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General Category => Amstrad CPC hardware => Topic started by: Poliander on 11:01, 24 February 19

Title: M4 Board, X-MEM... and trying to do a DSK transfer of Batman Forever
Post by: Poliander on 11:01, 24 February 19
Hello guys,

Could someone please provide a little explanation of how to set up ROMs properly to use a X-MEM memory expansion together with Duke's M4 board? I'm not quite sure how to achieve this, e.g. where to put which ROM etc. (both boards do work already well except they are connected in the same machine...) My goal is to run SymbOS from M4 (which does start already, but requires more memory...)

I noticed there is a feature on M4 board to achieve this but I don't quite understand how this works:
QuoteV1.0.3 - Allow to remap entire romboard for compatiblity with XMEM. Now supporting 32 romslots.

Any help would be appreciated :-)
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: TotO on 11:42, 24 February 19
I'm not the M4 expert, but you can configure it to have ROM mapped from 32 to 63 into the configutation interface.
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: Poliander on 12:24, 24 February 19
Okay, the most easy way to get this working is to simply disable X-Mem ROMs using the jumper switch.
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: TotO on 13:02, 24 February 19
Sure, but you lose 512K ROM, instead of set the M4...  :-\
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: Poliander on 13:43, 24 February 19
Yes, I know, but this was just a temporary solution since I only wanted to try whether it is possible to do a 3" disk transfer of "Batman Forever" using the SymbOS DiskDeDumper utility, but it doesn't work (a write error occurs after writing track 1... M4FE has the same problem). First I tried to transfer using MiniBooster/AFT.EXE, but the CPC client suddenly resets after track 40 and the created disks don't work... hangup after RUN"DISC).
No more ideas at the moment :-( Perhaps I'll connect a 3" floppy to an old PC sometime in the future...

Thanks, nevertheless! A Z-MEM would be the better addition to a M4 board, wouldn't it?
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: TotO on 14:16, 24 February 19
Quote from: Poliander on 13:43, 24 February 19Thanks, nevertheless! A Z-MEM would be the better addition to a M4 board, wouldn't it?
If you require more RAM, sure. It was made for that.
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: GUNHED on 14:39, 24 February 19
Could sound like a lack of power? Try an external PSU for the MX4 board, if don't already do.

If the DISC gets written to track 40 (with or without crash) then it should work. If not, maybe the source-data is compromised.
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: Poliander on 15:09, 24 February 19
No power issue here. I wonder if ever someone managed to do those transfers. The only "confirmed" transfers I ever heard/read of are either on a 3.5" disk or by using a 3" floppy connected to a PC. So far I tried...
I currently have no more options :-( I wanted to record Batman Forever via OSSC to demonstrate current OSSC limitations.
Title: Re: M4 Board, X-MEM... and trying to do a DSK transfer of Batman Forever
Post by: Duke on 18:22, 24 February 19
Just to rule out the obvious. Did you try to format the disc(s) with verify to ensure they do not have contain errors.
I would try to write it, if I could easily find 3 disc sides of 3" discs without errors (I probably can if I loop through all of them, zZz).
Title: Re: M4 Board, X-MEM... and trying to do a DSK transfer of Batman Forever
Post by: Poliander on 18:35, 24 February 19
Quote from: Duke on 18:22, 24 February 19
Just to rule out the obvious. Did you try to format the disc(s) with verify to ensure they do not have contain errors.
I would try to write it, if I could easily find 3 disc sides of 3" discs without errors (I probably can if I loop through all of them, zZz).

That's exactly what I did. 6 times. (I'm hoping for someone saying "hey, it's working for me, so it should work for you")
Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: GUNHED on 20:11, 24 February 19
Quote from: Poliander on 15:09, 24 February 19
No power issue here. I wonder if ever someone managed to do those transfers.
Can you please post the file you did use?

Title: Re: M4 Board + X-MEM
Post by: Poliander on 20:12, 24 February 19
Quote from: GUNHED on 20:11, 24 February 19
Can you please post the file you did use?

https://files.scene.org/view/parties/2011/forever11/cpc/demo/batman_forever.zip
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