Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mandrill!gatech!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!uwmcsd1!marque!uunet!mcvax!unido!tub!tmpmbx!netmbx!hase
From: hase@netmbx.UUCP (Hartmut Semken)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: mega woes, continued
Message-ID: <1972@netmbx.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jun 88 16:01:28 GMT
References: <[gw.scri.fsu.edu].B16E2EA0.00914A12.PETCHER>
Reply-To: hase@netmbx.UUCP (Hartmut Semken)
Organization: netmbx Public Access Unix, Berlin
Lines: 51

In article <[gw.scri.fsu.edu].B16E2EA0.00914A12.PETCHER> PETCHER@FSU.BITNET writes:
>Now that I have recieved my replacement mega2 and have been working with it for
>awhile, I have discovered that it also has problems.  For one, my disk drive
>has the famed media change problem - whenever I take out a write enabled disk
>and replace it with a second write enabled disk, the disk drive doesn't
>recognize the media change!  This was reported previously on the net to be a
Maybe the drive has a "media changed" output on Pin 2. A Diode (4148) from Pin
2 to the write-protected pin could fix it (?).
>problem of a certain batch of Chinon drives used by third party vendors, but I
>did not expect to find it in the 'off-the-shelf' mega! As it turns out, I may
>also have other problems with the blitter (see, my letter on Uniterm vs. the
>blitter).  Although the final analysis is not yet in, I have certainly had some
Hm, this seems to be a well known bug in the Bitter. Here in Germany we
have a little Program around, fixing the problem. Maybe I'll post it
here. I've never tried it, because I have no Blitter; in fact, I have
one but do not know how to connect it to my 520 ST+ (I get no cirurit
drawings of the Mega...).
>newer, the main point is this:
>
>           *** flame on ***
>
>IF ATARI IS NOT ABLE TO PRODUCE STABLE HARDWARE, NO MATTER HOW THEY MARKET
>THEIR EQUIPMENT THEY WILL NEVER MAKE IT IN THE BUSINESS MARKET.
>
>           *** flame off ***
Do not flame Atari for the unstable Blitter. This is a problem, the
semiconductor company (General Instruments?) has (the Blitter seems to
be too complicated for their machines 8-).
But *flame* *them* for using cheap sockets and circurit boards (and
noisy fans). Flame them for their circurit design (unbuffered outputs of
the soundchip to Centronics).
No, wait!!
Stop flaming them!
They could start making the hardware more stable; this would put me out
of buisiness (I'm fixing "broken" STs...8-)
>Don't get me wrong.  I do like my Atari, and intend to do what it takes to get
>a workable system.  It is still the best micro on the market for my purposes
Me too. I like it, but some day the fixes will be more expensive than
another ("real") machine.
>Perhaps I am the victim of a wild fluctuation of statistics that occurred in
>the vicinity of Tallahassee and my experience is far from usual.  I certainly
>hope so for Atari's sake.
Perhaps You are a victim of temperature. The power supply of the mega
seems to be the same as the one of the SH205.
I got rid of it (and built one myself) and my harddisk problems were
gone!

hase
-- 
Hartmut Semken, Lupsteiner Weg 67, 1000 Berlin 37 hase@netmbx.UUCP
High on a rocky promontory sat an Electric Monk on a bored horse. (D. Adams)