Unprotected cartridges

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5 total messages Started by fisher Mon, 11 Mar 1985 21:59

#612

Author: fisher
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1985 21:59

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I notice that the 800XL has no protection against pulling out or putting
in a cartridge while the power is on.  Has Atari determined somehow that it
is OK to hot-swap cartridges?  I don't intend to try it, but since I intend
to have my kids using it, and that cartridge sticking out of the top is very
tempting.

Burns

Re: Unprotected cartridges

#615

Author: Ravi Subrahmanyan
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1985 00:32

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Distribution:net.micro.atari 
Organization: Microelectronics Center of NC; RTP, NC
Keywords: 


There is NO protection; you could conceivably wreck a cart. I guess atari 
thought it was dispensable, it certainly wasn't essential, and besides it
made it somewhat easier to copy cartridges onto diskfiles.. I'd say you'd
better tell the kids that their favourite games may get wrecked..

Ravi

Re: Re: Unprotected cartridges

#620

Author: Timothy Thomas
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1985 00:36

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> There is NO protection; you could conceivably wreck a cart. I guess atari 
> thought it was dispensable, it certainly wasn't essential, and besides it
> made it somewhat easier to copy cartridges onto diskfiles.. I'd say you'd
> better tell the kids that their favourite games may get wrecked..


When atari first put the XL's out, they claimed that removing and inserting
cartridges while having the power on would not do any damage to either
the computer or the cartridge.  I have never tested this out (i have an
old atari 800), but I know some people who do (and have removed carts before)
and never had any problems.


-- 
...Tim Thomas

...{burdvax, rocksvax, bbncca, decvax, dual, rocksanne, watmath}!sunybcs!ugthomas


Remember......
	Only you can prevent software piracy.

Re: Re: Unprotected cartridges

#623

Author: Ravi Subrahmanyan
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1985 02:36

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This is the same thing as pulling out MOS chips with the power on;
nothing happens most of the time, but manufacturers strongly
recommend against it anyhow. There certainly is a danger that something
will pop, in spite of the elaborate precautions taken by most
manufacturers. The Atari carts. do not have any special protection, 
they're just pcb's with ROMs, or perhaps EPROMS, and the same 
precautions ought to be taken.

Re: Re: Unprotected cartridges

#630

Author: Chris Shaw
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1985 04:08

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Pulling out carts while the power is on should be OK, as long as you
don't short the contacts of the edge connector.
Most board failures caused by pulling the board out with power on are in fact
caused by pulling the card out crooked & shorting all the bus pins together.

Pulling the board out straight is probably OK.
However, if your kids are doing it, there is no guarantee that a non-crooked 
pull will happen !!!!

Chris Shaw

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