Re: IIe, IIgs, Mac LC-II hardware compatibility questions.

[Dennis Jenkins <dennis@usb.com>]

First, I'd like to thank you (and Roy) for your responses.  I'm going to
cut out vast quantaties of this post in my response.

David Empson wrote:
> Dennis Jenkins <dennis@usb.com> wrote:
> >       I have a beige Apple IIe, unenhanced.  It has a beige 5.25" floppy
> > drive.  I recently acquired a "Woz limited edition" Apple IIgs (whatever
> > that means).  It has a platinum 5.25" floppy drive.
> >
> > 1) Can I place both floppy drives on the same system, daisy chained
> > together?  I want to copy files from one disk to another and want to
> > avoid switching floppies like mad.
> 
> Assuming the drives are both of the "UniDisk" type (either UniDisk 5.25
> or Apple 5.25 Drive) with a D-19 connector, you can daisy-chain them and
> use them both on the IIgs.  They will also work on the IIe if you have
> the UniDisk 5.25 controller with the D-19 connector.
> 
> (If the so-called "beige" drive is actually a Disk ][, with a black
> front panel and ribbon cable connecting to the computer, then you need
> an adaptor to connect it to D-19; a corresponding adaptor allows a
> UniDisk 5.25 or Apple 5.25 Drive to be connected to a Disk ][
> controller.)

Both drives are identical, except for color of the chassis.  Neither is
a 'Disk ]['.  So I can safely daisy chain them together, and plug the
first one into my Apple IIe (or IIgs).  

I do not remember the driver control card type.  It is in slot #6.  It
has a D-19 connector on the back.

> > 3) Can a Mac LC-II use the same mouse/keyboard as the IIgs?
> 
> Yes.

Cool.  Then I won't have to purchase extra stuff.  My Mac-LC II came
with no keybaord/mouse.  The GS has a mouse and keyboard, but no cable
to link the keyboard to the ADB port on the IIgs.  All I really need is
the cable, because I won't be running both computers at the same time.

> > 4) What does 'Woz limited edition' mean?
> 
> The first few thousand Apple IIgs machines off the production line were
> stamped with this legend.  The consensus here is was probably the first
> 50,000.  (About one million IIgs machines were made over its entire
> lifetime.)

> The ROM and VGC were free upgrades in 1997 but are no longer available.

This GS cannot be upgraded, but it is a 'Woz limited edition'...  I have
no idea what to do.  Is the Woz edition worth more than a ROM 03 IIgs? 
I like the rareness of it, but if it sucks for usability...

 
> > My IIe spontaneously "shuts off" after random up times, ranging from 5
> > seconds to 2 hours.  I have to turn it off, wait 5 seconds, then turn it
> > back on the recover.  Nothing seems warm.  After many such episodes, I
> > have linked this fault to when the computer chassis gets slightly
> > bumped, like when inserting/removing disks from the 5.25" drive, which
> > sits on top of the IIe chassis.  All the wires inside seem snug.  Ideas
> > on how to fix this?
> 
> It sounds like the power supply is cutting out to protect against
> overloading, perhaps due to a borderline short.
> 
> Switch the machine off, remove all the cards, and check that there isn't
> any debris in the slots, on the motherboard, or on the slot card
> connectors.
> 
> It might also be an electrical fault in the 5.25" drive.

I have:
Apple IIe, beige.  8 ram chips (I think, going from memory right now).
When it boots, it prints "Apple ][" on the screen.
slot #2: super serial card (works).
slot #4: proclock clock card (no software, no idea if the battery is
still good).
slot #6: floppy controller card (works).
slot Aux: 64K ram card (5 chips, works).
One attached drive to the floppy card.
crappy green monochrome monitor.  (Sometimes I take the system to the
living room and hook it up to my color TV via the 'video in' on my VCR.)

When I acquired the IIe, it had an 'Applied Engineering Parallel Pro'
card in slot #1, and
no ProClock card.

I will remove all cards, clean the MB (has no dust on it right now). and
then see if I can duplicate the problem.

Thanks for all the info!

ps- Can my IIgs and Mac LC-II use the same color monitor?  The video
port on the Mac looks the same as the one on the IIgs.  The Mac boots
fine and the monitor is in real good shape (too bad I don't have a
keyboard for either system yet... soon to be corrected).

-- 
dennis@usb.com                           Universal Savings Bank.

The three most dangerous things are a programmer with a soldering iron,
a
manager who codes, and a user who gets ideas.