I finally bought myself an XEsomethingorother cable from Commodore Scene. I think I've hooked it up okay but I can't seem to get to grips with the Star Commander software. Their website wasn't much help either.

Before going into specific problem details I wonder if anyone knows of any kind of 'idiots guide' that may already be out there somewhere?

Thanks,
Caroline
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If you have a Pentium PC, make sure it really is a XE1541 cable and not a X1541 as the "basic" version has problems with the newer CPUs.

Also recommended is running StarCom in DOS mode. Not a DOS box, but actually DOS mode. Get Windows as far away from it as possible. One reason I still have my 486!

The txt file with StarCom should give you some initial troubleshooting hints (such as configuring your parallel port type etc) if you can't get a wimper out of the disc drive.
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I had some problems once and asked Joe Forster about it. He gave me this reply:
I have an ABIT KT7 motherboard at home and I
found that the Commander locks up the PC completely when it tries to
detect the parallel port if it's in EPP 1.7 mode. Go to your BIOS setup
and set the parallel port to EPP 1.9 or ECP, if possible. Also, try
disabling the 'Detect port modes' option in the Commander setup.

Hope it helps,

It is definately an XE1541 cable. I'm not having technical problems - I just don't understand how to use the software. How do I format a floppy? Or do I need to use pre-formatted disks? if I have a .d64 file on my PC hard drive, how do I actually get that onto the C64 floppy?
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Okay dokey Caroline

TAB switches between the two active windows. Normally I have one running on the C drive and the other on the disc drive. To change what device each window points to, press Alt F2 in that window and choose.

Holding down shift whilst moving the cursor up/down will select files (they appear in yellow). Pressing F5 can then copy them to the opposing device (if you're on your C drive it will point to the disc drive and vice versa). Alternatively, pressing Alt F5 will copy the whole disc either way.

When doing this type of copy, you will have the option in one of the check boxes that come up to format the disc before copying.

I would recommend pressing F9 and going into the config screens and speeding up the transfer rate from Normal to Warp. This will reduce the whole disc copying time from about 15 minutes to under 1 minute! Hopefully your PC can handle this... my new Pentium can't do better than Normal without locking up, whereas my 486 is fine.
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Hi Matt,

It's been *ages* since I've had any time for my 64 but I have some free time now :)

I printed out your last message I made some progress which is good! Now most of the stuff I have downloaded is a .d64 file. Is this a PC specific file format? If so, how exactly does one transfer this into a disk that can then be read by the Commodore? I loaded up Star Commander, formatted a floppy and tried to copy across one of the games I had (Gremlins I think) and it said that the file was too large. I did it anyway but the disk couldn't be read by the 64.

Did I perhaps just pick an unfortunate file that was a bit large or am I doing something wrong? I'd particularly like to be able to transfer things like the Commodore Disk User magazine coverdisks (which I found on Arnold) onto floppies that I can use on the Commodore itself, rather than with an emulator.

Thanks again :-)
Caroline
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d64 is one of the PC specified file types for Commodore emulation (along with t64, g64, taps etc). This one relates to a whole 5.25" disc.

Assuming you have a formatted floppy in the 5.25" drive, put the cursor in the C drive window and position it over the xxxx.d64 you wish to transfer (be in Gremlins or whatever). Now press Alt F5.

It should come up with a window saying "copy xxxx.d64 to 8:" or something similar. As you are copying to device 8 (and not the C drive), you don't need to specify a destination name, so just press Enter.

Hopefully the drive should now whir away and it should show the disc image being copied track by track to the real disc...

If you just want to copy individual programs (PRGs)... then press right cursor on the d64 file to view the track listing. You can then select the prgs you want by holding down shift and moving the cursor, then press F5 to copy these to the floppy. The default destination name is the same as the name on the image, so just move to Yes to All and wait
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Thanks very much Matt, I've got it all working now! I tested a copy at all three speeds and they all worked fine.

Getting this working had finally opened up the whole world of C64 software now - with archives like Arnold about, I can get just about anything. One of the games I was after was Alter Ego. I wanted it as a kid but never had a disk drive to play it on even if I could have afforded it. Recently, someone who had some old C64 stuff sold me the box & packaging for it but he'd lost the disks - now I can download the game and complete the package! I don't much care for originals :p

Caroline
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That's quite nice... I do have the ability to make copies of my originals... so no cracking screens either... courtesy of Maverick...

If you have any more probs, you know where to find me
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