somacast Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 hi, I am new to atari 520 st , bought 1 from ebay uk, but not really sure that it behaves right? i used commodore and amiga all my computer life in childhood.. so when i turn it on the floppy light is red then off then red and stays red even if no floppy is in !! then it stays on white screen for about 2 minutes, then it goes to the main atari green screen with 2 folders named floppy on desktop if i may call it so... floppy light is on whats wrong with it ? additionally, i usually make my own rgb cables, but i thought of buying a ready made rgb scart cable for it, what is the best yet cheapest one please? thanks alot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 You should place a program disk in the drive before turning the computer. If you don’t have a program disk, then a formatted floppy disk will do. Some 520ST computers have a single sided, 400K drive while others have a double sided 800K drive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 19, 2023 Author Share Posted September 19, 2023 so its current behavior is normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted September 19, 2023 Share Posted September 19, 2023 Yes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 19, 2023 Author Share Posted September 19, 2023 i c , thanks , looked weird to me compared to Amiga , but technically what makes it wait so long on a white screen before booting up its os ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 19, 2023 Share Posted September 19, 2023 5 hours ago, somacast said: i c , thanks , looked weird to me compared to Amiga , but technically what makes it wait so long on a white screen before booting up its os ? I suppose it's waiting for you to insert a disk before it times out? Most people would have a floppy or hard drive connected to boot something from: maybe a few desk accessories or even just a desktop.inf files. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted September 19, 2023 Share Posted September 19, 2023 Makes perfect sense to wait for you to insert a program disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 19, 2023 Share Posted September 19, 2023 There's not much to do in GEM desktop without a disk. The only time I'd boot diskless was to ensure my systems was free of those pesky boot-sector viruses and then I could format a clean disk that was virus free. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masteries Posted September 19, 2023 Share Posted September 19, 2023 The next sort of things are: -Check if the 520 ST was upgraded to 1 MB RAM or not -Check operating system version; older TOS 1.0 and 1.02 are not the best ones; recommended is TOS 1.04 -Followed by acquire a Gotek or a hard disk solution (for this last case, 1 MB RAM would be the bare minimum) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 19, 2023 Author Share Posted September 19, 2023 thanks alot , i did buy atari to ps/2 mouse adapter , just need to buy a mouse soon , then i can find out, where is system info in atari. thnx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 19, 2023 Author Share Posted September 19, 2023 2 hours ago, Forrest said: Makes perfect sense to wait for you to insert a program disk. yes , but not for 2 minutes or more , and the fdd light stays red and on even after going to desktop,, so it was suspicious to me, as i said new to atari and i compared to how amiga behaves without a fd, thnx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 19, 2023 Share Posted September 19, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, somacast said: thanks alot , i did buy atari to ps/2 mouse adapter , just need to buy a mouse soon , then i can find out, where is system info in atari. thnx It is possible to use it without a mouse. You can move the mouse pointer by using the arrow keys while holding down either ALT or Control (forget which), left click is INSERT + (ALT / CONTROL) right click is the same for a nearby key. Not ideal, but it got me through a time when my mouse broke and had to wait for replacement. Edited September 19, 2023 by zzip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 very useful info, thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 ok , looks like the disk drive is either bad or cant read disk due to dirt, i will clean it later with alcohol cotton wiping, now how to find out the ram size from desktop? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkdluG Posted September 21, 2023 Share Posted September 21, 2023 17 hours ago, somacast said: ...now how to find out the ram size from desktop? Search for SYSINFO program on the interwebs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 21, 2023 Author Share Posted September 21, 2023 thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 21, 2023 Author Share Posted September 21, 2023 lool good that I felt that something is wrong really as it behaves the same with any atari diskettes inserted, and floppy drive red light is always on never off .. and its only motor humming no reading noise .. opened it, and the belt wasn't bad, it was molten, lol, have seen bad or broken belts but molten .. it made my hand sticky and blaaaaaack until i removed it .. i will have to find a belt now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 18 hours ago, somacast said: lool good that I felt that something is wrong really as it behaves the same with any atari diskettes inserted, and floppy drive red light is always on never off .. and its only motor humming no reading noise .. opened it, and the belt wasn't bad, it was molten, lol, have seen bad or broken belts but molten .. it made my hand sticky and blaaaaaack until i removed it .. i will have to find a belt now... I wonder if the floppy ribbon cable is plugged-in backwards? That sounds like the kind of behavior you'd get a from a floppy drive when that happens 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 22, 2023 Author Share Posted September 22, 2023 i bought a new belt , its not available easily in the local market anymore , as if I was asking for something from the museum lol looked right to me, but i think also other than the cable being flipped by the previous owner, if I am right, there a sensor for the disk spindle, if its not rotating the motor keeps running since there is no belt, hence the light keeps on .. trying to guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 22, 2023 Author Share Posted September 22, 2023 (edited) update, i was right about continuous red light, it was because of cut belt. now I am trying with an old pc running win xp, however I installed some drivers a guy provided in a tutorial, however i installed another file too to make floppy imaging software work , but it is not doing proper thing its not making good games for the atari to read, and i can see on every sector it writes it counts 8 or 9 RNF errors (Don't know what rnf is but its an error) tried many bootable usb but this pc refused to see them !! it always boots to windows!! even if i boot from that usb so i can't run make disk software. i do have original disks (midwinter) , they dont boot , but the atari goes immediately to desktop when inserted, but no game runs.. any good reliable disk making way ? thnx Edited September 22, 2023 by somacast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted September 23, 2023 Author Share Posted September 23, 2023 (edited) this is what i get with makedisk .. what does it mean please? (address mark not found) thnx Edited September 23, 2023 by somacast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 Can't help on Makedisk, but are you sure you have not got a single sided floppy drive in there (the belt is not common in double sided drives). If so it might explain why you can't get Midwinter to run (it is double sided iirc). If you have replaced the belt then you could try and format a blank disk both single sided and double sided to confirm. If it is single sided I would swap it out as you will be severely limited to early ST games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somacast Posted October 11, 2023 Author Share Posted October 11, 2023 thanks alot, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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