disk drive and ram problem

[Toastmaster <crunchy@icontech.com>]

Hello all,
I recently dug up my old IIgs, and after playing around with it for
awhile,
remembered why i buried it. For some reason, when i plug in a 5.25 disk
drive and give the box power, the drive light comes on and the drive
motor
spins and spins and spins (and spins some more) if i try to boot a disk
any-
way, the drive makes horrible 'chunking' sounds, responds with "UNABLE
TO
LOAD PRODOS" and (i think) erases any data on the disk. all the while
the
drive spins merrily. I don't believe this to be a problem with the
drive, for I have
tried many units that function fine on other apples.... also, a 3.5"
drive fares better,
with apparently no problems. Anyone have any ideas as to the problem?

-it gets worse...

after breaking into the box in an effort to fix the disk problem, i
really screwed some-
thing up. I was mostly checking for shorts and/or cleaning card
connections, etc. but
when I reassembled and booted up, the computer locked on the "Apple
IIgs" screen
it would not respond to ctrl-reset or anything else. I took out my AE
ram card (1.5 meg?)
and it boots fine. Of course now it only has like 128k which is not
enough to run
my 3.5" applications. oi. Anyone have any ideas as to why my ram card
makes things lock up?
(i never had any problems with it before) it might be worth it to note
that the IIgs is rom 01
and there are no other cards except the AE ram card. i really want to
restore the old apple
to it's pristine state, i guess it's not as invincible as i thought....
any help would be _greatly_ appreciated (i have more questions, but...
:)

                                            -thanx in advance,
                                                 Toastmaster