💾 Archived View for uscoffings.net › retro-computing › systems › Tandy › oldskool › boottl2.txt captured on 2023-09-28 at 18:56:32.
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Sb: #boot problems TL/2
Fm: James Brawn 72325,1076
To: all
I have just purchased a Tandy TL/2. I have a 5 1/4 drive a drive B: and a 40
meg Smartdrive hard drive. When I boot on a cold start, it will usally boot up
with the A: prompt. If I immediately do a reset, it will usually reboot with
the hard drive c:. Another problem is that after 10 to 30 min. I lose my FAT.
Rebooting brings it back. I have exchanged the hard drive, but still the
problems exist. You can hear the hard drive stepper motor rachet whether it
boots properly or not. I have experimented with many combinations of setuptl2,
but no luck! Am I doing something wrong or do I have a motherboard problem.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Sb: boot problems TL/2
Fm: John Hollinshead 72215,1506
To: all
Reference boot up problems on Tandy 1000 TL/2 ( or Tandy 1000 xL).
If you install a hard drive system in any of these machines several
modifications should be made to your EPROM settings. Using the SETUPTL2 ( or
SETUPxL ) program found on your MS-DOS disk change the default settings from
ROM to DISK and from DESKMATE to MS-DOS. I found that I also had to change the
defaults so that the computer would check for config.sys and autoexec.bat
files.
If you added additional floppy drives you will also have to run the SETUPTL2/a
(SETUPxL/A) program also. NOTE: these changes will not take effect unless to
use the F1 key to exit and you power down the computer.
After checking the results I found that these two bat files made my life
simpliar.
AUTOEXEC.BAT
============
SET DMCONFIG=c:\DESKMATE 'assumes you created Dir DESKMATE
cd DESKMATE
D:DESK
CD\
PARK.BAT
========
CD\
CD DOS 'assumes you set up a DOS directory for MS-DOS files
shiptrak
Please excuse any spelling errors (I neither type well or spell correctly)
John W. Hollinshead - Lockport NY
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Sb: #27913-#boot problems TL/2
Fm: Gary Lee 73127,1032
To: James Brawn 72325,1076 (X)
Here's what I've found.
The TL/2 and 40 meg combo requires more time to start up. To solve your
problem, run SETUPTL2 from your MSDOS disk and set your E2ROM to run the MEMORY
TEST on startup, and start in SLOW mode. Then in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file issue
the command MODE FAST to restore the fast speed.
Let me know if you need more help.
Gary
P.S. You _DO NOT_ need to turn off the boot from ROM or the startup program
DESKMATE. However you _WILL_ need to make sure that the look for CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT are set to C:. The last statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT should read
D:AUTOMEM.
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Sb: #27992-boot problems TL/2
Fm: James Brawn 72325,1076
To: Gary Lee 73127,1032 (X)
Thanks for the info, Gary. Today I checked with my buddy who happens to be the
serviceman for the locak Radio Shack Computer Center service dept. and he said
the same thing. Apparently, the hard drive doesn't have enough time to spin up
so the system reverts to drive A:. I'm going to give it a try, so here's
hopeing! Thanks again for the help.
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Sb: #27992-#boot problems TL/2
Fm: James Brawn 72325,1076
To: Gary Lee 73127,1032 (X)
Gary, another question. What is the program "automem" and what does it do?
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Sb: #28022-boot problems TL/2
Fm: Gary Lee 73127,1032
To: James Brawn 72325,1076 (X)
AUTOMEM is the program that the computer runs at startup to determine if you
want to start with DeskMate or MSDOS. All it does is look at the setup in the
EEPROM, to see what you've selected. This is why you can tell it which way you
want your machine to boot.
If you use this command, instead of manually calling DeskMate, then you can
change your configuration using SETUPTL2 instead of having to rewrite your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file each time.
BTW, I think the INSTALL option in DeskMate is what added those last couple of
lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Gary