Apple IIe - dead or alive?

["mario" <gianmarioRE.scottiMO@nokiaVE.com>]

Hello,


first of all, I apologize if my question sounds stupid - I have never had or
been in physical touch with an Apple II before (only saw it on pictures) and
don't know much about it.

So, I had this dream from my childhood to have an Apple IIe, the type with
the light grey keyboard. Finally my dream came true today when I receibved
the one I bought off eBay. Unpacked it, connected the monitor with the
computer, and turned them both up.
On the screen, the text "Apple //e" appeared, in the middle, and one of the
floppy drives started to turn, and it would never stop. I was guessing that
it was searching for some kind of OS boot disk, and that, once it doesn't
find it, just fall back to it's kernal and Apple Basic. But, sadly, that
never happened. The floppy drive just kept whirling in vain.

So, my question is: is this Apple IIe broken, or is it Working As Designed
when equipped with flopy drives? If the latter is the answer, would I be
able to drop into Apple Basic by removing the disk controller from the Apple
IIe? Or is it something else one has to do?

Oh yeah, in case this wasn't obvious: I did try to interact with the
machine, by hitting the "return" key a few times, and other keys, as well.


Please help? Many thanks in advance



mario