flashjazzcat

It very much depends on which version of Windows you're using. Prior to Windows 11 (and perhaps 10), I recall the OS intervening every time the card was inserted and suggesting the user formatted the APT container. It did this simply because it didn't recognise the MBR partition entry, nor the format of the partition. Thankfully not only have more recent versions of Windows stopped doing this, but they also mount multiple MBR FAT partitions present on the same removable media. As for accelerated death: unless the wear levelling on the removable media is non-existent, writing a couple of MBR sectors and doing a quick format of a FAT partition should not damage the device at all (remember, only a BPB, empty FAT and root directory need to be written out when doing a quick format on a FAT volume). It would certainly be wise to use an SD card that isn't complete trash, regardless.

Yeah, I'm game as soon as it's written up.

Try these posts:

All the IDE Plus devices allowed the changing of the PBI device ID; some with soldered jumpers and later ones with a rotary selctor, IIRC. But if the unit in question worked on another 1450XL, presumably it's something else.

I wondered for some time if this would be something as simple as a PBI ID conflict, but had assumed something that fundamental would already have been eliminated further back in the thread. Another thing I'll mention is that the PBI-equipped 1200XL I sold recently completely failed to register the presence of an IDE Plus 2.0 until I faffed about with the buffered Phase 2 clock on the machine and - in that case - swapped the U1MB board for a different one. Point being, it's theoretically possible for that device to be rendered more or less invisible or only partly operational depending on bus timing considerations (true for many such devices, it has to be said).

This is the same kind of logic which results in people suggesting one should maintain toxic, poisonous business/creative relationships because dissolving them will 'hurt the community' or release source code to which one has no intellectual rights 'because open source'.

https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/APT-Software-Manual-8th-Edition.pdf

Presumably not the one which tells you which key to press, LOL.

I know this (I wrote it). I think everything will fit in this case.

I'll compile you a plugin with a Rapidus setting built in, and with the proper logic (i.e. 'Disabled' will no longer mean 'Enabled').

One does not allow the woman to move one's computers around.

Here's the requested plugin tested and working with firmware 4.xx, anyway. vbs2p2.rom

If you want an VBS2P2 plugin, I can compile one for you. Can you confirm the BIOS version you're running, just to be on the safe side?

M0. EDIT: You might be better off installing the U1MB PokeyMAX plugin ('P2') and in that case you don't need to wire up the manual switch at all.

I'd socket all the RAM, and offer the client the choice of replacing all sixteen DRAMs, or just those that are faulty. Even if he doesn't want to stump up for sixteen new, known-good DRAMs, if any of the remaining Micron DRAMs fail in the future, he can easily replace them himself because all the RAM is socketed. The increasing age and frailty of these machines brings up an interesting dilemma. Even if you flog a faulty machine in the hope of replacing it with a working one, it's at least plausible that the working one will fail in the future at some point (RAM failure, dead CPU, etc) and then you're back at square one. For this reason the hobby is not necessarily for the faint of heart. You either need to be prepared to get your hands dirty with repairs at some point, or be prepared to pay someone else to do the repairs for you. And even if one does undertake to acquire the skills necessary for board repair, it's possible to end up in a whole other mess when things don't go according to plan, resulting in issues which are even more diffcult (and costly) to fix, such as pulled traces, damaged vias, etc. In any case, most of my business now comes from the US, so if no-one else wants to do the work, send it here.