Re: Transwarp IIe revisited

[mdj <mdj.mdj@gmail.com>]

On Dec 6, 9:34 am, Linards Ticmanis <ticma...@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> just managed to get hold of a Transwarp IIe accelerator. Note, not a TWGS.
>
> I'm running it in slot 3 of an enhanced IIe. Luckily there was enough
> info to be found on the DIP switches. But some questions remain.
>
> 0.) I have a bootable CFFA in slot 7 with ProDOS 2.0.3 on it. Sometimes
> on power up, after the TRANSWARP logo, the CFFA will boot, and sometimes
> it won't (naked Applesoft prompt appears below "Apple //e"). In the
> latter case, PR#7 will put garbage on the screen, while
> Ctrl+OpenApple+Reset will usually correctly boot the CFFA. Is this
> normal? I tried removing all other cards but it didn't help. Flipping
> the DIP switch on the Transwarp to access Slot 7 with 1 MHz didn't
> change this.

Not normal...

> 1.) An posting in here from 1996, by Tom Zuchowski, said: "To completely
> disable the TW, hold down ESC during power up.  Holding down "0" will
> activate the TW self-test.  "1" will bypass the startup logo."
>
> However of these only ESC seems to work. "0" and "1" do nothing. Is this
> normal?

I'll try that on mine when I get home tonight - I wasn't aware there
was a self test...

> 2.) My card has a v1.3 ROM. It seems clear that at least a v1.4 ROM
> exists and is or was sold by GSE. What are the advantages of the 1.4 ROM
> (or any later if it exists)?
>
> 3.)Since I have access to an EPROM burner and thus it doesn't make too
> much sense to ship around chips, is a v1.4 (or later) ROM available as a
> binary file to be burned, either for purchase or for free?
>
> 4.) I tried playing "Ultima V" (from floppy) on the machine which
> supposedly supports the Transwarp. Flipping the system speed with Ctrl-T
> in the game works as described. But the game has a high tendency to
> crash (the machine just resets like CTRL+OA+RESET), mostly during disk
> access. Is this normal? Again I removed all cards except the Transwarp
> and one 5.25 controller, didn't help.

Certainly not normal... It's highly likely that you've got a bad RAM
chip on there... I had some crashing problems with mine a few years
ago so I replaced the RAM and all was well. If you've got a spare
65C02 that's rated high enough, you can save a little power and heat
by switching to that...

Matt