*** M E M O R U M ***

If you've got a multimeter which can measure current, pull the fuse and clip the multimeter between the two sockets and see how much the machine is drawing. It should be pulling about 0.85 amps. Anything significantly more than that and something is taking too much.

Thank-you for the explanation etc. My goodness it's complicated. I'm surprised that the MTX500 and MTX512 save files are different and address dependent. (I also can't remember trying to write a lunar lander program!) As for the drop-outs, I think we can blame rubbish WHSmith C15 cassettes as I have...

I was wondering what the parameters did. Is there any documentation?

Of course, once I've the MTX files I'll have to somehow get them on the CFX CF card

Getting to know this utility would help later getting my other tapes read.

H-L Slope does the best job, but it doesn't seem to do a good job.

You can find the two wav files (recorded from my hifi tape deck with Dolby turned off) here: http://www.lingula.org.uk/~steve/share/memotech/

I got a better copy using a different tape recorder, it still doesn't work, probably due to drop outs.

I'll upload the wav files to my web server and write a new posting when they're ready.

If it were the VDP I'd not expect it to work at all.

Seeing as it works until warming up I'd get a freeze spray and see what part of the system works when cool.

I must admit that it doesn't look right from memory when I was testing my machine.

If it's the crystal then at least it's something cheap and relatively easily replaced.

I've been experimenting with this trying to recover my old files from a WHSmith C15 tape, which is very noisy, and getting nowhere. There's a background warble and other noise. This was played through an old tape machine from which a ZX Spectrum can load files without difficulty, so it can't be too ...

Yeah I had a similar issue with the MTX512 I got on eBay a few years ago. Changed the regulators and did more investigations, then discovered that I'd bought fuses which were an order of magnitude too small and that was why they kept blowing! D-oh!

As I understand it, the hardware side is the easy bit. The most complex part is the software. If the printer you want to use is a low cost modern type, most of the intelligence is in the software driver running on the attached PC. This is rather different to the older generation of printers that co...