Re: Technical question ...

[aw133@lafn.org (James Poore)]

In a previous article, eib@club-internet.fr (eib) says:

>I have had an Apple IIe for more than ten years, but since four years it
>does not work anymore and I haven't been able to repair it, or find
>someone who can. Nowadays I have an Internet access so I come here to
>see if someone has already encountered the same problem and can throw
>some light in this dark enigma...
>The problem is the following:
>When I boot my apple IIe, the disk drive 1 activates but does not read
>the diskette inside. I tried many bootable diskette but none worked. The
>computer did not even read the diskette, because the "disk reading"
>noise was not coming out of the drives. Also, the logo changed, and from
>"Apple ][" became "Apple //". As if this was not enough, some characters
>appear randomly on the boot screen, and the computer freezes there.
>I live in Paris and found one of the only Apple IIe repairman left, in
>Lyon, about 500 km from my home. I cannot go over there (lack of time
>and money as I'm just a student :-) ), so I phoned him. He was very
>comprehensive and partly answered to my question: he made me remove all
>the extension boards and boot the machine to see what happens. It did
>exactly the same think ( with or without the disk controller ). So he
>concluded that the motherboard was out of order. However he said he was
>not sure because he had to actually see the machine to try to repair it
>( what is normal ). Since then my Apple IIe is put away as I try to find
>an answer... is it the motherboard that's screwed up ? Is it the RAM
>that's not functional ? Is there a way to repair it ? Or should I try to
>get a new Apple II ( hard, but i'm on it :) ) ?
>Thank for reading until here, and eventually for answering. :-)

It looks like you have a bad ram.  My machine did basically the same thing.
One way to check is to press control-open apple-closed apple-reset and 
then let go of the reset button first.  That will put it into the 
self-test mode.  If you have a bad ram, then you will see a pattern like 
this: 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0  the 1 will indicate the bad ram and also the 
location of it,  in this example it is the fourth one from the end.
If it doesnt go into self test, then it could be almost anything.
As far as the logo goes, the Apple ][ is an unenhanced IIe where as an 
Apple //e is an enhanced IIe with mousetext roms and a 65C02 microprocessor.

Jim

-- 
James M (Jim) Poore--Apple II's Forever--Especially IIgs's
Los Angeles Free Net---aw133@lafn.org
Here siggy, siggy...Here Boy
Where is that damn SIG?