Re: Mr. Gardner's ZX81/Memotech problems (issue 99), I suggest he tries the following.

1. Disconnect printer
2. Remove QSAVE from set-up. Ear lead only to tape.
3. Load program, or to prevent auto-run, FAST, RAND USR 836 and program loads. Re-save it on your tape recorder.
4. Check that it's loaded properly by commencing program executing after the SAVE statement in the listing.
5. Swap to Mic lead only and see if your copy loads all right.
6. Switch all off, re-position tape, connect up printer and try loading again.
7. If this works, try with QSAVE in place. QSAVE Mk1 does not have a load/save switch.
    
   By much the same procedure you may also find that QSAVE really does still work, either at 4000 Baud or even, heaven forbid, at 250 Baud.
8. Does MK2 QSAVE give a 0 after loading? With the software that came with Mk1, it's a fairly simple matter to relocate QSAVE to any address that integer divides by 256. There are also start and stop bytes. If one only saves/loads to just above E_LINE, then a 0 is generated, just as verify does.
    
   I think it is the loading/saving over itself that generates the random number upon loading. (Mine was a preset 16K version.) It's a shame that Mk1's documentation does not describe the flexibility of QSAVE.
    
   When I have eventually got my Astrad sorted out, I may even return to an incomplete project to give QSAVE a load/save header. There is less chance of error if QSAVE only saved, say 4K, when only 4K of program is present.
9. You may find point 8 to be a little esoteric, and I am assuming the software/documentation is unchanged. May I also assume your ZX81 is a recent one? The very first ZX81s had a slightly different ROM. Hopefully, commercial software still checks and adjusts to the old ROM.
10. Don't give up because of the Alpacom 32/RAM.

H. Williams
Brackley, Northants

I fervently hope this makes sense to ZX81 owners - Ed