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Offline CalcMax

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A few calculator questions
« on: January 16, 2017, 06:15:33 am »
I have alot of lingering questions about my TI84+SE, so here they are:
1.Which ASIC does my revision M TI84+SE have? (and is it the same as the one in the CSE?)
2.Why do some programs disappear from the VAT or completely from the calc (in which situation Archive Undelete won't find them).
3.Why do funny visual artifacts appear on my screen occasionally.
4.Is there an antivirus for my calculator? I have had nasty viruses in the past (deleting virus files when they appeared in
the RAM along with OS reinstalls fixed it eventually)
5.Can my calculator be overclocked?
6.Is there a way to to make the OS allow access to extra RAM pages? (Pterodactyl can do this on the TI86)
7.Are overclocked calcs allowed on the SAT/PSAT?
Feel free to download any of my programs:
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Offline Eeems

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2017, 12:08:19 pm »
I have alot of lingering questions about my TI84+SE, so here they are:
1.Which ASIC does my revision M TI84+SE have? (and is it the same as the one in the CSE?)
I'm not sure, someone who's looked into the hardware revisions would have to answer.
2.Why do some programs disappear from the VAT or completely from the calc (in which situation Archive Undelete won't find them).
You'll have to give us some more information on when this happens.
3.Why do funny visual artifacts appear on my screen occasionally.
Could you explain what you are doing when this happens?
4.Is there an antivirus for my calculator? I have had nasty viruses in the past (deleting virus files when they appeared in
the RAM along with OS reinstalls fixed it eventually)
Not really. There isn't enough resources to handle this properly. Just review the code before running it. Could you link us to this virus so we can do some proper analysis on it?
5.Can my calculator be overclocked?
Yes, but you can potentially break your calculator if you do so. Usually it gets unstable if you overclock it, and most things are designed around it's normal clock speed.
6.Is there a way to to make the OS allow access to extra RAM pages? (Pterodactyl can do this on the TI86)
You could write your own OS for it. The extra ram pages are quite often used by assembly apps/programs though, so it's not really recommended to try to get TI-OS to use them. Plus that would require a lot of work.
7.Are overclocked calcs allowed on the SAT/PSAT?
I have no idea
/e

Offline Sorunome

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2017, 12:15:29 pm »
IIRC to be able to overclock an 83+SE/84+/SE you'll need to add a resister to some pin on the CPU. After that, as @Eeems pointed out, a lot of things might be unstable if you actually overclocked the CPU.

The z80 itself is designed to run at up to 24MHz, which you'll be able to do with overclocking, however, the OS itself will always slow down the clock speed all over the place, so you'd only have a performance boost in dedicated ASM programs which take use of it.

A very important thing where NOT to overclock is when writing to flash, as the flash controler is too slow to handle the overclocked calc. This may be the reason why TI limited the clock speed to 15MHz

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Offline CalcMax

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2017, 02:02:25 pm »
IIRC to be able to overclock an 83+SE/84+/SE you'll need to add a resister to some pin on the CPU. After that, as @Eeems pointed out, a lot of things might be unstable if you actually overclocked the CPU.

The z80 itself is designed to run at up to 24MHz, which you'll be able to do with overclocking, however, the OS itself will always slow down the clock speed all over the place, so you'd only have a performance boost in dedicated ASM programs which take use of it.

A very important thing where NOT to overclock is when writing to flash, as the flash controler is too slow to handle the overclocked calc. This may be the reason why TI limited the clock speed to 15MHz
Well,  to bad TI complicated this... Now I have to spend extra time optimizing BASIC programs.
I have alot of lingering questions about my TI84+SE, so here they are:
1.Which ASIC does my revision M TI84+SE have? (and is it the same as the one in the CSE?)
I'm not sure, someone who's looked into the hardware revisions would have to answer.
2.Why do some programs disappear from the VAT or completely from the calc (in which situation Archive Undelete won't find them).
You'll have to give us some more information on when this happens.
3.Why do funny visual artifacts appear on my screen occasionally.
Could you explain what you are doing when this happens?
4.Is there an antivirus for my calculator? I have had nasty viruses in the past (deleting virus files when they appeared in
the RAM along with OS reinstalls fixed it eventually)
Not really. There isn't enough resources to handle this properly. Just review the code before running it. Could you link us to this virus so we can do some proper analysis on it?
5.Can my calculator be overclocked?

Yes, but you can potentially break your calculator if you do so. Usually it gets unstable if you overclock it, and most things are designed around it's normal clock speed.
6.Is there a way to to make the OS allow access to extra RAM pages? (Pterodactyl can do this on the TI86)
You could write your own OS for it. The extra ram pages are quite often used by assembly apps/programs though, so it's not really recommended to try to get TI-OS to use them. Plus that would require a lot of work.
7.Are overclocked calcs allowed on the SAT/PSAT?
I have no idea

1.Probably KermMartian or Tari (both from Cemetech) has that info. :-P

2.At the random,  typically occurs during periods when I frequently garbage collect.

3.Also randomly... Worse manifestations happened when I had viruses on my calc.

4.I meant virus scanner,  not a pc style background AV program. The virus showed up after using one specific app ( http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/309/30917.html) There were strange files such as ''HACK'' and others. Memory menu had infinite up scroll.
Feel free to download any of my programs:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/authors/115/11518.html

Offline 123outerme

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2017, 02:09:57 pm »
4.I meant virus scanner,  not a pc style background AV program. The virus showed up after using one specific app ( http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/309/30917.html) There were strange files such as ''HACK'' and others. Memory menu had infinite up scroll.
I'm no genius (nor am I an owner of a monochrome calc) but I would suggest backing up all the programs you've made and completely wiping all memory. Everything else can go. AppVars, Apps, etc.
Then, redownload everything you know is safe.

Offline Eeems

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2017, 03:20:09 pm »
IIRC to be able to overclock an 83+SE/84+/SE you'll need to add a resister to some pin on the CPU. After that, as @Eeems pointed out, a lot of things might be unstable if you actually overclocked the CPU.

The z80 itself is designed to run at up to 24MHz, which you'll be able to do with overclocking, however, the OS itself will always slow down the clock speed all over the place, so you'd only have a performance boost in dedicated ASM programs which take use of it.

A very important thing where NOT to overclock is when writing to flash, as the flash controler is too slow to handle the overclocked calc. This may be the reason why TI limited the clock speed to 15MHz
Well,  to bad TI complicated this... Now I have to spend extra time optimizing BASIC programs.
I wouldn't say they complicated things. I'd say they probably worked within the constraints they had and produced something fairly stable that wasn't intended to be used outside of the constraints they setup.
1.Probably KermMartian or Tari (both from Cemetech) has that info. :-P
Well @KermMartian is also over here.
2.At the random,  typically occurs during periods when I frequently garbage collect.
Sounds like a potential bug with garbage collecting. What do you have installed on your calculator in terms of apps?
3.Also randomly... Worse manifestations happened when I had viruses on my calc.
Again, going to need to know more about this "virus" before we can really say anything.
4.I meant virus scanner,  not a pc style background AV program. The virus showed up after using one specific app ( http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/309/30917.html) There were strange files such as ''HACK'' and others. Memory menu had infinite up scroll.
AV programs started out as just a scanner, and at their core they still are. That said, no the complexity needed to detect problem apps/programs would be larger then what you could implement on the device. Just read the code of what you are going to install on your calculator before running to avoid problems.
You may want to report that file so that the ticalc maintainers can look into it if there is some malicious code. It could have just been a bug in it's code that is leaving things in a bad state.
/e

Offline CalcMax

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2017, 09:18:54 am »
123outerme: did this already when I took the PSAT.
Eeems:
I have DCS,  Calcsys, MolWght, Zoom math and a few TI apps.

ticalc.org denies virus presence in that app. I don't know asm so I can't inspect the code.  I had all sorts of wjacky issues for over a month,  including not being able to send it anything via USB.
Feel free to download any of my programs:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/authors/115/11518.html

Offline Sorunome

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2017, 09:44:35 am »
Sounds like you may have gotten your OS corrupted somehow, did you already try to re-send the OS?

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Offline Eeems

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2017, 10:23:12 am »
Another good question, which OS version are you on @CalcMax
/e

Offline CalcMax

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2017, 11:07:48 am »
Version 2.55MP (this should be understood). I will at some point resend the OS.  I have countless times had malicious ASM cause corruption. Normally it shows ROM FAIL. Now it doesn't. Sometimes some software works fine in the beginning,  and then has unfixable issues.  I suspect that the calc may be nearing its end of life (at least the flash ROM). I hope I am not wasting your time. :|
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Offline Eeems

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2017, 11:52:40 am »
2.55MP might also be the problem. Some of the apps you are running might be assuming 2.43 and accidentally causing problems.
You are not running into malicious ASM caused corruption, you are running into accidental corruption. I wouldn't think that the flash is nearing end of life, unless you've been heavily abusing it.
I would highly suggest re-sending the OS and then documenting what you've done if any of the mentioned issues happens again.
/e

Offline CalcMax

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Re: A few calculator questions
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2017, 12:50:07 pm »
Thanks for all the help and info.  Omnimaga is SO MUCH better and more helpful compared to Cemetech.
Feel free to download any of my programs:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/authors/115/11518.html