Long story short, I bought a second-hand computer that worked. I bought an 
X*1541 cable, used Star Commander, and it worked. Until that computer died.

A tech friend rebuilt the computer, new motherboard, new case, new basically 
everything. Windows XP.

Now I can't get my cable to work with my 1571 drive.

Some background:

The Star Commander Software is on C:\Program Files\Star Commander.

Some advice I read was create a DOS boot disk, and it should work. The 
problem is when I do, it won't recognize the C: drive, so I can't access 
Star Commander.

The other problem is I have no idea what cable I have. I bought it a couple 
of years ago and lost track of the info, since for well over a year, I had 
no computer that worked with it.

Now I'm trying to get it all set up again.

This cable has the parallel port, with TWO cables. One leads to a Commodore 
Serial cable, and the other leads to a smaller D-17 or so (it's upstairs and 
I didn't count. Sorry.)

So when I config Star Commander, I don't even know how to configure it 
accurately. What should I set for the Serial cable? Should I touch the 
Parallel cable setting? And do I need ASync?

I have hundreds of disks, and I repatriated my C128s from my mother's home 
two years ago, in hopes of getting it all going again, and I'm stymied at 
every turn.

Can someone help?

The good news is 1581Disk works fine, thankfully!

Thanks in advance. I'm not a slacker. I contribute. A year ago I wrote a 
really nice Bejeweled clone for GEOS called "geoGlyph", fully-featured, fun 
game! (You should check it out!)

Thanks!

Sean.

Am 30.11.2010 02:51, schrieb Sean Huxter:
> Long story short, I bought a second-hand computer that worked. I bought an 
> X*1541 cable, used Star Commander, and it worked. Until that computer died.
> 
> A tech friend rebuilt the computer, new motherboard, new case, new basically 
> everything. Windows XP.
> 
> Now I can't get my cable to work with my 1571 drive.

It can happen if you have an X1541 or XE1571 cable that it won't work
with newer motherboards.

> Some advice I read was create a DOS boot disk, and it should work. The 
> problem is when I do, it won't recognize the C: drive, so I can't access 
> Star Commander.

Try using the disk image you can find at
http://www.tin.at/tools/

It will load the star commander from disk.

> The other problem is I have no idea what cable I have. I bought it a couple 
> of years ago and lost track of the info, since for well over a year, I had 
> no computer that worked with it.
> 
> Now I'm trying to get it all set up again.
> 
> This cable has the parallel port, with TWO cables.

If it has 2 cables than you can add a "P" I think.

So it can be XP1541, or XEP1541 or XAP1541.

You only need the second (parallel) connection for a faster transfer,
you don't have to care about it for the right setup. In the best case
you have an XAP1541 cable which is compatible with most motherboards.

I think you'd try in DOS-Mode and trying any of this three options.

On 29/11/2010 8:51 PM, Sean Huxter wrote:
> Long story short, I bought a second-hand computer that worked. I bought an
> X*1541 cable, used Star Commander, and it worked. Until that computer died.
>
> A tech friend rebuilt the computer, new motherboard, new case, new basically
> everything. Windows XP.
>
> Now I can't get my cable to work with my 1571 drive.
>
> Some advice I read was create a DOS boot disk, and it should work. The
> problem is when I do, it won't recognize the C: drive, so I can't access
> Star Commander.

You could try my boot CD image:

http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~schepers/DOWNLOAD/IMAGING.ZIP

The only problem is you still won't have access to your NTFS drives like C.

I assume, since you are under WinXP, you have installed OpenCBM and know 
how to work with and configure it.

> The other problem is I have no idea what cable I have. I bought it a couple
> of years ago and lost track of the info, since for well over a year, I had
> no computer that worked with it.

I checked my records and you bought an XAP1541 from me in 2008, so 
that's likely what you have, esp with the split cable. I sell very few 
XE/XM. I likely forgot to label it, so you should do so now.

> So when I config Star Commander, I don't even know how to configure it
> accurately. What should I set for the Serial cable? Should I touch the
> Parallel cable setting? And do I need ASync?

Set it to XA1541, XP1541. I don't usually touch anything else, but I 
work from DOS.

PS

Thanks, Peter.

It's been two years, so I couldn't recall who I got it from. But thanks! It 
has worked... while the computer I bought specifically to work on this stuff 
was up and running, but now... I'm stuck again.

I'll go through your advice and try it out.

My main problem is I'd love for this all to work conveniently, naturally, so 
workarounds like a boot floppy onto which I can write .D64 files works, but 
is hardly convenient. Having to reboot again to complete the process... I 
hope this works better. But if it doesn't, I'll live with this.

I don't know much about OpenCBM. I'll check it out (though I may come back 
with questions.)

Given this new information, I'm going to see what happens with my current 
setup!

Thank you!

Sean.


"Peter Schepers" <schepers@uwaterloo.ca> wrote in message 
news:id2tbr$dmm$1@rumours.uwaterloo.ca...
> On 29/11/2010 8:51 PM, Sean Huxter wrote:
>> Long story short, I bought a second-hand computer that worked. I bought 
>> an
>> X*1541 cable, used Star Commander, and it worked. Until that computer 
>> died.
>>
>> A tech friend rebuilt the computer, new motherboard, new case, new 
>> basically
>> everything. Windows XP.
>>
>> Now I can't get my cable to work with my 1571 drive.
>>
>> Some advice I read was create a DOS boot disk, and it should work. The
>> problem is when I do, it won't recognize the C: drive, so I can't access
>> Star Commander.
>
> You could try my boot CD image:
>
> http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~schepers/DOWNLOAD/IMAGING.ZIP
>
> The only problem is you still won't have access to your NTFS drives like 
> C.
>
> I assume, since you are under WinXP, you have installed OpenCBM and know 
> how to work with and configure it.
>
>> The other problem is I have no idea what cable I have. I bought it a 
>> couple
>> of years ago and lost track of the info, since for well over a year, I 
>> had
>> no computer that worked with it.
>
> I checked my records and you bought an XAP1541 from me in 2008, so that's 
> likely what you have, esp with the split cable. I sell very few XE/XM. I 
> likely forgot to label it, so you should do so now.
>
>> So when I config Star Commander, I don't even know how to configure it
>> accurately. What should I set for the Serial cable? Should I touch the
>> Parallel cable setting? And do I need ASync?
>
> Set it to XA1541, XP1541. I don't usually touch anything else, but I work 
> from DOS.
>
> PS 

> It's been two years, so I couldn't recall who I got it from. But thanks! It
> has worked... while the computer I bought specifically to work on this stuff
> was up and running, but now... I'm stuck again.

You must not have been XP-based before or you would be familiar with 
using OpenCBM. What OS setuip were you using before?

> My main problem is I'd love for this all to work conveniently, naturally, so
> workarounds like a boot floppy onto which I can write .D64 files works, but
> is hardly convenient. Having to reboot again to complete the process... I
> hope this works better. But if it doesn't, I'll live with this.

Hmmm, convenient. Sometimes a tall order for retro-puting. Many people 
use OpenCBM, and there is a GUI for it, so it works.

PS

Your mentioning of openCBM leads me to believe that I did have that working 
before my machine got wiped and rebuilt.

I just installed it on the new install, and it's not working. I ran cbmctrl 
reset and I can hear the drive whir, and then stop, but no lights. Then any 
other command simply locks up the cmd.exe shell.

I set the port to Auto-Plug-N-Play, and still no deal.

I installed the GUI and when I tried detecting the drive it gave me an Error 
70, and killed the GUI window.

I'm not ready to give up yet... but not sure where to go from here.

Sean.



"Peter Schepers" <schepers@uwaterloo.ca> wrote in message 
news:id5hdp$jvr$1@rumours.uwaterloo.ca...
>
>> It's been two years, so I couldn't recall who I got it from. But thanks! 
>> It
>> has worked... while the computer I bought specifically to work on this 
>> stuff
>> was up and running, but now... I'm stuck again.
>
> You must not have been XP-based before or you would be familiar with using 
> OpenCBM. What OS setuip were you using before?
>
>> My main problem is I'd love for this all to work conveniently, naturally, 
>> so
>> workarounds like a boot floppy onto which I can write .D64 files works, 
>> but
>> is hardly convenient. Having to reboot again to complete the process... I
>> hope this works better. But if it doesn't, I'll live with this.
>
> Hmmm, convenient. Sometimes a tall order for retro-puting. Many people use 
> OpenCBM, and there is a GUI for it, so it works.
>
> PS 

> Your mentioning of openCBM leads me to believe that I did have that working
> before my machine got wiped and rebuilt.
>
> I just installed it on the new install, and it's not working. I ran cbmctrl
> reset and I can hear the drive whir, and then stop, but no lights. Then any
> other command simply locks up the cmd.exe shell.

That's about as far as I got when I tried (only one time). That's why I 
work from DOS.

You could still try my BOOT CD, to at least see if things work from DOS. 
It's a good test environment and you don't have to live there. If the 
port/drive won't converse, you can try different BIOS settings and boot 
back to DOS from the CD quickly.

PS

Update:

I checked my BIOS and the parallel port was set to EPP+ECP by default. I'm 
no expert, so I don't know quite what that means. However, I set it to 
Normal just to test it out.

Suddenly, cbmctrl status 8 gives me a drive status instead of locking up.

And the GUI (gui4cbm4win.exe) now works, and I was able to get a disk 
directory.

I think we've nailed it.

Thanks, Peter! I haven't yet written a disk, but I think that was the hard 
part right there. Now it should work.

WOOT!

Sean.


"Peter Schepers" <schepers@uwaterloo.ca> wrote in message 
news:id5l97$p6b$1@rumours.uwaterloo.ca...
>
>> Your mentioning of openCBM leads me to believe that I did have that 
>> working
>> before my machine got wiped and rebuilt.
>>
>> I just installed it on the new install, and it's not working. I ran 
>> cbmctrl
>> reset and I can hear the drive whir, and then stop, but no lights. Then 
>> any
>> other command simply locks up the cmd.exe shell.
>
> That's about as far as I got when I tried (only one time). That's why I 
> work from DOS.
>
> You could still try my BOOT CD, to at least see if things work from DOS. 
> It's a good test environment and you don't have to live there. If the 
> port/drive won't converse, you can try different BIOS settings and boot 
> back to DOS from the CD quickly.
>
> PS