Weird issue with Mega-Cart

[beamrider]

Something strange has happened to my mega-cart. Only seems to affect the title music. I tried on two different Vics with the same behaviour.

Short video here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ARVBv5pQMzqfJHT7A

Also, tried running the repair tool.

[tokra]

Strange, usually I can fix such issues (like no music at all), by holding CTRL and then selecting "RESET PREFS". Have you tried reseating the cart or using a different VIC-20? Maybe NVRAM is starting to go bad? nbla000 should know more.

[beamrider]

Thanks tokra

Reset seemed to do the trick - I'd forgotten about that option.

[tokra]

Glad to have helped. But then what did you mean by "repair tool"?

[beamrider]

(see attached) - I can't remember where I got it, and I have probably renamed it.

It seems to "reload the firmware" or something, not sure.

[Mike]

This is tlr's Mega-Cart inject tool bundled with SJLOAD 08 PAL, which (only) accelerates load.

I'd actually hope it would not overwrite the user's preferences with other values, but then it also wouldn't do anything to repair borked settings. So tokra's suggestion to do a factory reset was about right. See also here.

I took the freedom to correct the typo in the topic title.

[beamrider]

Thanks Mike for clarifying.

I thought it had previously fixed things for me, but perhaps that was a correlation/causation red herring.

[nbla000]

Strange, usually I can fix such issues (like no music at all), by holding CTRL and then selecting "RESET PREFS".

Yes, if you have strange Mega-Cart menu behavoiur (normally caused by external programs when 3K expansion is enabled) better to reset preferences or in beamrider case just select choose music from maintenance menu (Hold CTRL on boot) to preserve preferences and rewrite music data only.

When you reset preferences you don't reset SJLOAD "injected" on IO2/3 that still work and used, if present, from EasyLoad and FileBrowser, very useful for 32k+3k games like Doom.

Maybe NVRAM is starting to go bad? nbla000 should know more.

No, I don't think, based on my experience, rare music corruption might occur by manually loading cartridge games using VIC + 32K + 3K configuration or generically using 3K expansion as it also enables IO NVRAM where music, SJLOAD and preferences are stored.

This is tlr's Mega-Cart inject tool bundled with SJLOAD 08 PAL, which (only) accelerates load.

Yes I confirm, same CRC32, just renamed, when you Install/inject SJLOAD on NV-RAM with this tool, music and preferences are preserved.