nwah Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 (edited) Had been shopping around for a PAL machine, and found this 800XE with some vintage upgrades. It has QMEG-OS v3 that can be toggled off/on with a switch on the side, and the 256KB (QuarterMEGabyte) of RAM needed to run QMEG-OS. I'd like upgrade it to 1MB of RAM, to run some more recent demos. I could do U1MB of course, but I'd really like to keep as much of the original modifications as possible. Any suggestions? Edited July 17 by nwah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 That's one heck of an upgrade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 ECI plugin maybe. But I think they only go to 320K and aren't being made new. I'm not sure any production 1 Meg upgrade for the XE besides U1Meg exists, current or past. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClausB Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 Do you have the schematic for this 256K upgrade? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 Just got the machine yesterday with no documentation, so I haven't found schematics yet. SimCheck detects it as Compy-Shop, but also haven't been able to find documentation for that yet, so it's possible this is a different one that just uses same bank setup. The switch on the righthand side switches out the OS ROM, and the momentary switch on the back does some type of reset when using the QMEG machine language monitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 3 hours ago, Rybags said: ECI plugin maybe. But I think they only go to 320K and aren't being made new. I'm not sure any production 1 Meg upgrade for the XE besides U1Meg exists, current or past. Yeah and actually this machine is 320K total, so realistically I can probably run 99.9% of stuff out there already so I might just leave it as-is. Can always get a stock PAL machine and put U1MB in it later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 800XE in itself is a rarity in most areas (I have one, got it sent over) and probably best left stock as a result. Many have the faulty GTIA - does yours? POKE 623,64 should be sufficient to test - you should get black background and the font will be rendered 16 shades of white in 80 pixel screen width. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 8 minutes ago, Rybags said: 800XE in itself is a rarity in most areas (I have one, got it sent over) and probably best left stock as a result. Yep, was only really considering it since it was already heavily modded. Might try and either get a stock PAL 65XE to upgrade, or attempt an NTSC->PAL conversion on one of my spare machines instead. 8 minutes ago, Rybags said: 800XE in itself is a rarity in most areas (I have one, got it sent over) and probably best left stock as a result. Many have the faulty GTIA - does yours? POKE 623,64 should be sufficient to test - you should get black background and the font will be rendered 16 shades of white in 80 pixel screen width. Interesting, yep looks like it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 That looks like healthy, normal GTIA. Given the motherboard is stamped as 130XE you could just aquire a like machine and swap the boards over - though of course you have the knowledge that the 800XE is then not really 100% genuine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 (edited) 47 minutes ago, nwah said: Yep, was only really considering it since it was already heavily modded. Might try and either get a stock PAL 65XE to upgrade, or attempt an NTSC->PAL conversion on one of my spare machines instead. Interesting, yep looks like it does. You can get a gtia fixer here also: https://www.ebay.com/itm/126325420521? You maybe better off just sourcing a new gtia chip, or if you wanna just get a replacement XE board as suggested, that might be more cost effective. Aside the gtia issue, personally I think u1mb is the way forward. Edited July 17 by Beeblebrox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 I did find this page by Bohdan Milar mentioning having 1MB RAM Disk setup with QMEG-OS back in the day: http://1-2-8.net/mwva/milarb/Atari/800xl_e.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 45 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said: or if you wanna just get a replacement XE board as suggested, that might be more cost effective. Yeah I'm leaning more towards just leaving it alone. This case also has been modified to have external switches as well. But it might be cheaper to get a PAL 800XL board/parts machine and upgrade that to U1MB instead… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 (edited) 5 minutes ago, nwah said: Yeah I'm leaning more towards just leaving it alone. This case also has been modified to have external switches as well. But it might be cheaper to get a PAL 800XL board/parts machine and upgrade that to U1MB instead… If you do get a pal 800xl, make sure you get one manufactured in Hong Kong, as it will be 100% socketed. Makes upgrading to u1mb so easy. Ask the sellers to show the label on the underside. Also, by default, when installing u1mb I replace the 74ls08 chip with a 74f08 chip. It's a known thing and - since re latter chips cost peanuts and are readily available, it makes perfect sense. Edited July 17 by Beeblebrox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 6 hours ago, Rybags said: ECI plugin maybe. But I think they only go to 320K and aren't being made new. I'm not sure any production 1 Meg upgrade for the XE besides U1Meg exists, current or past. The SubCart can provide an extra 1 MB via ECI (or PBI). AVGCart and Turbo-Freezer 2011 both can provide an extra 512 KB via ECI (or PBI). Turbo-Freezer 2011 RAM is also battery-backed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 48 minutes ago, MrFish said: The SubCart can provide an extra 1 MB via ECI (or PBI). Cool, haven't seen this before. I wonder if the existing memory mod would interfere though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 4 minutes ago, nwah said: Cool, haven't seen this before. I wonder if the existing memory mod would interfere though... That I couldn't tell you. There might be information in some of the threads here, or the author of the device itself ( @tmp ) may be able to tell you. [Edit] Here's the author's website: AVGCart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said: If you do get a pal 800xl, make sure you get one manufactured in Hong Kong, as it will be 100% socketed. Makes upgrading to u1mb so easy. Ask the sellers to show the label on the underside. Also, by default, when installing u1mb I replace the 74ls08 chip with a 74f08 chip. It's a known thing and - since re latter chips cost peanuts and are readily available, it makes perfect sense. Nice tip on Hong Kong machines. What does swapping out the 74LS08 get you? Just faster? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 4 minutes ago, nwah said: Nice tip on Hong Kong machines. What does swapping out the 74LS08 get you? Just faster? Not faster, just more stable/timing. Mainly when using side3 cart whej in conjunction with u1mb. I fact the other day I had a 600xl that refused to play ball with my side3 cart until I popped in an f08 chip. Then it was fine. I just do it as standard as f08 chips are peanuts and if a board comes fully socketed it takes seconds if you are already in doing the u1mb to swap out the chips. I've got a massive pile of 74ls08 chips heh heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwah Posted July 17 Author Share Posted July 17 2 hours ago, Beeblebrox said: Not faster, just more stable/timing. Mainly when using side3 cart whej in conjunction with u1mb. I fact the other day I had a 600xl that refused to play ball with my side3 cart until I popped in an f08 chip. Then it was fine. I just do it as standard as f08 chips are peanuts and if a board comes fully socketed it takes seconds if you are already in doing the u1mb to swap out the chips. I've got a massive pile of 74ls08 chips heh heh. Gotcha. My (NTSC) 600XL with U1MB is my "daily driver" and so far no issues 🤞 but yeah very cheap & easy to do—esp. if socketed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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