Hi
Been working on my Apple II europlus for a few months now and have fixed the blown PSU, replaced the fried CPU in the motherboard, repaired the broken keyboard and now it powers up to the [ prompt in basic and seems to run ok.
However, how does the disk II interface and drive normally operate ?
If I install the card (in slot #6) and connect up the disk drive, the computer hangs with Apple ][ but no [ prompt and the drive continually spins ?
Is it looking for a disk to boot from ? (I do not have any formatted or bootable disks yet, just some blank ones)
Read the manual but its hard to get an idea when I have never seen it work (was a BBC B owner in the day)
Cant get the reset key to work at the moment (tried the swtich in both positions), so cant enter the monitor which I suspect I will need ?
Cheers :)
Hi,
What you are describing is normal behaviour for an Apple II with an autostart ROM (which is generally installed in all but the real early Apple II's). With the autostart ROM installed, the Apple will scan for the disk interface card, starting from slot 7 and working backwards (it is normal for the disk interface card to be in slot 6). When the autostart finds a disk interface card it will attempt to boot from the attached disk drive and will spin forever waiting for a disk to be inserted.
To get to an Applesoft "]" prompt, hit CTRL-RESET (hold the CTRL key while pressing the reset key).
Hope this helps,
Mike
Thanks
I thought it might be what was happening
I need to check my reset circuit because I cant get a reset either with reset or ctrl-reset (I have tried the internal switch in both positions)
Looks like the circuit just simply pulls pin 6 of the keyboard connector down to ground so will test it next to see whats happening. The finger might have become misaligned when I rebuilt it today (all the other keys now work, but the reset is on its own finger)
As I havent got a dos disk, looks like I either need one or use ADTpro via the cassette port, but need that pesky reset to work first.
One question, when you say it "will spin forever waiting for a disk to be inserted", do you mean a bootable disk, or should it attempt to read a blank disk, time out and return to the prompt ?
It will spin forever on a non-bootable disk.
[quote=softwarejanitor]
It will spin forever on a non-bootable disk.
[/quote]
Thanks
Looks like it is doing what its supposed to then, which is sort of a positive.
Need to make/obtain a bootable dos 3.3 disk then as my next project !
My TRS-80 model 4 is never going to get looked at !
No offense to TRaSh-80s... Oh... sorry... yeah, offense intended.... The TRS-80 machines, in my opinion were pretty awful. The Model 4, probably the best of the Z80 based models, but it was still pretty much a snoozer. Monochome, mute and really limited graphics. Plus almost nobody I ever knew who had one ever had a floppy drive, and their tape was soooo sloooowww. And there wasn't all that much software for them either. There was a way to haxor them to make them run CP/M, but then it really didn't stand out over any other CP/M machine either.
[quote=softwarejanitor]
No offense to TRaSh-80s... Oh... sorry... yeah, offense intended.... The TRS-80 machines, in my opinion were pretty awful. The Model 4, probably the best of the Z80 based models, but it was still pretty much a snoozer. Monochome, mute and really limited graphics. Plus almost nobody I ever knew who had one ever had a floppy drive, and their tape was soooo sloooowww. And there wasn't all that much software for them either. There was a way to haxor them to make them run CP/M, but then it really didn't stand out over any other CP/M machine either.
[/quote]
But when its a machine that has sat on a shelf for 30 years at work and available for free, with manuals and disks :)
Just not been brave enough to power it on yet, want to pull the plugs from the MB and give it a go, but need bench space first
Now if I could just wheel one of the Honeywell DPS6 machines out of the door when no-one is looking :)