The Sinclair QL Forum

I have had a rather pleasant weekend up to my armpits in QLs and microdrive units....

I have to say that those two flexible cables per microdrive are the most annoying thing about testing and getting QL microdrive units to work....

Some odd results this weekend:

a) 1 microdrive unit was wonderful at reading and as a result I have managed to salvage some more software for the preservation project, including Roulette, Oxford Trivia and a little more of Toto 13 (although still some lines corrupt unfortunately)... I also have what appears to be an updated version of Pyramide's graphic toolkit, but as luck would have it I copied it to disk, but the disk failed, and now I can't get the cartridge to read again fully...

b) Unfortunately, this microdrive unit would not format cartridges...... Tried two more units and they won't format either..... Could be the QL I thought, so try them in another QL (swearing by now at those flat cables and the pin headers...) but alas same results (and oddly the microdrive unit in (a) no longer reads as well....

c) Found a good microdrive unit which reads ok and formats - fitted that in mdv2 in a nice QL. Formatted various cartridges which have the replacement felt pads, with mixed results - some cartridges format wonderfully (up to 237 / 241 sectors - dare I trust them?), but others are running at variable speed and will not format reliably (probably remnants of the old felt pad inside the cartridge making it sticky)....

Anyway I managed to make up 6 cartridges with working software on it so that was me happy....

Until I tried making a dump of cartridges in mdv1 to realise that it is extremely noisy (rattles) and does not read cartridges at all reliably, so that will be my project for tomorrow - to find a nice working mdv1 unit and fit it .....

What has everyone else been up to?

Hi Rich,

Nothing as exciting as you. We took my mother in law out for the day. She has dementia, so conversations were a little repetitive to say the least! C'set la vie!

Later on, I wanted to get some debugging done on the next QL Assembly Language eMagazine, but I got slightly distracted and ended up doing some invoicing and end of year accounts stuff instead.

Then I bottled up 5 gallons of home made cider!


Cheers,
Norm.

Pruning trees

My first QL type day is today.

Weekend was taken up with trying to get fit and unfortunately my wife taking a fall in the process with a nasty break of two bones in her right foot, A&E, X-ray and several hours playing candy crush keeping amused in A&E, the wife getting plastered , but not with alcohol.

Microdrives are a fickle machine that with hindsight could have been better.

I think this has been mentioned before, but a slight use of wet 'n' dry 600+ might help traction and consistency on what might be a slippery/worn rubber wheel or even a new replacement roller.

Now I need some help !!



I have managed to get two really good working microdrive units in the QL - both work nicely together and return good results on format and read...

HOWEVER, when I plug in a Trump Card and turn on the QL, the mdv1 unit runs continuously.

Remove the Trump Card and all is well.

This didn't happen with another microdrive unit in mdv1, but that microdrive unit would not format.....

Any ideas what might cause this?

RWAP wrote:Now I need some help !!

I try...
I experienced a similar problem. I didn't change any MDV unit (probably the original ones, still working); when removed and then inserted the TrumpCard, MDV1 started running continuously. I powered off the QL, removed he card and then inserted slowly. The MDV restarted correctly.
This happened 3 or 4 times in the past. I cleaned the Trumpcard PCB connector with a rubber (and the QL expansion slot) and till now it's OK.
May I suggest to try the same procedure?

I managed to solve it eventually by removing and re-inserting mdv1 for some reason - none of the pins were bent, so who knows what was causing the issue....

The infamous Mdv pins!
All's well that ends well

RWAP wrote:I have had a rather pleasant weekend up to my armpits in QLs and microdrive units....

I have to say that those two flexible cables per microdrive are the most annoying thing about testing and getting QL microdrive units to work....

Some odd results this weekend:

a) 1 microdrive unit was wonderful at reading and as a result I have managed to salvage some more software for the preservation project, including Roulette, Oxford Trivia and a little more of Toto 13 (although still some lines corrupt unfortunately)... I also have what appears to be an updated version of Pyramide's graphic toolkit, but as luck would have it I copied it to disk, but the disk failed, and now I can't get the cartridge to read again fully...

b) Unfortunately, this microdrive unit would not format cartridges...... Tried two more units and they won't format either..... Could be the QL I thought, so try them in another QL (swearing by now at those flat cables and the pin headers...) but alas same results (and oddly the microdrive unit in (a) no longer reads as well....

c) Found a good microdrive unit which reads ok and formats - fitted that in mdv2 in a nice QL. Formatted various cartridges which have the replacement felt pads, with mixed results - some cartridges format wonderfully (up to 237 / 241 sectors - dare I trust them?), but others are running at variable speed and will not format reliably (probably remnants of the old felt pad inside the cartridge making it sticky)....

Anyway I managed to make up 6 cartridges with working software on it so that was me happy....

Until I tried making a dump of cartridges in mdv1 to realise that it is extremely noisy (rattles) and does not read cartridges at all reliably, so that will be my project for tomorrow - to find a nice working mdv1 unit and fit it .....

What has everyone else been up to?

As you know Rich I'm recovering more that 500 Md's with my First Italian QL with perfect MD units.

Seems that many times I run the MD's...or use it...or read it...the bad sectors reducing.

I've tried another Italian QL with 2 perfect and New MD's (like the first one) but seems totally different: or well the MD2 is ok, the MD1 have difficulty to format what all other MD's do.

QL 2 have a Minerva...seems much better to use tne original MGI ROM that was 100% compatible with all old stuff.

Don't forget to sell me all your MD's stuff (originals) that you have recovered (better If responged from Marling or Ian) because I can try to recover it with my 2 QL's (New).

I can try to recover also yuor "toto 13" too