Cartridges no longer work with U1MB Installed

[mmoec]

Good evening all

I have an issue that I hope someone here can help with. I just installed a U1MB into my 1200XL and for some reason my cartridges no longer work.  This would include my SIDE2, SIDE3, and all my games and any other carts. If I disconnect the U1MB completely and reinsert the MMU and OS chips, the cartridges work fine! 🤔. If I go into the U1MB BIOS and set the machine to STOCK, no change, no carts work. I did check on line and found a couple other people had similar issues after installing this upgrade, and I tried some of the fixes, but none of them work for me. As an added note, I did perform the PBI and OS conversion on this machine, and I also removed the RAM chips and installed a 64K SRAM from Lotharek, and tested all of this before the U1MB install, and I am fairly certain that I installed the latest U1MB firmware. If I run SDX from the U1MB BIOS with a cart inserted and at the D1: prompt type CAR, I get the message 'Not Present' which leads me to believe the U1MB simply cannot see the cart slot. I obviously need my cartridge slot, so if it means removing the U1MB altogether then so be it, but I would like to see if there is a fix to this first. Any input at all would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Beeblebrox]

@mmoecMake sure the pbi hdd is turned off when plugging game carts in to use. You can do this in bios settings or set a profile with it off, then it's just a case of selecting that profile when using a game cart. Dead easy. 

 

For using Side3 you can use it with pbi turned on obviously but you'll need to make sure the U1mb Side3 plugin is flashed for example. More on FJC's website. 

 

Website and also read the manual here:https://atari8.co.uk/firmware/ultimate-1mb/

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[Dinadan67]

2 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

Make sure the pbi hdd is turned off when plugging game carts in to use.

On my U1MB equipped 800XL that is not necessary. I can boot SDX with PBI Harddisk enabled and cartridges like Panos' OSS 5-in-1 work as expected. I can even launch a normal game cartridge (tested with Moon Patrol) by typing CAR at the SDX prompt. I am using Ultimate BIOS v4.02 with Plugin VXS3STCO v2.04

[flashjazzcat]

2 hours ago, Dinadan67 said:

On my U1MB equipped 800XL that is not necessary. I can boot SDX with PBI Harddisk enabled and cartridges like Panos' OSS 5-in-1 work as expected. I can even launch a normal game cartridge (tested with Moon Patrol) by typing CAR at the SDX prompt. I am using Ultimate BIOS v4.02 with Plugin VXS3STCO v2.04

This is probably because the SIDE3 registers are all located within the last sixteen bytes of CCTL (i.e. $D5F0-FF), and if the cartridge doesn't react to writes in this area, it might work as desired. But there is nothing to be gained by having the PBI HDD enabled when the target hardware (SIDE3, in this case) is not present, and nine times out of ten, any other banked cartridge will react badly (turn itself off, etc) to the PBI BIOS probing for SIDE3.

 

So in general, it's good advice to disable the PBI HDD when using carts other than SIDE, and you can do this easily with one keystroke using configuration profiles. You can leave the PBI HSIO driver enabled at all times, however, since this does not interfere with bank switched cartridges at all.

[+DrVenkman]

Need pictures and details of the installation work to help out. U1MB installation in a 1200XL is a bit more complicated than other systems.

[Beeblebrox]

Tis true 1200XL's can bring added complications to the table with the ol U1MB. I reckon this is a straightforward case of the PBI hdd being on in the bios and maybe if the OP has SIDE3 issues it's because they've not flashed the SIDE3 plugin.

 

Let's hope it's just the bios setting.

 

 

[flashjazzcat]

Having the PBI HDD enabled with the stock firmware or even my newer firmware with the (default) SIDE2 plugin will completely deactivate any external cartridge; this is a property of the U1MB which is exploited to suppress the ROM on the SIDE2 cartridge, but which also acts on ANY cartridge. This is how the left cartridge control feature works on the 1088XEL. It's the most likely explanation.