I upgraded an apple iigs with Rom 1, 8mb ram and microdrive turbo but since upgrading my floppy drive no longer works. It is plugged into the back as it always was but now doesn't even light up. Is there some configuration I need to do in the microdrive?
I am new to this and not sure what the issue is. Any help is appreciated.
Thank you
Did you install the micro drive in slot 5 by chance? Built in slot 5 is what controls the 3.5 drives connected to the back of the IIgs. So if you installed the micro drive there and changed the slot 5 setting from "built in" to "my card" in the IIgs control panel, that would do it.
I find that in a Rom 01 IIGS the best slot for a MicroDrive/Turbo is actually slot 2 (set to "my card"). This disallows the use of the "modem" port, but you can use the "Printer" port if you need a serial port.
If you use an Uthernet II card (stick it in slot 4) you'll likely want AppleTalk to be turned on in order to print to a modern network printer, so that removes the ability to have a card present in slot 7.
Anyway, putting the MicroDrive/Turbo in slot 2 allows you to keep both slot 5 and slot 6 set to Smartport and Disk II modes respectively, so you can have free use of a Floppy Emu, or real physical drives, both 3.5" and 5.25".
Thank you for your reply. I had the microdrive installed in slot 7. This is really helpful. I did see a section in the microdrive manual of changing to slot 2 if needed. Your knowledge is appreciated.
I always use my Microdrive in slot7 unless I do need appletalk which is quite rare. And in that case I would often cheat and take the performance hit and just boot GS/OS off of a FloppyEMU instead of move the CF card to slot 2 (which does work fine, and is nice if you want to boot floppies without holding escape to skip the microdrive on boot). If you don't need appletalk, there shouldn't be a reason really not to use the MicroDrive Turbo in slot 7.
I also always use the MicroDrive Turbo in slot 7 in my IIgs. I don't have any Appletalk setup, so conflicts with that are a non-issue for me.
Thank you for your comments. Hmm then there really is no need for me to change slots. I don't use apple talk or have a disk II. I think I'm going to have open up the 3.5 drive and have a look. Must be something going on.
Why not remove the upgrades and try the floppy drive again?
"it does not work" is almost always the worst phrase to use when trying to diagnose a problem.
exactly WHAT does not work?
do you get an error message? Does every Program you use fails to recognize the floppy is even there? Does the floppy disk eject when you press the eject button? Does your computer explode into 1 billion tiny pieces only when the planets are in perfect alignment?
Thank you for your comments. The floppy doesn't even light up or switch on, it's like it's dead. It's not recognised at all by the IIGS. I've played around with the slots, installed the microdrive turbo in different slots with changing the control panel slots, double checked the smart ports but still no joy!
If you take the micro drive out, and have slot 5 set to built in, what happens with the 3.5" drive at boot? Does it check for a disk?
If that doesn't work, I'd try removing the RAM card... I can't seee why that would affect it, but it would rule one thing out. Probably less convenient but if that doesn't change anything I might try reverting the ROM upgrade as well. That shouldn't matter either, but I've seen weirder things. It may very well be the drive has died too. If possible I'd try it on another machine and see if it does anything there, but I realize not everyone has another one to test with.
After investigating as you suggested seems the light flickers red when there is no rom, no ram or microdrive. I tried different combinations with same results. So it appears there is a fault there. I'm going to open up and see if there is anything I can do to save it. There is a floppy that is stuck in the drive, which has been there for 35 years lol.
Thanks for the help!