DaNyL: thanks for the effort, but now it hangs up after typing just one note to pattern:)

I guess AT2 just doesn't work on this machine and I'll get another computer for it, I have couple of old pentiums laying around.

I was just hoping to take AT2 with me to cabin by the lake... well you can edit .RAD -tunes in AT2, right? So I can scetch tunes with RAD and finish them home with Adlibtracker :D

@vintaque: ok. this maybe far off; but could you try the following?: (@ adt2.ini)
[TROUBLESHOOTiNG]
opl_latency=1
cpu_saving=3
screen_mode=3
comp_text_mode=1

[TiMiNG]
ssaver_time=0
18hz_fix=off
timer_precision=1

DaNyL: I tried external keyboard once, but it didn't disable built in keyboard -didnt help:)
I tried the "old" version on this site, but maybe I could search other versions too.
Edlib was kinda weird when I tried it out, but so is tracking without macros...

@vintaque: does the last opl2 version of adlib tracker lock up?
have you tried an external keyboard yet (one might never know which twisted paths PC technology can take ^^)
We don't want anyone to return to a non macro-based tracker.
You could at least try to use Edlib-OPL3 (^_^)'

nim: please post a link to drivers or send 'em to me! vintaque/at/yahoo/dot/com
maybe they would help...

I've been using RAD now, it's a nice tracker but it is very limited. Well, it's good practise to use simpler editor for a while.

I use a Toshiba (DynaBook) Portege 3000CT ('98?) (equivalent to overseas 3010CT) with 233Mhz and 64MB RAM. The Li-Ion batteries from this age are quite weak.. I got a sealed new 2600mAh on ebay (standard: 1300mAh) and it last for little over 1:45... but then ac adapter isn't too big.
I notice adt2 slowdown rarely on full speed so edit adt2 ini and it should be safe for live use.
3400CT has stronger CPU. this series rocks as it's so very small and cute :)
I don't think 3000/3010 can sleap though which is biggest drawback! a 3000 series portege with hardware for sleap functionality would be heaven :) you shouldn't give more than tops $100 for a working unit with ac adapter and a possibly ext-port floppy/cd drive.
IF ANYONE NEEDS SOUNDCHIP DRIVERS I found them :) seems to be the same for most in this series and probably sister series :)

any of you hardware hackers, do you think it's possible to open the case of an old laptop battery and replace the guts with modern battery technology at the same voltage?

subz3ro: thanks for the beta, but it seems that AT2 doesn't just work on Toshiba Tecra 520cdt:(
I'll fix another computer for adlibbin'...

Hey all of you who has Adlibtracker 2 working on laptop, would you mind posting wich are the compatible models?

vintaque: sent you a beta version yesterday...

@Nim: Nice chiplogo-modification!I think that is good way - like MSX-community do.So "opl3" and "2612" is very good idea!!!

@nim: ..or: the OPL waveforms in the logo. or maybe a huge sine in the background.
another idea would be a PS2 style FMB logo. with waveforms on it ^^

subz3ro: gee, thanks! I tried yesterday X-COM Enemy unknown for a while and it seem to work fine and it uses DOS4GW. I'm not sure but it sounds like it has Adlib-sounds too:)

Gotta try more games and more programs. Maybe windows too...

vintaque: I think you can try with, let's say, win95 or win98.. even thought 32MB is too less for them.. anyway, you can of course try other things, like games using PM.. you can usually distinguish them by looking for DOS4GW.EXE file in the game directory :) unfortunatelly there is only startup logging of AdT2, because of speed and memory optimization.. so we can't tell exactly at which point it crashes.. I will send you one simplified beta of the program later this week, where the song trace is disabled during keyboard handler.. if this won't help then I don't see much chances to find out why you encounter such problem.

If it's the memory, I'm screwed because that 32 MB on this computer is built in. Maybe I just should get another computer...

Should I try running AT on some windows-version? Any other programs or games using protected mode?

Is there any way to log Adlibtracker? That would help to see what leads to this problem.

oh that's nim.pansarvagn.net/fmbeauty_mock2.png

DaNyL whoah! reading your post I thought, oh, I'm doing a contribution! then I saw your entry and I really like it! :P
maybe over the "Beauty" (since there's space there) add small icons of the YMF262 and YM2612 names? :) or something to make it look even more rad :) perhaps even very small descriptive sub-title text like these?
nim.pansarvagn.net/fmbeauty_mock1.png | nim.pansarvagn.net/fmbeauty_mock1.png
or perhaps some other sub-title that also implies on it's emulating (CPLD) and expansion capabilities? :) like... extendable sound/music unit/device? or something :D heh we're getting ahead of things.. nice x¨)
about an acronym, would first version be called.... FB-01? (joke ;))

ages ago i had problems with ADT2 on my laptop too (TI, 486/100). to my amazement, it was just operating memory problem, i reserved some more and... voila! i guess it won't help you but you can try anyway...

vintaque: hmm, sounds like it may be protected mode (or PM-extender) issue only.. since both AdT2 and Fasttracker II use PMODE, while let's say, RAD and Edlib don't..
as the small diskette icon - nope, this has no meaning in the terms of hanging keyboard or mouse..

I tried RAD and Edlib and they worked fine and so did Italy90 with adlibmusic and adlibeffects. Only Fasttracker 2.06 did exactly the same thing once.
I'm quite sure it's the keyboard, beacause AT2 seems to work correctly after the "crash", if I hit the esc and type few notes to pattern it keeps playing the song correctly over and over again and all the graphics display as they should, only the mouse and keyboard stop responding. It happens also with opl_latency=0.

Default DOS keyboard- and mouse-driver doesn't have any effect on crashing, I have tried with and without them.

I have finnish (scandinavian) keyboard in my Tecra, but that probably isn't why it does it. First thing that came my mind is the small "diskette" image in the top left wich tells that file has been modified, could this function cause keyboard to shut off?

@DaNyL: Thats true.Some guys on Atari8bit scene are making ZX Spectrum Game emulator /by xxl/ on Atari800!!!So you are right.
I will add logo too but In Friday...

@elan: well; even C64 coders know the Z80 - if they program on C128 ^^. but seriously: if a gameboy can play NES sound (+emulate the 6502) a 50MHZ Behemoth which runs like a 200mhz z80 should be able to run 6502 code at AT LEAST 10-16MHZ (hopefully).
another thing: time for a LOGO-COMPO for FM-BEAUTY!!!
I'd like to show you my contribution:
http://dawork.synchronus.de/filez/fmbeauty.png

@ Malfunction:2
Will be there 4x holes for screws at PCB???

Will be LITE version too /maybe special just for me ;) - without DB25+gameports cannon 9" not solder but ready for future.../ just FM-B+USB+HDD AluBox(with power)...

Any plans for FM-BeautyTracker in future???Or it will be as pure VSTi Instrument /Renoise,Psycle.../?
I can imagine special opensource-tracker /for WIN/LINUX... :)/ OPL3(FM)+YM2612(FM+PCM) with liveact features /You know use MIDI-controller for changing ADSR parameters + volume etc... etc... +some kind of game-like-GUI(color cubes??? or lines???This is awesome-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h-RhyopUmc ) controlled by gamepads or mouse :) for mixing patterns or tracks /...

Well 50MHz Z80 - I have seen some kickass 8bit demos on 2-4mhz... So maybe it will be used as 3DGFX for 8Bit 3D demos...in demo community but 6502 coders will have bad times /c64,a800.../ :)

DaNyL: Rather DB25 port (8-bit bus) - it's just for that :D

@Malfi: well; we just could connect the FM-Beauty to all 8/16bit computers using the DB-Ports as 4bit i/o ^^

DaNyL: Yup - the same one :D It will feed soundchips registers, filters and DACs, get all comunications, support DB ports, play tunes/mods - we will try to make it work with external uploaded software (like Firmware + Userware), so it can do your softsynth or compute vector graphics or make a lot of bobs (for 8-bit machines :). We will look wkat can be done with these 50MHz ;) There will be 512KB or 1MB SRAM on board (I'd like 1MB), so it may behave like 1MB RAM-Drive on 8-bit machines if someone wants to :) So - small computer on USB - but without gfx-card :)

@Vintaque: But It can be anything else...

@encore: Or some antispam - codes???

Vintaque: Well Toshiba crashes only in Adt2??? Test another Opl tracker to be sure that OPL3 is bad... It can be bad RAM too. My PC crashes one year before every day. I have buyed new RAM and it runs OK...

@encore: how about automagically deleting every message which start with "http://"? should reduce the spamproblem a bit.

Malfi: So we got a Zilog Acclaim CPU on board? The fabled eZ80? 16MB RAM (max) @ 50 MHZ????
What processing is it doing on the FM-Beauty?

Ikuma: we have brand new OPL3 ICs - there are surface mounted so I think you will be more into if you will get your own Sega Genesis I and ripp off YM2612 from socket to fill your copy of FM-Beauty (as it will be ready for selling) :D
Singapure? :) 15min from Creative? Sounds like they could have a lot of programming datasheets of AWE32/64 and or GameBlaster cards or SoundBlaster I (2xOPL2) ;)

To fire up discussion a little bit - I've discover that base project (without Altera daughterboard available later) will be able to play CPU-free 4-channel 8-bit sound out of FM-Beauty memory. It will be something similar to Amiga's PAULA chip - but with 8-bit volumes. I think 4 channels of 8-bit samples (normal Protracker MODs) will be nice addition to FM portion - something like C.C.Catch CDFM tracker (anyone have that?!) :)

subz3ro:I think my OPL is probably corrupted, but please do send me betas: vintaque(at)yahoo(dot)com

Malfunction, your project sounds great !!!

How can i help? Would collecting old Soundblaster cards (the ones /w OPL-3 of course) be helpful? I live about 15 minutes away from Creative Technologies Headquarters here in Singapore !!!

Vintaque: try to run AdT2 with clean autoexec.bat and config.sys file.. or with as many drivers loaded as absolutely necessary (the less the better :) if the error still persists, I will send you couple of "beta" versions (with some functionality disabled) and you will try with these if it helps..

Last night I tried lot's of things on my Tecra including prayers and voodoo, but crashes still occurs.

When I went to bed then it hit me: it could be the keyboard and not the OPL because the "crash" often starts with keyboard symptoms like Shift goes on automatically and after crash song keeps playing correctly and graphics keep moving and blinking correctly. Keyboard doesn't respond even on Ctrl-Alt-Del.

Vintaque, can you get into the BIOS on your Tecra? If you can, look for 8 and 16 bit I/O recovery and try changing them to the highest values possible. That sometimes fixes problems. (Like the common screeching instead of music when trying to use it)

subz3ro: Thanks. It crashes when I play songs on "modules", especially when I hit Esc and it also crashes when I write few notes on a pattern and sometimes when editing sound.
With SB 16 on my Athlon-system there was no problem at all, but that was true ISA-card...

I can change sound card and OPL settings and addresses in bios, I'll try weaking them.

I usually have HIMEM.SYS, KEYB SU (850) and MOUSE, I'll try getting proper sound card drivers and take MOUSE and KEYB off. I'll report later.

Vintaque: also, if you say that you had to change OPL3 latency setting to OPL2 timings, it means that either you have some faked OPL3 chip (less probable, I think Toshiba was using regular stuff) or you have some hard traffic or lack of performance on ISA bus, so the r/w commands to OPL3 cannot be performed in time as expected.. can't it be, that you have some wrong setting in BIOS or some driver conflict in config.sys??

Vintaque: "keeps crashing" is too less information to make some debugging.. please give me more symptoms.. is it crashing on one particular song on one particular place in it etc...? or is it crashing randomly anywhere in any song? any debugging is not possible if you cannot duplicate the error, you know, so please try to find out such "clues" for the crashes ;)

PLEASE HELP!!!

Adlibtracker II keeps crashing on Toshiba Tecra 520cdt. New and prevous version crashes while playing, but music keeps playing and cursor still blinks. Happens on FreeDOS and MS-DOS 6.22. I've been trying to fix .INI but with no success. I had to set "opl_latency" to 1 instead of default 0, with 0 songs don't sound right.

2.0.27 seems to work fine, but I wan't to use newer.

vintaque/AT/yahoo/DOT/com

Forum would be very nice, as Nim requested. I think it would be quite easy to add file upload section to forum, AT2tinyformat-songs probably don't take too much space, right?

2Malfi: FM-Beauty or. FM-B /as PSX for Playstation/ is coolest name ever !!!

nim:
1. I vote for upload and compo and RSS! :)
2. There will be place for daughterboard inside FM-Beauty (heheh! we have name!!! ). It will be Altera CPLD/FPGA - so all SID/AY/POKEY/SN7xxx/SAA/SCC+/GBC/NES/DAVE/SomethingICantRememberNowButSomeoneWouldMissProbablyIfItWillBeAbsent ;) will be possible as long as it will be within digital domain - that's why there will be analog SID-like filter on main-board :)

song upload and compo would be great!

btw any plans on creating a fullblown forum for at2 or opl or one separate for all kinds of FM?
if not it'd be great with an rss feed of this message board if it's not alot of work :)

Malfuction: this is absolutely wonderful! a 100 times better than an opl3 midibox!! and 2612 is like a dream! and filters ZOMG!.. any consideration on adding the SMD's PSG aswell for complete <=megadrive sound?
using playing your at2 tunes on the opl3 and TFM tunes (when it has psg and dac) on 2612+psg would be like a dream!! x¨D
not saying I won't get a nosebleed from holding the described device in my hands but if it had PSG aswell I'd most sertainly faint aswell. (and don't let any unavailability of the PSG-chip keep you from adding a socket for one if you think it'd be cool! :))

>>entering the queue to buy an FM-Beaty<<

Vintaque: did you find out the right setting for your tecra? I have a portege with the same sound circuit and running win me (I unhid dos. great with usb compatability opposed to win98) it autodetects it at 388h (if you hit pause key when at2 is starting up you can read it) perhaps it's on the same port on your toshiba?

DaNyL:

1./
Well - I will send You my www link soon for sure.
I have at myspace one but I will have dotcom too - very soon.
myspacedotcom/atari130xe

2./
Yes AT2 song upload will be cool.I vote for it too.

3./What about AT2Compo???

hey elan: you wanted to sent me a link to your homepage (back @ xmas 2006 ^^)
and i'd like to bring an idea back to topic: how about a songdatabase @ adlibtracker.net.
nöthing big. just a list sorted by musician and powered by a simple upload button.

Like people from Germany understand people from Swiss or Austria...

2 nula: I think we have /poland,czech,slovak../ slavic language roots so we understand each other...

nula: cece, sorry.. dostal som sa k tomu ti napisat az teraz :) ziadny mail som nedostal.. kams to poslal probuh? :))

Planujemy uzyc zewnetrznej obudowy do HDD/CD-ROM - jest al;uminiowa, jej rozmiar jest odpowiedni, jest tania i jest od razu z zewnetrznym zasilaczem. Chcialbym uzyc wlasnej obudowy ale naprawde nie wiem ile moze to kosztowac :(
2xDB9 sa do emulatorow (Atari/C64/Amiga joye/myszy/wioselka + SegaMD pady) i beda w stanie dzialac jako zwykle porty wejscia/wyjscia wiec zewnetrzne galki itp. beda mozliwe. Kto wie - moze zrobimy rowniez cos takiego :)

And now for not postkomunistic users of that awesome messageboard - in english:

We are planning to make use of external HDD/CD-ROM case - it's alluminium, it's size is proper, it's cheap and it's with external power supply already :) I'd like to use custom boxes but I really don't know how much it would cost :(
2xDB9 will be for retrogaming (Atari/C64/Amiga joys/mouse/paddles + SegaMD pads) and it will be able to behave like normal input/output ports so external knobpads etc. will be possible. Who knows - maybe we will do something like that as well ;)

2Malf: Fajne chapci ze rozumiete po svojom i ja tomu rozumiem ... We dont need English anymore...

Well check this out http://www.jdc.sk/images/EM151-7.gif

They are small factory - producing miniITX cases but they do customs too...
So what about aluminium box.You know Al is better for take it to party...
I can do some documentation for manufacturing later...

What about 2x Golden Cinch + 1x Stereojack as out + switch?

What will be for that two 9" cannon plugs /retrogamming or custom knobpad/???

And dont forget extra light blue LED as PowerLED.