Author
| Newbie - Dewoo CPC-400s. Memory prevents running MSX software
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| Unregistered |  Posted: October 25 2004, 13:02 |
Hi, everybody,
I'm quite new to MSX, although I played lots of MSX games when I was a kid. Now 20 years later, I decided to get back to this great platform...
I've finally found me an MSX2 computer - a fine Daewoo CPC-400s, took me very long time to find, and I already run into problem.
I can run only very few games of the machine. So far I was able to run only Druid, GallForce and Samurai (Ganbare Goemon), while such great games as Knightmare, Vampire Killer and Zanac 2 cannot run. Sometimes it crashes after title screen, sometimes it says "Out of memory in 1", sometimes jusst hangs up...
I've done some research, and some people said that maybe they could help me on a Russian forum (thanks to dhau), but I also want to ask the community here:
It seems that my Daewoo CPC-400s has RAM in slot that is different from other MSX machines. This is what The Ultimate MSX FAQ says:
www.faq.msxnet.org/msx2.html#msx2spec
Quote:
| Daewoo 400S
128kB RAM/128kB VRAM
Superimposing capabilities
Separate keyboard
2 diskdrives
RAM in slot 0-0, which means lots of software will not work
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Well, I have to correct on above that it has 1 diskdrive only and 1 cart slot...
Also, here's what The Machine Room says about my computer's RAM:
http://www.machine-room.org/computers/516/technical.html?MachineRoomSessionID=69a750f65a38e991606bb1ffac396b3e
My question is - do you think I would be able to run original ROM carts? And can anything be done to get my computer to run all MSX/MSX2 software??
I wouldnt want to give up this great computer, it's just so slick 
Thank you in advance,
Austin |
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flyguille
msx master
Posts: 1196 | Posted: October 25 2004, 16:10 |
ram in slot 0-0? where is the ROM?
weird.....
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| Unregistered | Posted: October 25 2004, 18:33 |
Quote:
| ram in slot 0-0? where is the ROM?
weird.....
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I don't know where's ROM, I just quoted MSXFAQ beleiving they know what they write... In reality, my MSX knowledge is near to zero. I have original Daewoo manual, but it doesnt say much about where memory is. I'll try to look up if it mentions anything about memory addresses, (I know it discusses something about memory mapper) don't know it it helps, though...
There is bound to be someone familiar with this machine, I guess, Russia, for one, had thousands and thousands imported back in 80-s... |
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mars2000you
msx master
Posts: 1723 | Posted: October 25 2004, 18:43 |
Here's the intern structure of this machine :
Daewoo X-II CPC-400S (MSX2) (Made in 1987)
*ROM : Total 240KB
MSX2.ROM -->> MSX BIOS&BASIC Version 2.0
(Slot No.00 : 0000-7FFF, 32KB)
MSX2EXT.ROM -->> MSX Extended BASIC Version 2.0&Hangul BIOS Version 3.0
(Slot No.03 : 0000-7FFF, 32KB)
MSX2HAN.ROM -->> MSX Hangul Input Software Version 3.0&MSX-Tutor
(Slot No.01 : 4000-BFFF, 32KB)
DISK.ROM -->> MSX Disk BASIC Version 1.0
(Slot No. 2 : 4000-7FFF, 16KB)
KANJI.ROM -->> MSX Kanji&Hangul Font
(I/O Address : &HD8-&HDF, 128KB)
*RAM : Total 256KB
Main : 128KB (Main Program) (Slot No.02 : 0000-FFFF)
Video : 128KB (Video Screen) (I/O Address : &H98-&H9F)
*Cartridge Slot : 1 Slot (Slot No. 1)&1 Extension Bus Slot (No. 3)
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GuyveR800
msx guru
Posts: 3048 | Posted: October 25 2004, 20:09 |
So the FAQ is completely wrong regarding this machine? 1 diskdrive, RAM not in slot 0-0 (that would be madness anyway)...
That leaves the question as why so many software doesn't work. :/
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mars2000you
msx master
Posts: 1723 | Posted: October 25 2004, 20:25 |
Some programs (games or demos) were badly written, because at the time of their creation, the programmers only knew machines with RAM generally in slot 3.
This is not the only example. Brazilian MSX 1 machines have the RAM in slot 2, what's source of trouble for some games.
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| Unregistered | Posted: October 26 2004, 08:57 |
Can I switch the RAM into slot 3? Or does it sound very stupid?
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GuyveR800
msx guru
Posts: 3048 | Posted: October 26 2004, 16:19 |
You can insert an external memory mapper in the extension bus slot, but you'll probably need an adapter to turn it into a regular cartridge slot. (Which possibly came with the system already)
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NYYRIKKI
msx master
Posts: 1509 | Posted: October 27 2004, 19:48 |
Quote:
| Can I switch the RAM into slot 3? Or does it sound very stupid?
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Not at all, but in worst case you need to modify the ROM's as well. This should be anyway easy to test with OpenMSX.
To get best compatibility, I would put RAM to slot 3, Disk ROM to slot 0-2 and expancion bus to slot 2.
Without service manual this might anyway be very hard...
Quote:
| This is not the only example. Brazilian MSX 1 machines have the RAM in slot 2, what's source of trouble for some games.
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Or even more weird solution used in SVI-738... 64K RAM in slot 1! |
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Sonic_aka_T
msx guru
Posts: 2268 | Posted: October 27 2004, 20:45 |
There's no poke that will solve this?
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flyguille
msx master
Posts: 1196 | Posted: October 27 2004, 21:07 |
well my machine has the RAM at slot 1....
so, i normally hacks each european game to run in slot 1.
all konami's works perfect...
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NYYRIKKI
msx master
Posts: 1509 | Posted: October 28 2004, 04:25 |
Quote:
| There's no poke that will solve this?
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Ah, you are right... No one has yet posted here Universal slot select poke. It does not solve all the problems, but anyway worth of trying, when RAM is in sub-slot:
POKE -1,(15-PEEK(-1)\16)*17
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Sonic_aka_T
msx guru
Posts: 2268 | Posted: October 28 2004, 11:39 |
Austin: the idea is that you type that before running some kind of game that won't work otherwise. It won't always help, but there might be some games that will run after that. Ofcourse it doesn't help much if you are playing a game from ROM...
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NYYRIKKI
msx master
Posts: 1509 | Posted: October 28 2004, 17:32 |
I did some testing with OpenMSX. Gosh, this computer is weird. :-) No MSX logo, No BASIC copyright notices etc. but it has SCREEN 9
Anyway, back to the point. It seems, that you can safely place RAM to slot 3. Disk-ROM seems a lot more problematic. It does not like to work in sub-slot. I anyway managed to get disk drive working in slot 0-2, by copying a better disk ROM from National FS-5500. That way you can get second cartridge port free and you can use expander on that one as well. Good thing is also, that when you have non expanded slot 3, you don't need to worry about wrong sub-slot selections.
Maybe someone can now help you hardware vice (?) I think, that you just need to cut few foils, solder few jumper wires and change new ROM. After that you have an extremely good MSX2.
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cax
msx professional
Posts: 1016 | Posted: September 19 2006, 13:44 |
I just realized that Daewoo machines are pretty widespread in ex-USSR, so by helping owners of such a machine you can boost MSX usage and community growth on this territory...
I get more and more questions from Daewoo owners about how to run at least small ROMs on it.
After some checks I see I can easily run 8K and 16K roms on it (I test on BlueMSX), but 32K ROMs does not work neither via LoadROM, nor with ExecROM.
Can anybody help ?
If I remember correctly, the author of ExecROM is still active. If you read me, please answer !
By the way, magic poke just freezes this machine.
Any advice is welcome !
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