1st June 1997My best of intentions not achieved once again! Blown off course by two main things. Firstly, my main Electron computer system failed. I could not obtain the disk drive although *ROMS and Click both showed the DFS ROM was active. After a lot fiddling about with differing configurations of addons, I eventually pinned the cause down to the Slogger AP2. I assume that some of the circuit lines that run straight across the AP2 from the Electron to the Acorn Plus 1 or Rombox+ are not transmitting signals as they should. This is as far as I have got with the state that my hands are in at present.
Secondly, the Neurosurgeon dealing with my brain tumour decided that I should have a course of radio therapy which eventually turned out to be an intensive six weeks which ended earlier this month. The side effects have knocked me about a little - hence my mention of hands above for the therapy has had some effect on the other side of my brain as well. Actually, the technical and medical side of this therapy is quite interesting and I will cover it in my main article mentioned in my last letter - hopefully for EUG #33.
I see from last week's "FT Weekend" that the year 2000 problem has hit an American insurance firm already. Apparently this firm operate a computer program that searches for and deletes inactive files. The method used was to add 5 years to the last time the file was used and, if certain conditions were met, then the file would be deleted. Presumably, if adding 5 produced a number greater than the current year, then the computer would take no action. However, when 5 was added to 1995, the computer assumed such files had been inactive from 1900 and promptly deleted 600 of them!
A side effect of radio therapy is that it makes one extremely tired and consequently my time with my computer setup has been greatly curtailed - I am struggling just to keep my financial databank up to date and last evening I switched on my other computers for the first time since the event just before Christmas only to find that I have no DFS in the BBC INTEGRA-B - I have a feeling that it was in one of the BBRAM pages. Something else to sort out in due course! I'll have read the manual, but the IBOS ROM has sideways RAM commands.
However, from memory I think the version of DFS in this BBC was 2.26, the same as the actual ROM in my other BBC with an Issue 7 board, but this latter does not have any ROM image facility. The DFS version in the Electron I am now using is 2.20, but I am not sure whether the INTERGRA-B needs 2.26 - any idea? I could put in a ROM image and see if it works. It will not work with the Slogger DFS for I have tried it before out of interest.
In order to get View at the moment I am down to this Electron with just a Acorn Plus 1 fitted - the View is held in a ROM256 cartridge - and so I have to swap with Click when otherwise using the computer to keep the latter charged up, which is more nuisance value.
I am thinking of cleaning the fingers of the Slogger AP2 with acetone and then reassembling using peg board to maintain position for originally the AP2 was designed to go between an Electron and a Rombox+ in a RX case which would have stopped any waggle, which I think is part of the current problem.
Tony Boarer
I stopped using my AP2 after experiencing exactly the same problems as you. While the AP2 is an excellent piece of kit, being uncased it is susceptible to any particles which might be floating around in the air shorting tracks. I did try to make a case for it once out of card and this worked well, until it was crushed by an inadvertently-placed disk drive.
Since some of these airborne particles can be quite sticky, the whole board should be carefully cleaned. A switch cleaner should do the trick but keep it away from keyboard switches, they tend to be ruined by this stuff.
One other point which springs to mind is the extras: USER PORT, RS423 and such. Check these as well.
Interesting what you say about the American computer company. Bet there were a few handfuls of hair floating about when that became obvious.
Gus Donnachaidh, EUG #32
