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From: DigitalGod on 17 Jan 2008 03:40
Hello All,
I have been using a Commodore 1581 Drive for sometime now, Works great
with my EPYX fastload cart.

I just got ANOTHER 81 and it DOESN'T like the fastload cart, If I
disable it from the fastload menu everything works fine.

I looked inside the drives at the FIRMWARE CHIPS,
Oh has an OFFICIAL looking sticker on the chip. <- This one WORKS with
the fastload.

On the OTHER 81, the sticker looks like someone PRINTED it out.
Says the Following:

318045-01 $8E8B DOS in DOT MATRIX Printing.

Any ideas?

I have pics if anyone wants to see them, I can toss them up on my web
server... OR post them here....
From: DigitalGod on 17 Jan 2008 03:57
On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:40:23 -0500, DigitalGod <csimone1(a)comcast.net>
wrote:

>Hello All,
>I have been using a Commodore 1581 Drive for sometime now, Works great
>with my EPYX fastload cart.
>
>I just got ANOTHER 81 and it DOESN'T like the fastload cart, If I
>disable it from the fastload menu everything works fine.
>
>I looked inside the drives at the FIRMWARE CHIPS,
>Oh has an OFFICIAL looking sticker on the chip. <- This one WORKS with
>the fastload.
>
>On the OTHER 81, the sticker looks like someone PRINTED it out.
>Says the Following:
>
>318045-01 $8E8B DOS in DOT MATRIX Printing.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>I have pics if anyone wants to see them, I can toss them up on my web
>server... OR post them here....

I posted the pic on my webserver of the IC labels.

http://www.n2dvm.com/1581.jpg
From: Riccardo Rubini on 17 Jan 2008 04:54
DigitalGod wrote:

> I looked inside the drives at the FIRMWARE CHIPS,
> Oh has an OFFICIAL looking sticker on the chip. <- This one WORKS with
> the fastload.
>
> On the OTHER 81, the sticker looks like someone PRINTED it out.
> Says the Following:
>
> 318045-01 $8E8B DOS in DOT MATRIX Printing.

No, that doesn't change anything. It's the same stuff, and it's outdated,
because 318045-02 is available. If you can't find it, I can burn a couple
for you.

> Any ideas?

Since the two drives both share the same firmware, it seems the culprit of
the dysfunction is elsewhere. Anyway, does switching the two chips change
anything?

It could also be that one drive is using the older WD1770 controller, while
the other uses the latter WD1772. This chip is the floppy disk controller
and it could be involved in the incompatibility. Look for something like
WD177x or VL177x and then report it to me here :-)

Riccardo



From: Simon Scott on 17 Jan 2008 06:41
On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:54:26 +0100, Riccardo Rubini wrote:

> It could also be that one drive is using the older WD1770 controller,
> while the other uses the latter WD1772. This chip is the floppy disk
> controller and it could be involved in the incompatibility. Look for
> something like WD177x or VL177x and then report it to me here :-)
>

IIRC, Ive read about a fix for the WD1770 on Ray Carlsen's site.
From: Riccardo Rubini on 17 Jan 2008 06:41
Simon Scott wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:54:26 +0100, Riccardo Rubini wrote:
>
>> It could also be that one drive is using the older WD1770 controller,
>> while the other uses the latter WD1772. This chip is the floppy disk
>> controller and it could be involved in the incompatibility. Look for
>> something like WD177x or VL177x and then report it to me here :-)
>>
>
> IIRC, Ive read about a fix for the WD1770 on Ray Carlsen's site.

We still don't know whether the two drives have different floppy disk
controller chip, unless the OP gives us an update on that. The firmware is
identical - on the paper: after many years, we're talking about 20 years
here, there could be some chances one of the EPROMs simply went bad and
needs reprogramming or replacement.

Riccardo


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