Re: HELP: Apple IIe hardware questions

["Roger Johnstone" <bhmhome@es.co.nz>]

----------
In article <3g0E3.15546$1E2.106900@ozemail.com.au>, "mingle"
<maiau@ozemail.com.au> wrote:


>Hi,
>
>I'm new to the IIe (picked one up last week). It's a late-model IIe (1986)
>with
>colour composite monitor, mouse and 5.25" single floppy drive, but with no
>manual or software.
>
>I have a few questions, to which I couldn't find any simple answers:
>
>1: There's a flat black toggle switch under the front of the keyboard, near
>to
>the right-hand side. It attaches to a two-pin header on the front of the
>motherboard. What function does it perform?
>

This is the language switch. International (non US) versions of the IIe have
two character sets in ROM. The first is a standard ASCII set and the second
is a foreign (local) language. If you type in every character on your
keyboard to the screen and then toggle the switch you should see some of the
characters change. For some reason the IIes sold here in New Zealand had the
English character set, the only difference being it replaces the hash symbol
(#) with the pound symbol (£). Your keyboard may or may not have the second
symbol printed on the keys.


>2: Inside, it has a number of expansion cards fitted. Once if which is
>labelled
>"64K RAM/80 Column Card". How do I activate 80 column mode from within
>BASIC?
>Which commands can I use to change text colour from within BASIC?
>
>3: When I switch it on, the floppy drive rattles away and seems to look for
>a
>bootable disk. When I hit CTRL-Reset it drops into BASIC. How do I format a
>floppy disk/perform a directory on a disk?
>
>(If anyone can point me to a FAQ or suitable website, that would be great)
>
>Apologies if these are bozo-questions, but I am a newbie! :-)
>
>Any help greatly appreciated!
>
>Cheers,
>
>Mike.
>
>