New Owner of a Apple IIe

Question

New Owner of a Apple IIe

Hello All.... I am a proud of owner of a recently purchased Apple IIe that I bought off of ebay (Price was right). Well I unboxed the computer. It came with a color monitor (with a broken RCA male end stuck in it. Had to take monitor apart to remove it), CPU was full of rat poop (Seller claimed the computer was in a storage unit (Had to take apart to clean it all out), and came with the dual set top DuoDisk disk drives. So the issue I am seeing is no matter what disk I put into the drives the red light stays on and the video is displaying Apple IIe. Nothing changes nothing happens. No matter what disk I put in the same thing happens. I even have the original Apple IIe DOS 3.3 System Master disk and it does the same things. Here are the things I have done. I opened up the DuoDisk disk drives and cleaned the heads with the Isopropyl Alcohol and then clean the inside of the computer and wiped it all down inside with non static cloth. I then reseated all the cards on the computer and powered it back on and no change. I am scratching my head thinking what did I miss. I did perform a diagnostic using the apple-control-reset keys pressed at the same time and I got a bunch of colors on the monitor and then a message "*RAM 10000000" is displayed and nothing more.

I started with the basics and pulled out all the cards and then powered up the Apple IIe and when I powered it on it booted to a cursor and also gave a beep, which tells me it looks good at boot. Is Slot 0 the actual Aux Connector on the Motherboard? I notice on the motherboard I have Slots 1-7. The three cards that are in the computer are as follows:

Aux Connector - 64K Memory Expansion Board

Slot 2 - Graphics Printer Interface - Which I do not have a printer so I do think I need it?

Slot 6 - I/O Controller - For the disk drives

I inserted all the cards accept the I/O controller and got all the same results with booting directly to a cursor. All the cards look real clean and seated correctly since I did a heavy cleaning on it yesterday. I did pull the Expansion Module and performed the same test on the RAM and got a "System OK" message, but when I put the card back in I got the error I referenced in my first post. What does it mean "*RAM 10000000"? Is it an error or? Does that mean the expansion board is bad?

I would pull RAM chips out of sockets to clean them, but all the ones I see are soldered on the board. There is only one chip I can pull off the Expansion board to clean it, but all the rest are soldered on.

I also wanted to mention the motherboard I have is a 607-0187-A. Which seems to the be the first version of the board.

What do you guys think? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I do not want to throw money at it until I know what the issue is. Thank you all in advance.

Posted on Jul 4, 2019 9:21 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 7, 2019 10:10 AM in response to helmut208

I cleaned it with some anti static wipes. All the memory chips are soldered onto the motherboard. The expansion card has one IC socket, but all the rest are all soldered in. With all boards removed I get it to boot to a cursor. When I install the drive controller board in Slot 6 the disk drive just spins with the red light on with no real idea if it is actually reading a disk. The disk drive has power and spins a disk, but nothing further then that. Do you have instruction on how to test the PSU? What wires should I check? I am not all that comfortable with opening that up as like you stated it is lethal and could cause me more harm if I do not know what I am doing. I did clean all the cards with Isopropyl Alcohol. The IIe boots just fine with no cards installed and it passes the self test as well, but when I install the expansion board it fails the test. Again thank you for all the valuable information. Much appreciated.

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Answer 2

Jul 6, 2019 11:43 AM in response to dcgtechnologies

Hello and congratulations to your new vintage PC and a milestone in computer history!

First of all: The 80 columns/memory expansion to 128KB (or more if not built by Apple --- I have an AE Applied Engineerings 1 MB card with RAM disk ) is not necessary to test the disk controller in slot #6

BTW: Slot #1 is the printer slot, slot #2 is the slot for the Super Serial card, slot #3 is 80 columns card (not necessary if you have the memory expansion card with goes into the auxiliary slot), slot #4 is the Z80 coprocessor card slot for the CP/M OS, slot #5 is the Apple mouse card slot (or Sound card- aka Mockingboard card), and slot #6 is the floppy disk controller slot.

If you switch on your Apple //e without your memory expansion card, but the disk controller installed in slot # 6, you enter the following command after the cursor appears: PR #6 , or IN #6

Then the disk controller should start the floppy disk and the machine is trying to boot.

Good luck!

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Answer 3

Jul 6, 2019 1:11 PM in response to helmut208

Thank you for your nice reply and good information. I have more questions if you do not mind answering them.

Do you think I have a bad memory expansion card since it fails the self test with the message “@RAM 10000000” or does it mean something else? When I tried to boot to a floppy when powering the computer on without the expansion card it does the same thing the disk drive light stays red and is on at all times. It does not even sound like it wants to read a disk. How would I get to the command prompt to bypass the disk drive? Why do you think the drive is not automatically reading the disk and booting when inserted? Sorry about all the questions, but it has been 30 years since I have touched an Apple IIe.

Thank you again.

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Answer 4

Jul 7, 2019 5:08 AM in response to dcgtechnologies

Yes, you could have a bad memory IC and /or a bad connection, if the memory chips are in IC sockets.

How have you cleaned your logic board?

Are all voltages coming from the PSU ok and in normal range?

You should use a Multimeter to check all PSU voltage. After this long time the electrolytic caps in the PSU and on the motherboard my be faulty and can cause many unusual weird problems.

But be careful! There are lethal voltages in the PSU, even after unplugging the mains connector. (you should wait for a few hours or days- but that depends on the condition of your electrolytic caps in the PSU)

It's harmless to check the voltage outside the PSU and on the motherboard.

First try your Apple //e without any expansion card. Check the voltages without expansion cards and check the voltage with all cards plugged in. If chips are socketed, remove them, clean all IC pins, and clean you IC sockets (using an antioxidizer for electronic parts).

And yes: the machine should try to boot if there is any disk controller in slot #6

(I have a SCSI controller in slot #5, and I always boot from there)

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New Owner of a Apple IIe

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