Re: Hints/feedback on disk reading failure on Apple IIe

["Warren Ernst" <wernst@gmail.com>]

Congratulations!

Amazingly, you and I are almost in the same boat. I've dug out, cleaned
up, and turned on my beloved //e this week, and the last time it was
booted was 1994. Fortunately, I have a spare //e saved from a dumpster
earlier this year for spare parts, some of which I've had to use.

In a past life, I worked at Beagle Bros, where I have seen more than my
fair share of //e's, and I am always amazed how, in my experience,
about half of the "first generation" //e motherboards I've worked on
have every chip socketed, and about half have most of their smaller
chips soldered on. I'm very lucky that my main //e has all-socketed
chips, and have wondered how many boards were junked just because
someone couldn't replace a failing chip on a socket-less board.

At any rate, I'm glad to see you're handy with a soldering iron.

Extended 80-column cards are going for just a few dollars on ebay these
days, so getting a replacement shouldn't be too tough. If you go this
route, be sure NOT to get a standard "80-column card," for it lacks the
extra 64k you'll probably want.

Or if you want to go nuts, look for a RamWorks-style memory card, which
will get you 80 columns, and memory to 512k and beyond.

Take care,
Warr