[Coco] Simple coco 2 memory test?]

[Eric Keppel]

(Sorry Robert, I accidentally sent this reply directly to you initially.
I wanted to make sure that this went to the list so that it may be of
help so someone else in my situation.)
----

Ok, problem solved!

  This second file you sent didn't work for me either, but since you had
already test-loaded it on your machine, I began to look closer at my own
setup and found a startling revelation.  Apparently, the program that I
had been using to play .WAV files (VLC) was altering the output ever so
slightly somehow and causing CLOAD/CLOADM problems.  I switched to
another program to play the .WAV files and your memory test loads and
runs flawlessly.  Such a simple thing, heh. :)

  So, my memory checked out as good, and that got me wondering about
what else might be at issue with my serial CRC error woes that were
still plaguing my attempts to boot NitrOS9.  I had not mentioned this
earlier, but up to this point I had been running Drivewire on my Linux
Host in a Windows XP virtual machine with VirtualBox.

  A little bit of experimenting, and I soon discovered that the root
cause of these CRC errors was something that Virtualbox was doing in
translating the serial stream from my Linux host to the Windows XP
guest.  I tried running Drivewire on the native XP environment, and
found that NitrOS9 loaded and ran perfectly with no CRC errors.  :)

  With that victory, I then decided to try to eliminate Virtualbox from
the mix by trying to run Drivewire with Wine.  You are probably familiar
with the Wine libraries, but if not... In a nutshell Wine allows Linux
machines to access MS Windows .dll libraries and API calls to run MS
Windows applications natively in Linux without emulation.  It is hit and
miss depending on the application, so I had not bothered to try it with
Drivewire until now.  As it turns out the Drivewire runs perfectly fine
under Wine.  The Drivewire server now has direct access to the serial
port without any additional translation or overhead that I had been
dealing with in the Virtualbox environment. No more CRC errors!!

  Hopefully this discovery will help someone else avoid some headaches.
I would like to thank you Robert, for taking the time to write up that
little memory tester for me.  I really appreciate it.  Without that, I
may have not dug any deeper and found out what was really causing these
problems.  

Thanks again!
Eric

On Sat, 2011-04-09 at 18:39 -0400, Robert Gault wrote: 
The program is one I just wrote for you to test the Coco 64K memory. The
wav file was 
> generated by MESS and sounded alright when played through speakers.
However, since it did 
> not work, I used my Coco to generate the wav file and recorded it on a
PC with Cool Edit 
> Pro. This file was played back to my Coco and worked.
> Well, since anything that can go wrong will sooner or later, I'm also
sending the program 
> in bin format. You can find a way to either convert it to a wav or
directly send it to a 
> Coco disk.
> 
> If things still won't work, I'll send you the source code and you can
assemble it on your 
> system.
> 
> Robert
>