Re: //gs memory card questions

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Jeff Billman <jbillman@mindspring.com> wrote:

>I have an Apple //gs ROM 3 and I would like to use an Apple brand memory
>expansion card in it.  The card has 256K on it and looks like it can be
>expanded to 1MB.

Correct.  Technically, you should be able to plug that card into the ROM 3
and, assuming you max it to 1MB, your IIGS would then have 2MB of
RAM.  Not too much to work with, but adequate unless you do a lot of
word processing or desktop publishing with TrueType fonts and ink-jet
or laser printer drivers (Epson Stylus, Canon BubbleJet, StyleWriter, or
HP DeskJet/DeskWriter, LaserJet, and Apple LaserWriter).

Alltech sells the chips to fully populate the card for $24, but they also
sell an 8MB memory card that can be populated with SIMMs for just
a bit more.  It might be a better idea to just get the 8MB memory card,
called the Sirius.  http://www.allelec.com/ Alltech Electronics.

With 4MB to 8MB of memory, you would be ready to run the best IIGS
stuff (web browsers, ftp clients, etc).

>When I plug the card in I get a ProDOS error saying that I don't have
>enough memory to load the system.

That should not happen unless the card is busted.  Older cards can
deactivate the memory on the ROM 3's motherboard, leaving you with
only 256k on the card.  To my knowledge, Apple's card does not have
such a problem.

>Can I use this card in my system or is it for ROM 0 and 1 systems only?
>There are two set of jumpers on the board, do they control the address
>where the card lives?

The jumpers control how much memory the card tells the IIGS it has.
I don't know how to set them, unfortunately.