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BBC Master

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Alan Griffin

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Jul 10, 2008, 12:40:28 PM7/10/08
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I found a BBC Master in my loft, and have promised to give it a young lad.
I have just tried it out.
When I turn it on it says:

Acorn MOS

Searching
Bad command

This is not a language

*

If I type BASIC and press return, it goes into Basic and will run typed
in programs.
However, I can't get to read a disc.
When I do *. <return> the cursor flashes but the drive light does not
come on.
If I type *DRIVE0 <return) it gives "Bad Command"
If I type *HELP it gives:
OS3.20 MOS
TERMINAL 1.20
EDIT 4
ViewSheet B1.0

I have never used a Master.
Is it working, or have I got something missing?

Alan Griffin


John Williams (News)

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Jul 10, 2008, 1:10:32 PM7/10/08
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In article <4fbcc8...@argonet.co.uk>,
Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

> I have never used a Master.
> Is it working, or have I got something missing?

Someone seems to have nicked the Disc Filing System rom.

John

--
John Williams, Brittany, Northern France - no attachments to these addresses!
Non-RISC OS posters change user to johnrwilliams or put 'risc' in subject
for reliable contact! Who is John Williams? http://www.picindex.info/author/
Somewhere nice to stay in Brittany? http://petit.four.free.fr/visitors/locate

John Williams (News)

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Jul 10, 2008, 1:19:39 PM7/10/08
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In article <4fbccb67...@tiscali.co.uk>,

John Williams (News) <UCE...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:

> Someone seems to have nicked the Disc Filing System rom.

or could it be unplugged?

Alan Adams

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Jul 10, 2008, 1:31:47 PM7/10/08
to
In message <4fbcc8...@argonet.co.uk>
Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

> I found a BBC Master in my loft, and have promised to give it a young lad.
> I have just tried it out.
> When I turn it on it says:

> Acorn MOS

> Searching
> Bad command

> This is not a language

> *

> If I type BASIC and press return, it goes into Basic and will run typed
> in programs.
> However, I can't get to read a disc.
> When I do *. <return> the cursor flashes but the drive light does not
> come on.
> If I type *DRIVE0 <return) it gives "Bad Command"
> If I type *HELP it gives:
> OS3.20 MOS
> TERMINAL 1.20
> EDIT 4
> ViewSheet B1.0

> I have never used a Master.

I haven't either. However on a BBC B it would indicate that there was
no filing system rom present, and there was a corrupt rom that
appeared to be a language rom, but lacked the coprrect header.

I'd therefore be looking for a bad filing system rom.

It is possible that the Master integrated the filing system into the
main rom, in which case the above wouldn't apply.


> Is it working, or have I got something missing?

> Alan Griffin


--
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan....@orchard-way.freeserve.co.uk
http://www.nckc.org.uk/

David Holden

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Jul 10, 2008, 1:49:02 PM7/10/08
to

On 10-Jul-2008, Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

> I found a BBC Master in my loft, and have promised to give it a young lad.
> I have just tried it out.
> When I turn it on it says:
>
> Acorn MOS
>
> Searching
> Bad command
>
> This is not a language
>

This is telling you that the CMOS battery is flat and the CMOS RAM is
scrambled. You need to switch on with the 'R' key held down to restore the
factory defaults but beware, if you do this it restores the filing system to
ADFS and will try to mount an ADFS formatted disc in drive 0. If there's no
ADFS disc in drive 0 it will hang.


>
> If I type BASIC and press return, it goes into Basic and will run typed
> in programs.
> However, I can't get to read a disc.
> When I do *. <return> the cursor flashes but the drive light does not
> come on.
> If I type *DRIVE0 <return) it gives "Bad Command"

It will. That's a DFS command and you're probably in ADFS (the default). The
equivalent for ADSF is MOUNT <drive>

Try typing DISC to switch to DFS.

--
David Holden - APDL - <http://www.apdl.co.uk>

Message has been deleted

jgharston

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Jul 10, 2008, 2:25:34 PM7/10/08
to
Alan Griffin wrote:
> I found a BBC Master in my loft, and have promised to give it a young lad.
> Acorn MOS
> Searching
> Bad command
> This is not a language

Do a web search for "my Master says This is not a language"
and you'll find things like: http://mdfs.net/Docs/Comp/BBC/ReConfig

--
JGH

Francis Devereux

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Jul 10, 2008, 2:37:34 PM7/10/08
to
"David Holden" <Spa...@apdl.co.uk> writes:

> On 10-Jul-2008, Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I found a BBC Master in my loft, and have promised to give it a young lad.
>> I have just tried it out.
>> When I turn it on it says:
>>
>> Acorn MOS
>>
>> Searching
>> Bad command
>>
>> This is not a language
>>
> This is telling you that the CMOS battery is flat and the CMOS RAM is
> scrambled. You need to switch on with the 'R' key held down to restore the
> factory defaults but beware, if you do this it restores the filing system to
> ADFS and will try to mount an ADFS formatted disc in drive 0. If there's no
> ADFS disc in drive 0 it will hang.

Unfortunately the Master does not configure itself with sensible defaults
when you do an R-power-on (I think it just fills the CMOS RAM with 0s) so you
need to set some options with *CONFIGURE as described on
http://www.classicacorn.freeuk.com/8bit_repairs/m128_battery/m128_batt_replace.html.
If you would like it to start up in DFS instead of ADFS then do "*CONFIGURE
FILE 9" instead of "*CONFIGURE FILE 13".

Francis

Alan Griffin

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Jul 10, 2008, 4:37:44 PM7/10/08
to
In article <6dn0cgF...@mid.individual.net>,
David Holden <Spa...@apdl.co.uk> wrote:

> On 10-Jul-2008, Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

> > I found a BBC Master in my loft, and have promised to give it a young
> > lad. I have just tried it out. When I turn it on it says:
> >
> > Acorn MOS
> >
> > Searching Bad command
> >
> > This is not a language
> >
> This is telling you that the CMOS battery is flat and the CMOS RAM is
> scrambled. You need to switch on with the 'R' key held down to restore
> the factory defaults but beware, if you do this it restores the filing
> system to ADFS and will try to mount an ADFS formatted disc in drive 0.
> If there's no ADFS disc in drive 0 it will hang.

Thank you. That's brilliant!
It has three AA batteries in series with a 120 ohm resistor and a diode.
I made up a new one with new duracells, and put it in. I turned it on
with "R" pressed and it booted up in ADFS mode. I found that if I turn it
on with "D" pressed it turns on in DFS mode, and the disc drives work,
and it boots up programs on the disc.

You're a genius!

Thank you too to all the other helpful people who replied.

Alan Griffin


Alan Griffin

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Jul 10, 2008, 5:05:57 PM7/10/08
to
In article <878ww93...@gecko.repton.int>,
Francis Devereux <em...@devrx.org> wrote:

> Unfortunately the Master does not configure itself with sensible
> defaults when you do an R-power-on (I think it just fills the CMOS RAM
> with 0s) so you need to set some options with *CONFIGURE as described
> on
> http://www.classicacorn.freeuk.com/8bit_repairs/m128_battery/m128_batt_replace.html.
> If you would like it to start up in DFS instead of ADFS then do
> "*CONFIGURE FILE 9" instead of "*CONFIGURE FILE 13".

Thank you.
This worked a treat.
Brilliant!
Alan


Alan Griffin

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Jul 10, 2008, 5:03:46 PM7/10/08
to
In article
<2b7fc68f-abdd-4c20...@d77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,

jgharston <j...@arcade.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Do a web search for "my Master says This is not a language"
> and you'll find things like: http://mdfs.net/Docs/Comp/BBC/ReConfig

Thanks ever so much.

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