Questions, questions, questions

[dreamer@ods.sol.net]

Before I start deluging everyone with questions, please reply to this
via email because, as of late, I've had VERY little time to log on and
read this newsgroup. Thanks!

1)  Does anyone have info/pricing/availability on any of the following,
new or used:
Video Overlay Card
//e Workstation Card
HyperStudio
The BEST RAM card for the //gs (one that can be used as memory and/or a
RAMdisk).
Whether or not DMA has to be turned off when using the hispeed scsi card
on the //gs.
SuperDrive (and card)
3.5" drive and card

Someone posted a couple of weeks ago about the different types of 3.5"
drives and cards available, including the BlueDisk and SuperDrive,
discussing briefly their pros and cons.  Could that person PLEASE repost
that info?

Also, I had a strange thing occur.  Last week I finished reading the
1992 "Apple II Guide", and one of the interesting tidbits I found was
this:
"Apple 3.5 Drive Daisy Chain Problem
In certain configurations, a spinning problem may occur when Apple 3.5
Drives and UniDisk 5.25 Drives are daisy-chained.  This causes no
permanent damage to any part of the drive or the media; however, the
data in RAM is lost because of the power down."

NOTE:  Powering down is the only way to "deactivate" this problem.
Simply doing a warm boot will stop the drives until you use them again.
To continue...

"The spinning problem is intermittent and only occurs on Apple 3.5
Drives with revision A Daisy Chain interface Boards and the following
configurations:
o An Apple IIGS with one or more Apple 3.5 Drives attached and one or
more UniDisk 5.25 Drives daisy-chained to one of the Apple 3.5 Drives.
o An Apple IIGS with one or more Apple 3.5 Drives attached and a DuoDisk
daisy-chained to one of the 3.5-inch drives."

Interestingly enough, I had found out about being able to daisy-chain
DuoDisks of a certain serial # or higher to the 3.5 only weeks before,
and hadn't had this intermittent problem occur UNTIL the VERY day I read
about this info.  I suspect this only occurs when using System 6, as it
didn't occur while using ProDOS 8.  The above info was on pages 135-6 in
the "Apple II Upgrade Programs" section.  I would like to know if it's
possible to get the upgrade for the 3.5.  This is a truly annoying
problem.  I would prefer to keep things chained, but if this upgrade
isn't available, I can always put the DuoDisk card back in and run it
that way.  I prefer to sell off the card tho...Help!

Has anyone heard of different versions of the //e, where when you do the
self test, if you press CTRL-CA-RESET you get the visual test, but if
you press CTRL-OA-CA-RESET you get both visual and sound tests?  I
encountered this a month or two ago while testing the status of an
unenhanced //e I acquired and I'm just kinda curious...

Finally (at least for now), I have one final question...I'm currently
running my BBS on a //e, with the Print-It card (which has a connection
right on the card which uses a cable that has a centronics connector on
the other end, but also has a connector on the card for a serial cable)
connected to the Citizen 120D printer, and a //gs (ROM 1) connected via
the printer port to an OLD ImageWriter wide carriage.  I would LIKE to
be able to run BOTH computers on the SAME printer (preferrably the IW
for obvious reasons), but I refuse to part with the Print-It card due to
special features it has, and I don't want to have to get an extra
printer card for the //gs.  Is there ANY way I can hook both the
Print-It card and the //gs port to the IW?  Again, there is a serial
connector on the card, but I don't have the cable, and I won't part with
the card.  I've got one, very cramped, computer desk in need of a
savior!  Can you suggest the solution to my quandry?


Oh, gee, I just thought of another question...hehehe
I was told a while back that, if you have an accelerator in your //e or
//gs, and you are running a DMA SCSI card (hispeed or RAMFast), you will
have to disable the DMA because of conflicts between it and the
accelerator.  One person explained it as a problem because of caching
techniques that both devices use without making the other aware of what
it did to the memory.  Are there ANY decent accelerators that DO NOT
require that you disable DMA?  If DMA is disabled on the RAMFast, does
it still work faster than the regular SCSI card or the hispeed?  Is the
RAMFast firmware better at low-level formatting a HD than software
available for that purpose (which I've been told by this same friend is
unreliable at best because it doesn't properly address/take advantage of
the technology in newer SCSI devices, and was designed for older,
"dumber" SCSI devices, thus causing problems when used on newer ones)?

Gee, another one just popped into my head...In the System 6 Advanced
Disk Utils, does the "Zero" function act as a low-level format, or is it
just some sort of fancy erase feature?  I have no dox for System 6 and
am growing frustrated.  (6.0.1 that is)

One final note - and this is not a question but a warning:
If you acquire the hispeed SCSI card, and you read the manual, it will
tell you to use the install program to put the card's drivers on your
system disk, EVEN IF there are HD drivers already there.  I don't know
about earlier versions but - DO NOT DO THIS WITH 6.0.1!  I did this and
it irrevocably damaged important files on my system disk.  Removing the
drivers made it WORSE.  In the Apple II Guide it states that System 6
has drivers made FOR the hispeed card (something I didn't read until
after I followed the card's manual's instructions - GRRRRR).  Just
thought I'd warn people about this little "faux pas" in the hispeed
manual.

By the by, I read in one or the other book (either the //gs manual, or
the Apple II Guide) that you should always use the installer to add
drivers, CDEVs, and stuff like that.  Yet, I have a friend who NEVER
uses the installer and swears by just copying the stuff to disk using
GS/OS or whatever.  I was wondering if there is ANY reason why I SHOULD
use the Install program?  Something interesting happened to me when I
used Install to put the HD drivers on the system 6 disk.  Not only did
it corrupt the disk but it also corrupted the install disk (6.0.1).  I
found this odd and was wondering why the 6.0.1 installer would corrupt
both system 6 and itself...Any ideas?

Thanks for all the help, in advance...

Give what you would like to receive,
Glenn
Lord Wilderness


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