Re: Apple//c newbie questions

[dcross1@nospam.home.com (David Cross)]

In article <19981006201058.12824.00012724@ng67.aol.com>, we3boemans@aol.com 
says...

>On power up it "APPLE//C" appears at the top of the screen; the disk drive
>light comes on the drive turns rather roughly; The screen then displays "check
>disk drive" at the bottom. The computer then does not respond to any keyboard
>input including the reset button.
>I take this to mean the //c does not have a basic ROM and requires a boot disk
>or my //c  is broken.

If you hit Control-Reset, you'll get an Applesoft prompt. The "Check Disk 
Drive" thing is just a way to prevent the disk drive from wearing itself out if 
there's no disk in the drive.

Historical note: "Reset" alone won't do it on a modified Apple ][, any ][+ with 
the Applesoft ROMs, or //e or //c or //gs, mainly because too many people kept 
whacking the Reset key by accident when they meant to hit the key next to it, 
which was =, I think.

>I tried starting it up with a apple][+ DOS 3.2.1 disk in the drive. Same
>response as above.
>I take this to mean it can't boot from ][+ disks or my drive is broken. (for
>all I know a ][+ can't "boot" from these disks either)

DOS 3.2.1 and below are 13-sector DOS'es and don't work on Disk ][ controllers 
with the 16-sector PROMs, which the //c has the equivalent circuitry for.

An Apple ][+ with the old Disk ][ controller card (a collectors item these 
days!) would be able to boot such a disk.

>All I'd like to know are:
>Are these facts consistent with a working //c?
>Where can I get boot disks (DOS, BASIC,  APPLESOFT or anything)for the //c?
>Is ][+ software usable on a //c?

Almost all software written for the ][+ will work on a //c as long as it is on 
a DOS 3.3 or ProDOS disk.