Re: Apple IIgs ROM/VGC upgrade (was: How limited was the Woz edition?)

[shack@onyx.southwind.net (Randy Shackelford)]

Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
: In article shoppa@alph02.triumf.ca (Tim Shoppa) writes...

: >If, say, I had a couple dozen of these ROM 00 "Woz" machines and wanted to
: >upgrade them to ROM 01 and the "correct" VGC chip, how would I
: >do it?  I would guess that I could burn a new EPROM myself and
: >drop it in, but where would I get a new VGC chip without cannibalizing
: >a later machine?  A phone inquiry to Alltech got me nowhere fast.

Gee if I had a Woz box which still had ROM 0 and the old VGC, I'd leave it
that way. Or at least buy another logic board to swap in. I found an 
unupgraded Woz box at a store and snatched it up for my old Apple collection.
The one owner Woz box on my desk got a ROM 3 board swapped in years ago.

: - Faulty VGC chips end with a "-1" or "-A" (i.e. AMI 344S0046-1). 
:   It's easy to identify one in operation, you'll see flashing and  
:   stray bits of pink inbetween 80 columns text characters (e.g.
:   AppleWorks Classic or ProTERM) and on any monochrome Double-Hi-
:   Res screen (e.g. System 1 and 2 - MouseDesk/Apple II Desktop, 
:   or the old B&W Tour of the Apple IIgs).

I have logic boards on hand with VGC part numbers ending in -2 and -3. My
new Woz has -2 and a bare board I got some time has -3 plus ROM 01 on it.
Neither of these has video problems either, just as the one on my original
Woz did when it had ROM 0, before I stupidly got it upgraded for no reason.
It's not a sure thing that you'll have problems if you don't have the -C chip.
--
Randy Shackelford
shack@southwind.net