CPC6128 !

[squale]

Hi guys,

I am a new user of the forum. I bought back recently a cpc6128 after what... 25 years without one lol, so I am trying to use it !

I have a problem, it powers on but the disk drive led stays on a "bit" (liked dimmed) and when I type "cat" (without any disk inside the drive), I got the tape prompt which says : "Press play on tape.." Is this normal ?

Unfortunately, I do not have any 3" disk to test it more, but these days 3" seems pretty outdated, so what is the best solution to use these internet .dsk files on my CPC ? 3.5" or maybe a SD reader ?

Anyone can help please ?

Thank you 

[Bryce]

Hi squale and welcome,
      Not good news unfortunately. If it's asking for a tape without you having typed |Tape beforehand, then either ROM 7 has failed or the FDC has failed. (My money is on ROM 7). Maybe you need to open it up and see if the previous owner has modified it at all.
All easily fixable luckily.
Try typing other ROM 7 commands (like |B for example). If it says unknown command, then ROM 7 is dodgy.

Bryce.

[squale]

Hi Bryce and thanks for the help.

This "ROM7" is a chip that I can find easily to replace ?

I should be able to fix if I have the part, will try what you suggested and let you know.

thx

[CraigsBar]

Hi Bryce and thanks for the help.

This "ROM7" is a chip that I can find easily to replace ?

I should be able to fix if I have the part, will try what you suggested and let you know.

thx

Hi Squale,


The Rom 7 shoudl be freely available from many people here. I have several available. However as a general rule I'd recomment you replace it with a ParaDOS rom instead of a standard Rom7 (AmsDOS)


this upgrade will give you access to Disc formatter, file copier, disc verifier without needing any other tools. Oh It also provides 800k per disc formats on a 3.5 inch drive (as A or B)


If you want a copy of either AMSDOS (The standard ROM7) or ParaDOS then I am sure I can provide them.


Kind Regards


Craig

[squale]

Hi Craig,

I understand a bit better, it seems that this ParaDos is the ultimate rom to have by now ?

I am very interested if you have one, let me know your conditions.

Regards.

Hi Squale,


The Rom 7 shoudl be freely available from many people here. I have several available. However as a general rule I'd recomment you replace it with a ParaDOS rom instead of a standard Rom7 (AmsDOS)


this upgrade will give you access to Disc formatter, file copier, disc verifier without needing any other tools. Oh It also provides 800k per disc formats on a 3.5 inch drive (as A or B)


If you want a copy of either AMSDOS (The standard ROM7) or ParaDOS then I am sure I can provide them.


Kind Regards


Craig

[CraigsBar]

Hi Craig,

I understand a bit better, it seems that this ParaDos is the ultimate rom to have by now ?

I am very interested if you have one, let me know your conditions.

Regards.

conditions? PM me your address and I'll burn one and post it next week as I am away at my parents place in Donegal this weekend.

Craig

[chinnyhill10]

let me know your conditions.

1 - A Big Mac Meal
2 - Samantha Fox to perform "Touch Me"
3 - A helicopter to make my escape.

[squale]

1 - A Big Mac Meal
2 - Samantha Fox to perform "Touch Me"
3 - A helicopter to make my escape.

Samantha Fox was gorgeous but is a bit old now, btw she's a girl from CPC times lol.. makes sense !! 

[squale]

conditions? PM me your address and I'll burn one and post it next week as I am away at my parents place in Donegal this weekend.

Craig

Thanks thats very nice from you ! PM done. 

Btw do you have any recommendation concerning the best way today to use .dsk files on the CPC ?

[CraigsBar]

Samantha Fox was gorgeous but is a bit old now, btw she's a girl of CPC times lol.. makes sense !! 

Just a shame her voice reminds me of a chainsaw hitting granite. Now Kelly LeBrock (Wired Science), *SHE* has a sexy voice.


Craig

[CraigsBar]

Thanks thats very nice from you ! PM done. 

Btw do you have any recommendation concerning the best way today to use .dsk files on the CPC ?

Yes. Buy an HxC SD card thingy!


These are amazing devices that allow you to boot and run pretty much any DSK file from an SD card (OK you need to convert them to an HFE file first, but the tools to do that work really well on Window$, OS-X and Linux.


Craig

[chinnyhill10]

Yes. Buy an HxC SD card thingy!


These are amazing devices that allow you to boot and run pretty much any DSK file from an SD card (OK you need to convert them to an HFE file first, but the tools to do that work really well on Window$, OS-X and Linux.


Craig

Yes, although I'd say "fairly well" for the Windows tools I tried. Bulk conversions can be fiddly. Shame nobody has a torrent of the entire CPC archive as HxC ready files like you can get for the C64 and other machines.

[squale]

Do I need to replace the internal 3" FDD ? Or it is better to have the HxC has a second drive ?

Which HxC is the most suited ? the Slim or normal one ?

[CraigsBar]

Do I need to replace the internal 3" FDD ? Or it is better to have the HxC has a second drive ?

Which HxC is the most suited ? the Slim or normal one ?

It depends on your needs.


I would not replace the internal 3" drive personally because I still have plenty of 3" games that I still enjoy (Robocop anyone?) and therefore would miss these if I replaced the drive.

By Christmas I hope to have 3 of these little beauties...


I have the original open board one on my 6128plus as a B drive
http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13


I will be buying a cased version (in white) for my soon to be returned upgraded 464plus
http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=62


And the internal floppy model for my PcW 9512+
http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=122


So I definitely recommend the screen equipped models. As the CPC allows 15 dsk files to be active at any one time, the screen allows you to know which one is currently inserted into the Emulated drive. so if you are planning on changing the virtual discs frequently then one of the screen ones is the one to go for. If you have a few disc images, and will remember where they all are then the display is perhaps an extravagance.


The cost of the screeny models is not that much more and so much more convenient for me it is a no brainer.


Also remember that adding an ABBA switch to any CPC or plus is quite a simple operation so swapping the external HxC and internal 3" drive is only a switch toggle away.
ABBA switch - CPCWiki




Craig

[squale]

I see, I like to keep things genuine so I will let it too I think, even if today I have zero 3" disks.

Is there any disks/games that are not working with HxC ? (Robocop ?)

Did you tried using 3.5" floppies ? That I have a bunch thats why I was interested but dunno if it is simple to use ? Are they R/Wable directly on a PC ? What about protected disks ?

on your 6128+ it is B drive and no compatibility problems or do you use the ABBA switch too ?

thanks

It depends on your needs.


I would not replace the internal 3" drive personally because I still have plenty of 3" games that I still enjoy (Robocop anyone?) and therefore would miss these if I replaced the drive.

By Christmas I hope to have 3 of these little beauties...


I have the original open board one on my 6128plus as a B drive
http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=13


I will be buying a cased version (in white) for my soon to be returned upgraded 464plus
http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=62


And the internal floppy model for my PcW 9512+
http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=122


So I definitely recommend the screen equipped models. As the CPC allows 15 dsk files to be active at any one time, the screen allows you to know which one is currently inserted into the Emulated drive. so if you are planning on changing the virtual discs frequently then one of the screen ones is the one to go for. If you have a few disc images, and will remember where they all are then the display is perhaps an extravagance.


The cost of the screeny models is not that much more and so much more convenient for me it is a no brainer.


Also remember that adding an ABBA switch to any CPC or plus is quite a simple operation so swapping the external HxC and internal 3" drive is only a switch toggle away.
ABBA switch - CPCWiki




Craig

[CraigsBar]

I see, I like to keep things genuine so I will let it too I think, even if today I have zero 3" disks.

Is there any disks/games that are not working with HxC ? (Robocop ?)

Did you tried using 3.5" floppies ? That I have a bunch thats why I was interested but dunno if it is simple to use ? Are they R/Wable directly on a PC ? What about protected disks ?

on your 6128+ it is B drive and no compatibility problems or do you use the ABBA switch too ?

thanks

I have an ABBA switch on my plus.


As far as I know the only dsk I have that had compatibility issues with the HxC was Prehistorik 2. But a quick posting here and a new version of the software was created to fix this.


Craig

[Bryce]

Most games will only run from A, so if you have the HxC as B, you'll need an ABBA switch to use it properly.

Bryce.

[CraigsBar]

Did you tried using 3.5" floppies ? That I have a bunch thats why I was interested but dunno if it is simple to use ? Are they R/Wable directly on a PC ? What about protected disks ?

I do have a couple of 3.5 inch drives yes, and with Parados I can format them to 796kb to use as multiple game discs. So far no issues with any of them. Even those that need an abba switch to run from the external drive as A are fine on a big format thanks to Parados.

[squale]

Thanks.

I checked the HxC website, there is a software to manage it on the CPC (as well on the Amiga (and ST), is this something cool or using the LCD screen is better ?

[chinnyhill10]

The software is fine,  but what if you need to change discs?


You can load up to 8 into different slots in the software and then use the screen to select which one you want at ANY time.

[CraigsBar]

The software is fine,  but what if you need to change discs?


You can load up to 8 into different slots in the software and then use the screen to select which one you want at ANY time.

indeed. Except it's 15 slots not 8 otherwise chinny is spot on. The hxc is an awesome piece of kit the Rom of the hxc manager is definately a must have in an x-mem. No worries if you don't have an x-mem, the hxc has one extra (non changeable) slot that has the tool on the virtual floppy disc.

[Gryzor]

Yes, although I'd say "fairly well" for the Windows tools I tried. Bulk conversions can be fiddly. Shame nobody has a torrent of the entire CPC archive as HxC ready files like you can get for the C64 and other machines.

I only had issues with one or two files when mass-converting the entire CPC archive, a long time ago. I reported those files to Jeff and the problem was fixed within a day. What kind of problems did you get?

[chinnyhill10]

I only had issues with one or two files when mass-converting the entire CPC archive, a long time ago. I reported those files to Jeff and the problem was fixed within a day. What kind of problems did you get?

There's no file sorting. So if you add a new image it ends up down the bottom of the list rather than being displayed alphabetically like every other 8 bit SD/compact flash card solution I use.


Files seemed to go missing during batch conversion.


It works and is a damn site better than many utilities mind. But the device is so high quality that it's a shame it falls sort especially on the file sorting.

[Gryzor]

There's no file sorting. So if you add a new image it ends up down the bottom of the list rather than being displayed alphabetically like every other 8 bit SD/compact flash card solution I use.


Files seemed to go missing during batch conversion.


It works and is a damn site better than many utilities mind. But the device is so high quality that it's a shame it falls sort especially on the file sorting.

File sorting has nothing to do with the conversion software, and even if I put an archive up for grabs you'd still have the same problem. You'd have to use a FAT sorting prog or something (oh, and I think I have the same issue with my Everdrives).


As for files missing, have you run a dir diff to see which ones? There might be a problem we should look into...

[Gryzor]

Here's a nice in-depth description of the issue: FAT-32 Sorter - CodeProject

And IIRC the fact that you see the files sorted on your Mac/PC/whatever is down to the OS/file manager that had to do the sorting each time it displays the file list. I think I had discussed it with Jeff (of HxC fame) a long time ago and he reasonably claimed that doing the sorting on the Amstrad would be a slow affair, especially with long dirs...