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Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 12:26 pm
by manuka
Hi all, we had an Aplle ||e turn up this morning. Powers on without releasing any magic smoke. I get the words Apple ||e appear on the screen but no cursor which seems to be what is supposed to happen, I don't have any floppies to test any further.

Is this standard ||e behaviour?

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 12:35 pm
by tezza
It's standard behaviour IF the Disk controller card is inserted and there are no drives or boot disks. Check to see if there is a disk controller card and remove it.

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:01 pm
by manuka
Thanks Tezza, removed the disk controller card and got a cursor. Keyboard works and looks in pretty good nick. I guess we will be putting this up on trademe next Wednesday.

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:32 pm
by RonTurner
Control + Reset to get prompt when disk controller card is installed.
]

Would you like me to drop off a tested/working Apple II 5.25 Floppy Disk ?

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:17 pm
by manuka
Sure thing RonTurner, as long as it's not out of your way.

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 4:49 pm
by RonTurner
I will be in the area Tues/Wed, will drop off some floppies :-)

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:44 am
by manuka
Thanks :)

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:30 pm
by manuka
I did find a boot disk for a ||e and it kinda boots up albeit with a garbled screen. Interested to see if I get a better result with your disk. Many of the disks in the box have visable surface mould so no surprise I'm getting a little weirdness I suppose.

Image

Image

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:42 pm
by RonTurner
Not a problem, I have some here, you can keep them for the auction :D

Q: What do you call an Apple IIe after the smoke comes out of the PSU ?

A: An Apple Poo-e

The disk you want is Copy 2+ this can copy a disk in two swaps, also nibble copy, has options to verify disks and format disks
the important thing being the format option as Apple DOS does not have a format command for preparing floppies for use.

The lack of a format command is what will leave a vintage computer owner in the lurch :wink:

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:07 pm
by Gibsaw
RonTurner wrote:The disk you want is Copy 2+ this can copy a disk in two swaps, also nibble copy, has options to verify disks and format disks
the important thing being the format option as Apple DOS does not have a format command for preparing floppies for use.


The ROM's include basic sector read/write and a bootloader. Once DOS loads from disk, the command is "INIT". (Any DOS3.3 bootable disk can do this)

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 10:34 pm
by tezza
manuka wrote:I did find a boot disk for a ||e and it kinda boots up albeit with a garbled screen. Interested to see if I get a better result with your disk. Many of the disks in the box have visable surface mould so no surprise I'm getting a little weirdness I suppose.

Is the weird screen only in 80 columns? 80 column RAM?

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 10:57 pm
by RonTurner
That is the system disk menu in 80 column mode in second photo by the look of it.

I have made up some disks, including:

Copy 2+ 8.2
Locksmith 6.0
Karateka
Tetris 2
Dos Boss
Solo Flight

I highly recommend you run Tetris 2 and puzzle over how did they make two track synth audio on an apple 2?

Copy 2+ and locksmith provide a wide range of disk tools, do everything like: undelete,verify,format,disk recovery, sector tools , drive speed check etc.

Looks like there is something wrong with the 80 card, it may just need reseating.

That's a colour composite monitor, the computer and monitor will be NTSC that's why the monitor is good to have since most brand monitors are PAL

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:03 am
by Gibsaw
tezza wrote:Is the weird screen only in 80 columns? 80 column RAM?

certainly looks that way.

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:50 am
by manuka
Yip I took the ram out clean the contacts and reseated it and the screen is coming up perfect now. Thanks guys :)

Re: Apple ||e boot up screen

PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:43 pm
by Gibsaw
RonTurner wrote:I highly recommend you run Tetris 2 and puzzle over how did they make two track synth audio on an apple 2?

... and then run Music Toolkit and watch it do four voices. (It's doing PCM with the speaker softswitch. CPU heavy but it works.)