floppy motor, right? On my Ste, when I boot off the hard drive without a floppy, it's ONLY the floppy LED that stays on. The motor goes off by itself. Red/.
csbrod@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod) (05/29/91)
redmond+@cs.cmu.edu (Redmond English) writes: > On my Ste, when I boot off the hard drive without a floppy, it's ONLY > the floppy LED that stays on. The motor goes off by itself. After a few minutes, right. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2, Things. Take. Time. D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, Germany (Piet Hein) csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de Claus_Brod@wue.maus.de ----------------------------------------------------------------------