Hi,
I recently found an Apple //c that was given to me by somebody a while ago and I've been trying to check it out. I opened it up for a cleaning and lo and behold I find it has a fully populated AE Z-Ram Ultra III(1 MB) installed. Interesting! Now, back in the day I had owned an Apple //e and a //GS(amongst others) but I had sold all my software when I sold those systems, but searching through the storage shed I found copies of a ton of my old Apple software. So I pop in DOS 3.3 and the //c boots right up. It also passes it's built in system check which I guess means the 128K RAM is good? I try a few old games and everything seems to work OK!
But then I tried some ProDOS based disks and not so good. Most of them seem to load, they show the ProDOS version and what not, but end with "INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND RESTART -ERR 01" or sometimes "...-ERR 02" and I have no idea what that means. Could this be related to the Z-RAM card causing problems? I don't have nor do I know where to get copies of the software for the Z-Ram card which I believe included a ram testing utility but I do know that when I boot a copy of Locksmith 6.0 and I did a FastRamCopy it showed the additional 1024K of aux RAM. I think this may be related to a problem with ADTPro where it will download to the //c just fine but it will not run, it just hangs.
Anyways, I thought about removing the Z-Ram card since I probably won't be needing it, and I'm sure the on-board battery is toast. I guess these Z-Ram boards are still desired by some people so I could sell it I suppose but I'm afraid I'll boink something up getting it out and then nothing will work. Also, I had a few CP/M programs on disk and those would not boot either and the Z-Ram has a Z-80 on board I think so there's that too.
Sorry for the rambling, but if anyone has any ideas or maybe somewhere I could get copies of the AE software utilities for the Z-Ram Ultra 3 it would be most appreciated!
THX!!
Tom
Hello rif2112,
first please download manual from:
http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/Apple%20II%20Documentation%20Project/Interface%20Cards/Apple%20IIc/AE%20Z-Ram/Manuals/AE%20Z-RAM%20Ultra%20-%20User%27s%20Manual%20v1.1.pdf
checkout the pictures at page 16 and determine the correct version.
The version Ultra 2 and Ultra 3 have a onboard clock.
In that case the error while booting prodos may probably only be result of the error caused by the clock.
In that case i´d recommend to read the manual entirely - or at least starting at page 50 and the following pages and consult how to set the clock to proper date and time and check if the clock is operated correct by accumulator.
In case it´s accumulator you should give the system time to load the accumulator so time set remains in the card
because - without the backup powersource for that RTC chip - it will forget correct setting each time system is switched off from power.
Another chance to check out would be to set time and date correct at DOS and then reboot the computer without
switching off the power - just by the PR#6 command - and then booting ProDos to examine if the system starts up with correct time and date set.
Just by the way: the link to the mentioned clockworks disk is:
http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ftp.apple.asimov.net/images/hardware/clock/
You probably have a ProDOS version that contains the AE Clockdriver and therefor fails at bootup. Try another ProDOS copy - that probably does not contain such driver !
please report back results...
sincerely speedyG
hey speedyG,
Thanks, I got the manual and read it through and the card I have is for sure the Ultra 3, fully populated and with the battery(which I suspect is no longer any good after over 30 years). None of my old IIe ProDOS based disks would have the AE clockdriver file on them, so I wouldn't expect them to be looking for the clock, would they? Even my old originals of Copy II+(ProDOS based) won't boot completely.
When I get a chance I will try the PR#6 thing and see what happens. How can I set the clock in DOS though?
I may just have to take the Ultra 3 out, but that means popping those 2 chips out again and I'm hesitant to do that unless I have to. But I don't really think I'll be needing the extra 1meg of RAM anyways for what I'll be doing.
Anyways, thanks a lot for the help!!!
Tom
Hello Rif2112,
even if the disks don´t contain the AE clockdriver... ProDos has by itself several routines for
using clocks ( like the thunderclock )there are 2 disks outside there in the internat as images:
the one i spotted out : the clockwork disk
and: the ZRAM Test Utilities ( allthough by explenation determined for the normal ZRAM RAM testing )
not to forget the AppleWorks Desktop expander patch disk.
I´d try to boot the ProDOS User Disk for the Version 1.1.1.
It´s availiable at:
http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/Apple%20II%20Documentation%20Project/Software/Operating%20Systems/Apple%20ProDOS/Disk%20Images/
I´d asume at least the clockworks to boot because it should contain some kind of routine to ignore if crap-string is distributed by the clock. With that disk it should be possible to set the clock correct.
The second disk seems to perform RAM test along the entire RAM adressing area.
the others are able to modify different versions of Appleworks for use with the ZRAM
according to the descriptions in the manual.....
the second disk is availiable at:
http://ae.applearchives.com/apple_c/z-ram/
besides i´d examine:
Clock_Patch_ProDOS_Matt_Deatherage.dsk
from:
http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ftp.apple.asimov.net/images/hardware/clock/
Unfortunatly the Patchdisks for Appleworks that hat been formerly on the asimov server have been taken off....
so that might take a while for search.....
but maybe one of this one serves:
http://ae.applearchives.com/all_apple_iis/appleworks_expander/
sincerely speedyG