exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

My STF is stuck in a boot loop. It accesses the floppy drive for a second or two and then reboots. I don't think it's seeking or anything, I just hear the motor sound. Without a floppy drive connected, it reboots after a few seconds as well.

If I'm right, this behaviour started right after I turned the machine on with one of the 6 TOS rom chips in reversed position in its socket. A very stupid mistake of course, I should've double checked.

Anyway, I'd like to know if it's likely I killed the rom chip of perhaps some other part of the ST. I don't have any replacement roms to try. Luckily this is my spare machine so I'm not panicing at the moment

First guess is blown ROM chip.

Were they a factory Mask ROMs or EPROMs/Flash? Latter ones are unlikely to survive this.

tzok wrote: ↑Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:14 am Were they a factory Mask ROMs or EPROMs/Flash? Latter ones are unlikely to survive this.

There are handwritten labels on them so I guess that says enough.

sandord wrote: ↑Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:49 am There are handwritten labels on them so I guess that says enough.

Not that you have much doubt at this point, but if you rub your finger across the label and feel the erase window in the center, that would confirm it's an EPROM. And yeah, you don't want to put those in backwards. Fortunately, not a difficult or expensive problem to resolve.

I'm not home right now so no running the roms right now (that sounds awkward ).

I haven't looked into TOS upgrades yet but I think I read there are flash rom solutions, which sounds quite attractive, being able to flash a different TOS version into the roms whenever I like.

sandord wrote: ↑Sat Sep 08, 2018 11:39 am Ibeing able to flash a different TOS version into the roms whenever I like.

Stock ST isn't able to flash them in-place. So you still have to remove them and program in an external programmer just like standard EPROMs, yet it is much faster than with EPROMs, an you don't need to have the UV-C lamp to erase them.

derkom wrote: ↑Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:59 am Fortunately, not a difficult or expensive problem to resolve.

Unfortunately, every option I can find seems to be quite a bit more expensive than just buying a complete ST. I mean, the ROMS cost a few euros a piece and I'd need 6. And I don't have a programmer...

I guess this ST will be sitting in my cupboard for parts.

sandord wrote: ↑Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:15 pm I guess this ST will be sitting in my cupboard for parts.

Sounds like a candidate for the next iteration of the STF remake project.

derkom wrote: ↑Mon Sep 10, 2018 5:57 am

sandord wrote: ↑Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:15 pm I guess this ST will be sitting in my cupboard for parts.

Sounds like a candidate for the next iteration of the STF remake project.