[HELP] Apple //e concerns & questions...

[Cheezy <mo.cheez@wanadoo.fr>]

1) Some time ago, I bought an old Apple //e for a few bucks, and it came
loaded with cards and an external hard drive. This drive, a big grey and
black steel box labelled "SyMBfile" from Symbiotic (the drive inside is
actually a 5 Mb Maxtor MFM drive) was attached to a card in the //e (also
manufactured by Symbiotic). Also present in the //e (appart from a grafstar
parallel card, 80-col exp. card and Disk ][ controller card) was - at least
that's what I was told - a CP/M card. Unfortunately, I never managed to
access the drive, and... I don't even know how! From what I read on various
sites, my guess is both cards were meant to work together. If so, what kind
of software would I need in order to boot that hard drive ? Is there a way
to have the //e see it and format it as Dos or Prodos ?

2) I recently put an Apple Super Serial card in the //e, so that I could use
my Imagewriter. I set every dip switch, both on the card and printer,
according to the manuals/FAQ/TIL, etc. instructions. SuperSerial card is in
slot #1, is in Terminal mode, and still, I can't print. Everytime I try to
print something, the //e hangs, and all I can do is reboot the computer.
Nevertheless, whenever I power off the computer, the Imagewriter responds
with a short movement. The head moves both sideways.

The config is the following:

Apple //e non-enhanced.
Slot #1 : Super Serial Card
Slot #2 : Empty
Slot #3 : empty
Slot #3 AUX : 80-col. Card
Slot #4 : Empty
Slot #5 : I/O Controller for Duodisk (no drive attached)
Slot #6 : Disk ][ controller card with two drives attached

Anybody got an idea ?


Cheezy.