Re: PCT Disaster

[dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <1993Dec11.202114.1@acad2.alaska.edu> astdm@acad2.alaska.edu writes:

> I want to thank everyone who gave me info on trying to get my PC
> Transporter working on a GS using a monochrome monitor.  I did have
> the cable that someone described and I connected it to an RCA end and
> when I went to boot it up I could not get anything to work (not even
> the GS to boot).

If you connected your only monitor to the PC Transporter, you wouldn't
be able to see anything when booting the IIgs.  The PC Transpoter only
provides video output when you are running it in "PC" mode (after
launching the AEPC.SYSTEM or STARTAEPC program).

If you had an RGB monitor, you would use the "ColorSwitch" option for
the PC Transporter, which allows the PC Transporter to automatically
switch between the PC's video output and the IIgs's video output.

On a IIe, the PC Transporter's composite video output is connected to
a molex plug on the motherboard, and the PCT only provides a video
signal while it is active (overriding the IIe video signal).

> I am using a ROM 01 gs, PCT is in Slot 7, I have an apple 3.5 hooked
> to the smartport and a CT-20c hard drive (a smarport hard drive made
> for the //c) plugged into the 3.5 (daisy chain).

Hey, neat!  I didn't know they worked on the IIgs.  No reason why not,
I suppose.  You can't boot from it unless it is the first device on
the SmartPort, which means you cannot connect the 3.5" drive there (it
won't work if you connect it after the hard drive, assuming it even
has a daisy-chain connector).

> To make a long story short, I plugged my Duo Transdrive into the PCT
> DB-19 connector, my 3.5 into that and tried to boot the computer.  It
> would not boot. 

Not surprising.  You cannot boot from the PC Transporter until you load
a device driver into it.  Doing this requires booting some other device
which has a patched copy of PRODOS including the PC Transporter driver.

If you got all the software with the PC Transporter, you should have a
program called PCINSTALL.  This program can be used to install the PC
Transporter device driver into a copy of ProDOS.  When you boot for the
first time using this patched copy of ProDOS, you should hear an
unusual "beep", which indicates the device driver has been loaded into
the PC Transporter.  After you've done this, you can access drives
connected to the PC Transporter (including the RAM disk).

In theory, you can also boot from the PC Transporter at this point, but
it has never worked for me - it always crashes while booting.

Note that if you turn the computer off, you'll have to boot the
patched copy of PRODOS again to load the PC Transporter's driver.

You can use this copy of PRODOS on your normal boot disk.  The patched
code simply loads the device driver into the RAM on the PC
Transporter, then returns control to the original PRODOS code, which
continues to boot as normal.

The actual device driver is in a file called AEPC.DISKS, which is used
by the PCINSTALL program.  There is also a program called PCT.SWAP,
which lets you rearrange the order of the drives and disable drives
you don't want to access.

> I just reconfigured my computer to take the transdrives out.  If
> anyone can tell me what I am doing wrong, please let me know.  I
> guess I am a vegetable now so break it down slowly!  ;)

I hope the above was clear enough.
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz                                                
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand