New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

I've got a BBC master that keeps starting up in VIEW, does anyone know how to make it start in BASIC?

I don't but could it be some kind of optional ROM fitted?

Yup, I think VIEW is a spreadsheet program.
It just came to me when I turned it on before "*BASIC" (of course!)
Now I just have to figure out how to make it stick.
I've been going through all the tapes I have got with computers and it's been a lot of fun.
I thought I hated tapes until yesterday, it seems that age has given me the patience to wait for tapes to load.
I'm just basking in shrill noise nostalgia atm

When I remove the VIEW ROM the computer won't start, so I thought that maybe it was missing it's basic rom up until now.

Yea, tapes are fun. The turning wheels...the shrill noise....the wait. Compare that to the silent and unseen instant data transfer from a usb stick or modern hard drive. where's the fun in that! Cassettes just seem more "authentic" for some reason...

Well that was a whole hour of fun, my PSU just released it's blue smoke!!
Just FYI, if the speaker in your BBC is making a lot of noise then maybe it's time to check your filter capacitors.

The old fiter caps in the PSU? If the Master is anything like the BBC the PSU is hard to get into and the components are cramped.

No, I use disk with my BBC. The only time I can hear tapes is when loading them into my colour genie with a tape player with a monitor switch. It lets you hear what's playing.

On the BBC Master, BASIC and VIEW are in the 1Mb ROM that's fitted. You need to issue configuration commands to make it start up, like this:
http://blog.joel.co.uk/?itemid=888

*CONFIGURE LANG <number> will set the language it starts up in., Type *ROMS to see which slot BASIC is in.
This might be useful to you also:
http://lionels.orpheusweb.co.uk/CompNyb ... onfig.html

The smoke most likely came from the mains filter caps. They are cheap to buy and not too hard to replace.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Mike.

Good articles Mike!

My Beeb doesn't even have a ruddy power supply to release blue smoke though, it's a Master Compact and the guy who gave it to me thought that all it consisted of was the keyboard - so I'm sans the drive/PSU box. D'oh!