Re: Apple II GS Error?

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

W. Brian MacRoberts <hawk1972@fuse.net> wrote:
>My Nephew just got an Apple II GS from a friend.  When we boot it up, it
>gives a "Check Start Up Device" screen.  I am an IBM guy and have
>no clue what to do.  Is it looking for a boot disk?

Yes.  You need to get the System 6.0.1 six disk set from Joe Kohn
(http://www.crl.com/~joko).  His Shareware Solutions II carries it
and many other softwares for the price of postage and handling and
he publishes a newsletter about the computer.  Better yet, connect
a modem and hard disk to it to make it into an easy to use, web
capable education and productivity platform for your nephew.  When
clocked at 13.75MHz with an addon board, a GS word processes faster
than the 25MHz '486 PC that I also use.  :)  See below for sources.

>Is it a software or
>hardware problem?  Any suggestions would be great!  If there are any good
>web pages that I should look into let me know as well.
>
>Thanks!

Short answer:
Alltech Electronics (http://www.allelec.com/)
Sequential Systems (http://www.sequential.com/)
Seven Hills (http://www.sevenhills.com/applesoftware/iigs/)

Long Answer:
Brian, you are in for a treat.  GS software has come a long way
since the time when the "desktop" was an optional program.  The
GS's native OS is GS/OS, a modular OS that can accept drivers and
foreign filesystems with ease and has an integrated GUI that is
almost identical to MacOS.  It is not a precursor to MacOS, but
an independent creation of Apple.  The latest version can read
and write Macintosh disks and read MS-DOS disks (with the right
drive).

Even more good news, if you are a linux fan, you may like to
investigate the version of UNIX called GNO/ME for the GS.  Sold
by EGO Systems, GNO/ME will give you a UNIX style shell and
command line that you are familiar with.  And yes, it implements
pre-emtive multitasking of processes.

All this progress comes at a cost.  Modern GS software requires
4MB to 8MB of memory.  The good news is that if you have any 1MB
SIMM modules lying around, you can use these with the Sirius
memory board for the GS.  You should also get a hard drive for
the computer (it can use both SCSI and IDE/EIDE hard drives with
the right controller card).

Hop over to Alltech Electronics (http://www.allelec.com/) and
Sequential Systems (http://www.sequential.com/) to find the
needed upgrade peripherals.  I recommend you get a Sirius memory
board from Alltech Electronics and fill it with your spare 1MB
SIMM modules to boost your GS computer's memory to 8 megabytes.
You might also want to pick up a 500 megabyte Focus hard disk
drive from Alltech.  Alltech sells the Focus drive preformatted
with GS/OS with System 6.0.1, so you get the OS preinstalled.

For software, I recommend AppleWorks GS v1.1, also from Alltech.
They carry it for $15 and it includes a nice graphical GUI
word processor, a draw/paint program, spreadsheet, a nice DB
module that supports graphics, and a page layout module that
resembles an early version of PageMaker.  With the right addon,
you can use TrueType fonts on the GS.

If you have an spare SCSI CD-ROM drive lying around, there are
CD-ROMs for the GS!  Look at them at http://www.crl.com/~joko
(Joe Kohn's SSII organization) and http://www.sequential.com/
(Sequential Systems).

There is also a Netscape-like graphical web browser for it, but
it requires a 4MB-8MB GS and for all practical purposes a hard
drive and a 14.4 or faster modem (the GS can handle 33.6 ones
just fine, but 14.4 will do).

As you well know with your PCs, more memory and hard drive space
is better.  The same thing applies on the GS.  Have fun!

-Scott G.