The IIe I've been building from parts now has developed a new issue. When I turn it off and back on it displays the last thing on the screen and beeps several times without rebooting. Even if I leave it off for 10 - 20 seconds it does this. The reset button is dead for now, so I don't know it it would work or not if pressed.
Any ideas?
Caps not draining... bleeder resistor in the power supply has failed or needs a recap.
Measure the voltages after you turn it off and see how fast they go down.
Replace your RAM with different ones until the problem disappears.
But first check the voltages with power off and check the bleeder resistor for the caps.
Am I missing something here... shouldn't the autostart ROM still be resetting things on power up?
Reset, yes. But if the WARMSTART byte at $3F4 retains its value ($45) through the power down, then the machine will try to do a warmstart via $3F2/3. If those bytes (or anything they point to) get trashed, then you're likely to crash.
You can always do an Open-Apple/Control/Reset to force a cold boot (or just hold the Open-Apple key as you turn on the computer).
BTW, I don't believe most Apple PSU's have bleeder resistors on the caps (no real need to).
I finished the machine for my friend's birthday and he's happy with having to wait 15-20 seconds after turning the machine off to turn it back on. I told him the PSU may be going and he'll just replace it with a modern one at some point.
Thanks for the suggestions.
BTW, just wanted to update this thread. The ROMX is now shipping and definitely solves this issue. You can even set the boot delay to zero and won't even know it's there. Unless of course you set it to also load DOS in which case the machine will come up every time immediately with DOS already loaded.
We're working on Apple IIe and //c versions now as well. The //c is notorious for this issue.
Het Jeff, let us know when the ][ rev. o character ROM is ready to sell.
I want 2... :)