Apple //gs problems: HELP!!!

[TFSTAM01@ukcc.uky.edu]

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My parents have had an Apple //gs for about 6 years now, and it has
never worked well.  Mainly because it's remained a crippled machine
since they bought it (like, no hard drive).
 
We recently purchased a GS-RAM-Plus card, which came with 3 MEGs of
RAM, and we purchased an additional MEG for a total of 4 MEGs.  Now
when we start Appleworks, we have only 55K to work with!  And that's
MUCH less than we had with the 1.5 meg card!  I have read the manuals
that come with the card (which includes AW3 Expander), which are hard
to understand to begin with.  They both refer to something on the control
panel, which does not appear when I go into it.  And when I use System 6,
I only get Time and Printer on the control panel.  I have spent hours on
this thing, and no luck.
 
Also, I have tried installing System 6 on the RAM disk, but it doesn't
work.
 
I also got a First Start program, which is supposed to
allow you to save programs for use on the RAM disk at start up.  But I
couldn't get it to work either because it also refers to something on the
control panel which isn't there.
 
We're about to give up.  And my mom is threatening to go into more debt,
which they can't afford, and buy a M******sh, just to get something that
actually works.
 
Any suggestions?  (Are we completely out of luck?  Is is worth it to
invest anything more into the //gs?  Do we have to buy a M**?)
Is there something I'm doing wrong?  Is there something else we need?
 
Also, would it be worth it to buy a hard drive?  If so, where can we
get one for the cheapest price?  And where can I get SCSI cards *real*
cheap?
 
-Desparate   (Tim)  (tfstam01@ukcc.uky.edu)