keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) (05/09/89)
Just received a curious letter from someone in Europe reporting a PAL problem I've never heard of before. Was wondering if anyone knows if it really is a problem, or if this guy just ought to take his machine to the shop. Here's an excerpt from the letter: "... One time out of ten, the PAL AMIGA system does not switch to PAL mode during the boot-procedure. The result is disastrous as only 3/4 of the PAL pictures are displayed (He's using the Director in a self-boot slideshow). Can you imagine what that means in unattended on-site presentation systems. I believe that there is an easy answer to my problem: Write a tiny program which is included into the startup-sequence and which checks if the PAL mode is properly turned on at boot-time. If that check fails, the routine shall automatically reboot the system, so that we get an endless loop until PAL mode is available." He goes on to propose to pay for us to develop such a program. While I suppose it would be easy enough, I am surprised to hear that such problems exist. Or do they? Is this a known problem with PAL Amiga's, or is this guy's Amiga just out of whack? And BTW, I never did find out if there's any reason not to keep REPORTMOUSE turned on on all windows all the time. Keith Doyle keithd@gryphon.COM gryphon!keithd gryphon!keithd@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov
sutela@tucos.UUCP (Kari Sutela) (05/09/89)
In article <15609@gryphon.COM> keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes: > >Here's an excerpt from the letter: > >"... One time out of ten, the PAL AMIGA system does not switch to PAL >mode during the boot-procedure. [rest deleted] > >Is this a known problem with PAL Amiga's, or is this guy's Amiga just >out of whack? I have encountered the same problem. It doesn't happen that often for me; I'd say about once in 50 reboots. It hasn't bothered me too much since a reboot will solve the problem. I'm curious, though, why do PAL Amigas behave this way? - Kari Sutela - sutela@tucos.cs.utu.fi
c60c-1ea@web-1e.berkeley.edu (Yen Yuanchi Hsieh) (05/10/89)
In article <15609@gryphon.COM> keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes: > >Just received a curious letter from someone in Europe reporting a >PAL problem I've never heard of before. Was wondering if anyone >knows if it really is a problem, or if this guy just ought to take >his machine to the shop. [ stuff about PAL problem deleted... ] >Is this a known problem with PAL Amiga's, or is this guy's Amiga just >out of whack? Yes, this is a known problem. I believe it was to be fixed in 1.4. Something about the checking routine was really flakey -- seems that every once in awhile, the beam position was checked to see if it was in the PAL region or not. If it was, then PAL was enabled, oherwise it's ole NTSC time. Of course, if you check at just the right times, you'll never see the beam at >NTSC line positions, so PAL is not enabled. At least that's the story I've heard... >And BTW, I never did find out if there's any reason not to keep REPORTMOUSE >turned on on all windows all the time. Don't know myself -- but I'm sure it's not even close to the overhead of, say, the GIMMEZEROZERO windows, so I wouldn't worry about it. ------------------------------------------------- David Navas c60c-1ea@WEB.Berkeley.Edu Ideas? What ideas? If I had any idea I would have an idea I wouldn't have posted all of this nonsense.
jmsc@inesc.UUCP (Miguel Casteleiro) (05/11/89)
In article <15609@gryphon.COM>, keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes: > > Just received a curious letter from someone in Europe reporting a > PAL problem I've never heard of before. Was wondering if anyone > knows if it really is a problem, or if this guy just ought to take > his machine to the shop. > > Here's an excerpt from the letter: > > "... One time out of ten, the PAL AMIGA system does not switch to PAL > mode during the boot-procedure. [...] Well, that happens once in 25-30 boots, it's a bug in the OS and we will have to live with him until 1.4 comes out. BTW, this was discussed here in c.s.a.t a while back. > [...] I believe that there is an easy answer to my problem: > > Write a tiny program which is included into the startup-sequence and > which checks if the PAL mode is properly turned on at boot-time. If > that check fails, the routine shall automatically reboot the system, so > that we get an endless loop until PAL mode is available." > That is exactly what I do. After getting bored of waiting for a long boot just to discover that I was left with a NTSC screen, I've wrote a tiny little program that does what you describe. So, for a long while now, my first command in the startup-sequence is 'reset'. > He goes on to propose to pay for us to develop such a program. While Well, that won't be necessary. I've uuencoded my reset program and I'm sending it at the bottom of this article. It's so little, that I guess nobody will mind. Just give your friend my greetings. > I suppose it would be easy enough, I am surprised to hear that such > problems exist. Or do they? > > Is this a known problem with PAL Amiga's, or is this guy's Amiga just > out of whack? As I said, it's a bug in the OS. > Keith Doyle > keithd@gryphon.COM gryphon!keithd gryphon!keithd@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov And here it comes.... begin 777 reset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end -- __ Miguel Casteleiro at __ /// INESC, Lisboa, Portugal. \\\/// Only UUCP: ...!mcvax!inesc!jmsc "Life is hard and then you die." \XX/ Amiga
aaron@madnix.UUCP (Aaron Avery) (05/11/89)
This is a known problem. I believe there were some workarounds posted to BIX
a while back.
--
Aaron Avery, ASDG Inc. "A mime is a terrible thing to waste."
-- Robin Williams
ARPA: madnix!aaron@cs.wisc.edu {uunet|ncoast}!marque!
UUCP: {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!aaronroot@dialog.UUCP (Christian Motz) (05/11/89)
In <15609@gryphon.COM> keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes: > >[...] > >He goes on to propose to pay for us to develop such a program. While >I suppose it would be easy enough, I am surprised to hear that such >problems exist. Or do they? > >Is this a known problem with PAL Amiga's, or is this guy's Amiga just >out of whack? They exist alright. There is a problem with the Kickstart code that determines whether it is a PAL or a NTSC-Machine. This has been known for quite some time now, but hasn't been fixed up to now. I suppose it will be fixed in 1.4, though. -- Christian Motz uucp: ...!uunet!mcvax!unido!pfm!nadia!dialog!root "Trust me, I know what I'm doing!" -- Sledge Hammer Bix: cmotz
agnus@nadia.UUCP (Matthias Zepf) (05/12/89)
In article <15609@gryphon.COM> keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes: >"... One time out of ten, the PAL AMIGA system does not switch to PAL >mode during the boot-procedure. The result is disastrous as only 3/4 of >the PAL pictures are displayed [...] >Is this a known problem with PAL Amiga's, or is this guy's Amiga just >out of whack? Yes, this is a known problem of PAL Amigas. There is a bug in the Kick- start 1.1, 1.2 and also in 1.3. Sometimes the Amiga detects the wrong current frequence (50 Hz in Europe, 60 Hz in USA). If a PAL Amiga de- tects 60 Hz it (she) will switch to NTSC mode (640x200). The 56 last lines (640x256) are unuseable. The only thing one can do is to reboot the Amiga... Most A1000 users (like me) have patched the Kickstart to correct this bug. Greetings, Matthias (West Germany) -- +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Matthias "Agnus" Zepf ...!uunet!unido!gtc!aragon!amylnd!agnus | | D-7250 Leonberg, West Germany AMIGA made it possible FIRST! | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+