Falcon maintenance

General discussions or ideas about hardware.
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exxos
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Re: Falcon maintenance

Post by exxos »

Oh will have to check the stock, PM me your address and will send the cap. It's not as critical to replace as the other caps.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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stween
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Re: Falcon maintenance

Post by stween »

So help me understand this:
IMG_20210422_110954.jpg
IMG_20210422_110954.jpg (244.75 KiB) Viewed 3397 times
My falcon measures as marginally slower than the reference system? :o
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Re: Falcon maintenance

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Wait states set correctly? https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/FALCWS/index.htm

assuming you are running a totally clean system on boot up as well ?
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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stween
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Re: Falcon maintenance

Post by stween »

Clean boot, running from cartridge, no HD, blank floppy in A.

I haven't futzed with the TOS/wait states stuff yet. On U46, currently jumpers 1 & 4 are soldered. The TOS chip in the system reads 4.04, C303217-001 on the front, 31472-20 PC240 (Singapore) on the back.

What's the correct/best/safest combination for U46? I have a 4.04 ROM from your store, so I can easily switch over to that.
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Re: Falcon maintenance

Post by exxos »

If you have a ROM from my store, just look at the link I posted above for best settings..
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Re: Falcon maintenance

Post by stween »

exxos wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:49 pm If you have a ROM from my store, just look at the link I posted above for best settings..
Okay, sure. I read this as: 1st, 3rd, and 4th jumpers.; I'll give it a shot this weekend. I had hoped to see straight 100%s before doing it, hence my question :)
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Re: Falcon maintenance

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stween wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:53 pm Okay, sure. I read this as: 1st, 3rd, and 4th jumpers.; I'll give it a shot this weekend. I had hoped to see straight 100%s before doing it, hence my question :)
Falcons have wait states enabled by default, because the ROMs they used was not quite fast enough for full speed access. All the ROMs in my store are fast ROMs, so they will always work correctly at higher speeds 8-)
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Re: Falcon maintenance

Post by stween »

Alright; for sure the fast ROM works! The system is scoring only a couple of percentage points below yours on the wait states page. Are little differences like these typical on otherwise clean machines? Is there a lot of variation in the RAM in these machines?

IMG_20210423_221139.jpg
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Re: Falcon maintenance

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stween wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 9:21 pm Alright; for sure the fast ROM works! The system is scoring only a couple of percentage points below yours on the wait states page. Are little differences like these typical on otherwise clean machines? Is there a lot of variation in the RAM in these machines?
It looks like RAM access is 5% slower than it should be, but we really don't know what differences those early machines had...
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Re: Falcon maintenance

Post by Steve »

@stween Could you post a screenshot of your RAM card? I'm thinking it might have high latency chips.
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