| Author: | DonM (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Fri, Mar 14th, 2008 @ 09:49 ( . ) |
Okay, I finally finished adding a parallel port to my 1541 and made an XMP1541 cable. I remembered that my sons PC has a parallel port so I didn't need to throw a PC together (from old parts) after all. His PC runs Vista. So I connected the 1541 to his PC and installed OpenCBM under my account (which is the Administrator acct). When I run the command "cbmctrl reset" the 1541 resets as it should. However, when I run any other command, such as "cbmctrl status 8" or "cbmctrl detect" the drive is not recognized. I triple-checked the XMP cable and it is definitely wired correctly. I double-checked my C64 parallel port and everything looks like it's wired correctly. I can't really test it with a multimeter because I put shrink-tubing over the wires at the legs of the chip to make sure they wouldn't touch. But all the wires are soldered to the correct legs of the VIA (U3). Is there a program I can use that will tell me if the port and cable are wired correctly? Does OpenCBM run in Vista? I was thinking about booting from a FreeDOS CD and running mnib from there but unfortunately it requires a bit of work because of the way the FreeDOS LiveCD is set up. So I figured I would ask here first to see if anyone had some other suggestions first. If I try to run mnib it completely freezes the PC. Here are the errors I get when running some commands in OpenCBM: C:NIBTOOLS>cbmctrl status 8 99, driver error,00,00 status: The system cannot find the file specified. C:NIBTOOLS>cbmctrl detect C:NIBTOOLS>cbmctrl open 8 15 I0 open: The system cannot find the file specified. Also, I've tested all my originals on a real C64 and fortunately all but one seem to work - ie. they get to the loading screen. The only one that doesn't, as I mentioned before, is Gauntlet. I must have had trouble with that disk in the 80's because I had used my Action Replay cart to snapshot it and had the snapshot on a separate disk. Playing from the snapshot works (using the original disk for levels) and all the files on the disk appear to be fine. It looks like only the protection is messed up. I have to run an error scan on it to make sure, but if nothing else it will help verify one of the other images that are already in the database. |
| Author: | DonM (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Fri, Mar 14th, 2008 @ 12:07 ( . ) |
A little update: I found XCTEST and XCDETECT on Joe Forster's site which claim they will test the cable & parallel port. Since XCDETECT didn't come with any documentation I figured I would run it on my PC to see what the command line options were before trying it on my sons PC. When it showed a parallel port on my PC I was a little surprised. I got out a flashlight and my initial assumption was wrong - my PC does have a parallel port, it's just not where it usually is on the backplane of most motherboards so I didn't see it when I looked a few weeks ago. So I installed OpenCBM on my PC, which is running Windows XP, and I get the same results as on my sons PC... XCDETECT gives no output after it says "detecting cable." I'm not quite sure XCTEST will test the way I want... I also tried messing around in the BIOS and changing interrupts as well as changing options in Device Manager but nothing worked. In device manager I changed the Windows default of "Never use an interrupt" to "Use any interrupt assigned to the port" and when that didn't work I checked "Enable legacy Plug & Play detection (LPT1)" but that seemed to make things worse. I'm guessing I'll have to tear apart my 1541 and re-solder the VIA again unless someone here has a better suggestion. |
 | Author: | Pete Rittwage (registered user: 558 posts ) |
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| Date: | Fri, Mar 14th, 2008 @ 13:10 ( . ) |
Hi Don, If opencbm never gives you anything except 'DRIVER ERROR" then it's probably not the parallel connection. You can disconnect the cable to the VIA and use OpenCBM without that part to verify the XM portion is working first. I will forward your mail to the OpenCBM discussion group also as Spiro and Womo may not read this BBS too often (I am not sure). Pete |
| Author: | DonM (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Fri, Mar 14th, 2008 @ 15:10 ( . ) |
Thanks Pete. I just found the mailing list you're referring to on OpenCBM's SourceForge page. Turns out that someone was having the same issue last month and they tried another PC and it worked.... I hope after all that work that my motherboards' parallel ports are compatible. From what I had been reading it was mostly laptops that were having problems with the XMP and needed the XAP. Both of my PC's are desktops and the motherboards are an Asus P4T533-C and an Asus A8N-SLI Premium. |
 | Author: | Womo (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Fri, Mar 14th, 2008 @ 17:39 ( . ) |
Hi Don, one thing I forgot to mention on my reply from the OpenCBM mailing list (the developer list, not the user list on sourceforge). Please tell me as much details about your hardware and the one from other systems tested. Computer manufacturer, mainboard manufacturer, mainboard type number, MB revision #, chipset, chipset number(s) as well as revision, chiptype of the super I/O chip (includes LPT port). Oh and btw. where did you buy your XM or XMP cable, who is the producer? Do you know, which diode types were used for the cable? Please direct your answer not only to this forum, but CC it to the OpenCBM devloper list or in a reply to the mail that I wrote you from there. Womo |
| Author: | DonM (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Fri, Mar 14th, 2008 @ 20:27 ( . ) |
Hi Womo, the XMP cable I made myself using the info from Joe Forster's site [link] . I used the 1N5819 diodes he recommended [link] I actually tried to buy the cable to save myself the time and trouble but I couldn't find anyone selling the XMP cable. The pin-outs test fine using a multimeter. As for the PC's they are both built by me. Here's the info you asked for: My PC: ====== MB: Asus A8N-SLI Premium MB Type: ?? MB Rev: ?? Chipset: nVidia nForce4 SLI Chipset Rev: CK8-04 (??) Chiptype of Super I/O Chip: No clue Website: [link] My sons PC: =========== MB: Asus P4T533-C MB Type: ?? MB Rev: ?? Chipset: Intel i850E Chipset Rev: 04/A3 Chiptype of Super I/O Chip: No clue Website: [link] |
 | Author: | Rixa (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Sun, Mar 16th, 2008 @ 09:57 ( . ) |
On 03/14/2008 @ 15:10, DonM wrote :
I hope after all that work that my motherboards' parallel ports are compatible. From what I had been reading it was mostly laptops that were having problems with the XMP and needed the XAP. I've been told that PC parallel ports are generally not so good, and I had problems with opencbm at first. The BIOS of my motherboard (Abit IC7) offered me some parallel-related options and I eventually settled with ECP+EPP and EPP1.9. Just in case this helps. |
 | Author: | Womo (guest: search) |
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| Date: | Sun, Mar 16th, 2008 @ 10:16 ( . ) |
Hey Rixa, > I've been told that PC parallel ports are > generally not so good, and I had problems > with opencbm at first. it is since some one or two years that even standard PC parallel ports started to behave the same as Laptop bult-in parallel ports and which therefore require the XA/XAP1541 parallel cables. I don't know, why this is changing, perhaps it is done for energy saving reasons or just because logic IC families slightly change their characteristics. Some mainboard manufacturers know to compensate this and other don't. Womo |