Re: Foundling IIe left on curb, now what?

[mshaslam@gmail.com]

Robert J. Stevens wrote:
> Ziggy wrote:
>
> > mshaslam@gmail.com wrote:
> > > It's been 20+ years since I booted an Apple II, but when I found
one
> > > sitting on the side of the road, well I guess I'm a sucker for
hard
> > > luck stories.  I was hoping I could get some pointers on getting
it
> > > into functioning condition.
> > >
> > > The case is in fairly good condition.  It's dirty and the cap for
the
> > > keyboard light is missing, but all the keys are there and seem to
> > > function, and it has two 5.25 drives.  However it has no disks.
> > >
> > > Internally it has three cards in the expansion slots, the floppy
> > > controller, an Epson parallel port controller, and the last one,
which
> > > is a only labled as 'Microsoft Consumer Products'.  My wild guess
says
> > > it's a CP/M card.  It also has  an '80col/64k' card in the 'aux
> > > connection' slot.
> > >
> > > It boots into ROM just fine and I managed to dust off my BASIC
enough
> > > to make it say 'hello world'.  The only problem so far is that
the
> > > colors bleed quite a bit on the screen unless I get the cable
just
> > > right.
> > >
> > > My questions are:
> > >
> > > Are there known issues and solutions to the color bleed problem?
More
> > > wild guesses on my part say either a solder problem or corrosion,
but
> > > I'm not yet ready to take the thing apart until I'm a little more
sure.
> > >
> > > What OS does an IIe run and how would I get a copy?   I remember
from
> > > the long ago days that the apple drives are totally incompatible
with
> > > IBM drives, so bootstrapping seems to require getting a hold of
actual
> > > boot disks.  I currently have no access to a functioning Apple
II, but
> > > I do live in the Seattle area.
> > >
> > > What the heck is that Microsoft card, and/or how would I find
out?
> > >
> > > Thanks for your help,
> > > MSH
> > >
> >
> > The microsoft card, if its got a Z80 on it should be a CPM card..
> >
> > Must be nice finding stuff like that out at the curb..
>
> I'm running a dual disk drive //e. I can send some boot floppies
> Bob in wisconsin

That would be excellent!  Just email me at mshaslam@drizzle.com and
I'll forward my address.  This has been like a little trip in the 'way
back' machine.  The Apple was my first computer.

It's funny how quickly I remembered all those old BASIC commands.  Just
set the fingers on the keyboard and let them to the thinking for me.
I'm still having trouble with the key 'bumps' being on the middle
rather then index fingers though...

MSH