MIO Setup

[Shawn Jefferson]

I recently aquired a 1meg MIO setup with 20MB hard drive. What do you recommend for partition structure, DOS, etc ?

 

I have access to SpartaDOS X 4.19 (original cart) and all the versions created for the Flashcart (SpartaDOS 4.22 & 4.4). I'm guessing that using SpartaDOS 4.4 is probably the best.

[MEtalGuy66]

oops.. Ignore this..

Edited June 12, 2008 by MEtalGuy66

[MEtalGuy66]

I recently aquired a 1meg MIO setup with 20MB hard drive. What do you recommend for partition structure, DOS, etc ?

 

I have access to SpartaDOS X 4.19 (original cart) and all the versions created for the Flashcart (SpartaDOS 4.22 & 4.4). I'm guessing that using SpartaDOS 4.4 is probably the best.

 

REALDOS has by far the best support for it. The free distribution contains updated versions of the format utilities, an .exe based version of the MIO diagnostic cart, and utilities to save & reload your MIO's configuration from a specific disk file- very useful..

 

http://www.tcpipexpress.com

 

Your not gonna be able to take advantage of the extended filesystem capabilities of the new flashcart versions of spartados X because the MIO firmware will not allow you to physically configure a partition larger than 16 megs, let alone utilize 512 byte sectors..

 

As far as partition sizes go, I usually do a 16meg partitiion and another 4meg.. but you could just as easily make two 10 meg partitions. Thats really just a matter of preference..

 

One thing I seriously reccomend is if your MIO has the solid "end plates", remove them.. ANd put some sort of fan blowing through it. The original 1 meg models need all the heat dissipation they can get.

 

Also, if you can send me a high-res photo of the top side of the board, I'll tell you what "upgrades" have been done, and/or which additional ones are applicable. ICD did alot of "stability mods" to various serial number generations depending on the specific build specs..

Edited June 12, 2008 by MEtalGuy66

[Shawn Jefferson]

Sure, I'll snap a picture of both of them. I actually got two as part of a trade. One doesn't seem to work though. Reset-Select doesn't do anything. Green LED comes on, and with the HD attached the Red LED lights momentarily at cold boot as well. I haven't taken the multimeter to it yet to see if power is good.

 

Were there MIOs without the solid plates? I've only seen the solid ones.

[MEtalGuy66]

Sure, I'll snap a picture of both of them. I actually got two as part of a trade. One doesn't seem to work though. Reset-Select doesn't do anything. Green LED comes on, and with the HD attached the Red LED lights momentarily at cold boot as well. I haven't taken the multimeter to it yet to see if power is good.

 

Were there MIOs without the solid plates? I've only seen the solid ones.

 

The later ones, they used vented (expanded metal) plates, in an attempt to get better cooling..

[RobPattonDotCom]

I recently aquired a 1meg MIO setup with 20MB hard drive. What do you recommend for partition structure, DOS, etc ?

 

I have access to SpartaDOS X 4.19 (original cart) and all the versions created for the Flashcart (SpartaDOS 4.22 & 4.4). I'm guessing that using SpartaDOS 4.4 is probably the best.

 

REALDOS has by far the best support for it. The free distribution contains updated versions of the format utilities, an .exe based version of the MIO diagnostic cart, and utilities to save & reload your MIO's configuration from a specific disk file- very useful..

 

http://www.tcpipexpress.com

 

Your not gonna be able to take advantage of the extended filesystem capabilities of the new flashcart versions of spartados X because the MIO firmware will not allow you to physically configure a partition larger than 16 megs, let alone utilize 512 byte sectors..

 

As far as partition sizes go, I usually do a 16meg partitiion and another 4meg.. but you could just as easily make two 10 meg partitions. Thats really just a matter of preference..

 

One thing I seriously reccomend is if your MIO has the solid "end plates", remove them.. ANd put some sort of fan blowing through it. The original 1 meg models need all the heat dissipation they can get.

 

Also, if you can send me a high-res photo of the top side of the board, I'll tell you what "upgrades" have been done, and/or which additional ones are applicable. ICD did alot of "stability mods" to various serial number generations depending on the specific build specs..

 

 

Is http://www.tcpipexpress.com down? Is there a backup site hosting realdos?

[MEtalGuy66]

Here ya go, shawn.

 

Heres what I use..

 

MIO.zip

 

MIOUTILS.ATR is a bunch of various versions of format utilities for different drives..

 

REAL DOS VER 22.ATR is the distribution disk image of the version of REAL DOS that I like..

[Shawn Jefferson]

Thanks, I'll check that out. I had a copy of RealDOS 24, but had some serious issues trying to get anything to run. I was trying to get SSC to run to backup the original hard drive partitions before I deleted them, and I had to use HDSC instead.

 

Here's pictures of both my MIO boards.

 

Serial 574 is the working one, 575 is not working. I don't like the look of the blackened legs on the power switch of 575, but the unit does seem to turn on. 574 has a socketed chip on the left side beside the DB9s, where 575 does not, and the chip numbers are different. SM8632 compared to SM8612, but both chips are LM 3086N. I don't see any other obvious differences between the two.

[MEtalGuy66]

Thanks, I'll check that out. I had a copy of RealDOS 24, but had some serious issues trying to get anything to run. I was trying to get SSC to run to backup the original hard drive partitions before I deleted them, and I had to use HDSC instead.

 

Here's pictures of both my MIO boards.

 

Serial 574 is the working one, 575 is not working. I don't like the look of the blackened legs on the power switch of 575, but the unit does seem to turn on. 574 has a socketed chip on the left side beside the DB9s, where 575 does not, and the chip numbers are different. SM8632 compared to SM8612, but both chips are LM 3086N. I don't see any other obvious differences between the two.

 

Both of those have had serious heat issues with the rectifier diodes and had them replaced with nice big ones. Also, they are both using the newer 5v phase locked loop for PHI2 generation. Also, they both have caps on U4 and U5 which was a fairly late stability mod.. Those might have been "reserviced" by ICD..

 

Anywayze.. On the one that doesnt boot.. Pull out the ROM.. and boot Realdos from SIO2PC.. run MIODIAG.COM... and select BURN-IN test... let it go for at least a couple of hours... If you get any errors, you have some bad ram.. If you do have bad ram, you can use the DISPLAY PAGE feature to scroll through (you can go through the entire ram by bank and page and it will constantly read and display the contents of the current page you are viewing) and find the place where the error is... Whichever BANK it ends up being in, replace those 8 ZIPP chips, one at a time, until the problem goes away.. (too bad its not a new MIO or you could just swap the SIMM).

 

If it passes the burn-in test for 2 hours with 0000 errors, its not the RAM.. The next thing to check is the integrity of the ROM. You can do this through the MIODIAG program (stick the ROM back in first) with FIRMWARE TEST, or... just swap the roms between the two units and see what happens..

 

 

If none of this finds the problem, let me know and we'll get down to some SERIOUS sh!t.. but those boards look REALLY nice, and I'd guess that you dont have a board-level problem..

Edited June 13, 2008 by MEtalGuy66

[drac030]

I was trying to get SSC to run to backup the original hard drive partitions before I deleted them, and I had to use HDSC instead.

 

HDSC was indeed intended to make backups, but as it is a sector copy program, it will also transfer sectors, which are unallocated to files. This of course may be good in some situations, but it takes a lot of time to transfer 16 MB (let alone 32 MB) via the serial interface.

 

Here is the program that can be used to backup files only:

 

http://drac030.krap.pl/tar.arc

 

For example, to backup (f.e.) D3:, make some room on (f.e.) D4 and do this:

 

TAR -CV D4:BACKUP D3:>

 

The program will create an archive BACKUP.TAR on D4, containing all the files and directories found on D3: You can transfer that archive via SIO then, and it is usually much quicker than doing a sector copy. Also, you can unpack it on PC, because the archive format is the same as on Unix.

 

To answer your original question, I think, that of all released SpartaDOS X versions, 4.41 is the best one. If you decide to use SDX, the 4.41 is preferable over 4.22. There is a number of improvements, and the extended filesystem is only one of them. The full list of differences relative to 4.22 can be found here:

 

http://trub.atari8.info/sdx_files/4.41/whatsnew.txt

 

I personally recommend:

 

* the built-in Config Selector, it allows to predefine a number of CONFIG.SYS files (up to 9) and select one at boot time.

 

* if you build directories with the SDX 4.41 formatter, you will have one free sector more on the partition.

 

* directory listings won't fool about very long files cutting the file's length to six digits anymore.

 

* you can use extensions to directory names

 

* RENAME is fixed so that it won't allow to make multiple files with the same name in one directory (this was one of the most annoying "features" of 4.22)

 

* TD will display correct day of week (Y2K problem)

 

* hitting RESET doesn't reset current directories to MAIN

 

* SEEK is 4 times faster (it can be observed listing the contents of very long ARC archives, >=500 KB)

 

* Datatype associations for command.com (RUNEXT.SYS)

 

* automatic cartridge management (COMEXE.SYS) eliminates use of the X.COM (well, at least explicit use)

 

* configurable DATE and TIME format (via an environment variable, tunable at runtime)

 

* structural instructions in BAT files (IF ... ELSE ... ENDIF, GOSUB ... RETURN, GOTO etc.)

 

* fixed the annoying old ICD bug in UNERASE.COM

 

* and many more smaller improvements

 

And, last but not least, 4.42 is in development

Edited June 13, 2008 by drac030

[re-atari]

Serial 574 is the working one, 575 is not working. I don't like the look of the blackened legs on the power switch of 575, but the unit does seem to turn on. 574 has a socketed chip on the left side beside the DB9s, where 575 does not, and the chip numbers are different. SM8632 compared to SM8612, but both chips are LM 3086N. I don't see any other obvious differences between the two.

Looking at the pics, I'd start by checking the rectifier diodes. They look a bit 'charcoaled', and that on both MIO's. The PCB material surrounding them doesn't look very up to par either, so I'd start by resoldering all components in the PWR-supply circuitry on the functional MIO. Although it ain't broken, it might just prevent future failure. I doubt the rectifiers are causing the other MIO not to boot properly, though.

 

Renewing the big electrolytic cap on both MIO's might be a good idea, as this kind of component don't take heat very well. They dry out over time and build up ESR. This can prevent a PSU from reaching its nominal voltage or delivering the current it's supposed to. So, I'd give the voltages a thorough checkup. RAM draws a lot of power, especially when refreshing it's contents. As your MIO's are fully loaded, this adds up quite nicely

BTW: I hate to spit in your soup, but if one or more RAM IC's turns out to be defective, finding replacements will be a major headache. The zig-zag socket buildform was never produced in large quantities. You will experience stiff competition from Amiga owners trying to obtain any of these.

 

Don't worry about the different nr's listed on the LM3086's, these are just the production dates. That's week 32 in 1986 for the first, and week 12 in 1986 for the latter. BTW, LM3086's are still readily available, should you need one. I managed to obtained one at my local electronics shop without a problem. It cost me only 1 Euro to get my 1050 drive functional again. That would probably be around 1,25 US$.

 

re-atari

[Shawn Jefferson]

An update on the bad MIO:

 

MIODIAG tests all the memory with no errors. ROM passes with no errors. And, strange thing is that I was able to get into the MIO config menu this last time I tested. However, the device will not save the config, I get Hard Disk 0,0 Failed! everytime I press 4 in the menu. Also, the MIO DIAG gives errors in the HD Read test.

[MEtalGuy66]

An update on the bad MIO:

 

MIODIAG tests all the memory with no errors. ROM passes with no errors. And, strange thing is that I was able to get into the MIO config menu this last time I tested. However, the device will not save the config, I get Hard Disk 0,0 Failed! everytime I press 4 in the menu. Also, the MIO DIAG gives errors in the HD Read test.

 

Try it with a different machine.. Preferably a stock 800XL..