Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!db.toronto.edu!jdd
From: jdd@db.toronto.edu ("John D. DiMarco")
Subject: Re: Booting disk software on an 800XL reliably.
Message-ID: <1988Jan25.130826.28981@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <539@nuchat.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Jan-88 13:08:25 EST

In article <539@nuchat.UUCP> peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>I have been having trouble getting disks booted on an 800XL. Sometimes
>it takes 4 or 5 tries to boot up (say) Boulder Dash Construction Kit,
>following directions in the package or not. Usually it doesn't even hit the
>disk... just gives me notepad. 

You mean 'self-test mode', don't you? An 800XL doesn't have a notepad mode. 

Anyhow - how warm is the room your computer is in? I've found on my 800XL 
(with one 1050 drive), that if the room is too cold, I have to try several times
before I can get the disk booted.

>I've tried turning on the computer first, the disk first, holding down various
>keys during the boot, etc... what is the accepted sequence?

Turn the disk drive on first, then the computer. If you don't want BASIC, hold
the option key down while you turn on the computer. If the boot doesn't work, 
try again until it does. 

>I have an 800 with two Percom DD drives, and an 800XL with 2 1050s (as well as
>a Zenith terminal and an Amiga 1000 with 4.5 Megs...

I'll trade you an 800XL with one drive, an MPP1000C modem, and a 1020 plotter for
that Amiga. :-)

>.................................................... I also pull down mumble
>mumble bucks a year as a Sr Software Engineer... 

Care to give any money to a poor student? :-)

John
-- 
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    John DiMarco           Hard work never killed a man ...
jdd@csri.toronto.edu          ... but it sure has scared lots of them! 
{uunet!utai,watmath!utai,decvax,decwrl,ihnp4}!utcsri!jdd      jdd@utcsri.UUCP
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