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Re: R:Apple IIc+ and self diagnostic

CyberDez wrote:

Hello Mitchell,
Thank you VERY much for the info! Now I'm quite sure my machine is not
broken as I feared... :-)
A diagnostic disk like the one you mentioned would be a really good thing to
have handy expecially when dealing with vintage computers but where can I
find it? Making back the bootable disk from a disk image would not be a big
problem. There are also two other disks I am desperately looking for:

- Zip Chip Utilities
- Dalton Disk Disintegrator rev. 2.1 or higher

Any idea where can I found them? Until now my searches over the net produced
no useful results... :-(

Best regards and thanks again!

CyberDez



   Odd as it is, that is completely normal. I had the same concern when I
first picked up an Apple IIc Plus about a decade ago. If you want to run a
more extensive diagnostic (on any Apple II model for that matter) you may
want to try the "Apple II Diagnostics" that was used by authorized Apple
dealers. It came on a 3.5 floppy and automatically detected which Apple II
model it was running on, changing the test options to correspond to that
particular machine.


Contrary to expectations, I've found that diagnostic disks are seldom
of much use to Apple users.  A RAM test is a good thing to have, but
few of them will cycle continuously waiting for the occasional error,
which is a common form of RAM failure.  Most other tests are done as
well or better by simply using the machine.

The truth is that Apple II's are very reliable, and if they don't work,
they usually don't work enough to run a diagnostic.  ;-)

Perhaps it is best to think of most diagnostics as "confidence tests"
that simply make you feel better by not finding anything obviously
wrong.  But again, the real test of a machine is whether it works
predictably and reliably in normal use.

If a machine begins to behave inconsistently, then it's time to stop
and think about it, then try simple "substitutions" to diagnose the
cause of the problem.  (Like using a different disk drive if you are
having disk problems.)  When you can "move the problem" by moving a
component, you have localized the failure.

Again, thankfully, a working machine seldom develops problems more
severe than a flaky power supply, a dirty disk head, or an oxidized
connector or chip lead.

An important exception is a machine which constantly has cards and
devices inserted and removed.  This is an opportunity for carelessness
which can lead to chip damage that can be much trickier to locate.

-michael

8-voice music synthesizer using NadaNet networking!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/