Re: Trackstar 128 Problems - Please Help

[Mike <moose@rocknet.net.au>]

"Robert L. Doerr" wrote:

> Are you using a low-density 360K drive or a 1.2M Hi-Density drive?  The 360 drive
> uses 40 tracks and is the one I use with mine.  You might have a problem with the
> Hi-Density version that was installed in most 286 and above machines.  I also have
> a monitor attached directly to the Trackstar card.  You can get old CGA or Monochrome
> monitors for next to nothing these days.

This is a good point.  The 5.25 inch drives on my Pentium 100 and 486-DX-33 are both 1.2MB,
so this could be causing the problems about reading the Trackstar utility disk / loading the
program - which I describe in my post to Rubywand.

> Another thing you might run into on newer systems is that the Bus Speed of the PC
> is too fast.  Some machines will let you change that setting in the BIOS setup
> program.

This is also a good point.  The card / software does get further on my 486-DX-33, but it
still doesn't load completely.

> Mine is installed in an old XT and works great.  I have an external Apple drive connected
> which is required to run some copy protected programs since the IBM drives cannot do
> 1/2 and 1/4 tracks.

Damn !  My old XT (Zenith MiniSport - one of the first notebook PCs) died 4 months ago - it
got sicker and sicker and finally died completely - now it is completely dead - no power, no
boot, no POST.  R.I.P.  :(

On another tack, tonight I am buying an Apple ][c - with monitor and printer - for $25 Aus -
$15 US, in order to help get these disk images transferred.  I might need to build some sort
of serial cable, as I don't think my laplink cable will work.

It will be an interesting weekend !

Mike O'Malley