HELP!!! Apple IIe - doesn't work!

From: Eric Fischer <eric_at_fudge.uchicago.edu>
Date: Wed May 28 00:02:58 1997

more_at_camlaw.rutgers.edu said,

> > If I'm remembering right, you hold down the ESC key while turning
> > the power on to configure what speed you want to run it at.
>
> Just for "fun" I did this and some interesting things happened...
> 1. The garbage disappeared and "Apple //e" was printed at the top and the
> drive 1 light came on.

Hmmm... sounds like something in your system definitely doesn't
like running at 4MHz but works fine at 1MHz.

> I put in the first disk I grabbed and it came up with the message
> "Unable to Identify Language in MotherBoard E0 ROM. PLease replace
> that ROM and Reboot." What's this mean?

The ROM BASIC intrepreter begins at address $E000. There were various
replacement ROMs you could get that would keep copy protected programs
from exercising so much control over the computer... and I'd guess this
disk, whatever it is, doesn't recognize the Enhanced IIe ROM (or maybe
even the IIe at all) and is thinking you're trying to fool it by
switching ROMs on it. Short of figuring out a way to get a II+ ROM
into the computer or patching the program to avoid the check, I don't
think there's much hope for getting this particular disk to work.

> 3. Tried the reset-esc thing again but this time found a DOS 3.3 disk.
> DOS 3.3 APPLE II PLUS OR ROMCAERD aetc.etcetc. was printed...
> It come s up withthe ] prompt again. Is this what its supposed to do?

Sounds reasonable (though it's been long enough since I used a II+
system master I can't remember whether this is the standard message).
The "II PLUS OR ROMCARD" means that it's recognized your system has
having Applesoft BASIC in ROM instead of the older Integer BASIC; since
you could add a ROM card to the original II that would give it
Applesoft (or an Integer card to the II+, for that matter) it can't
distinguish between a II+ (which the IIe also appears to be, since it
has Applesoft in ROM) and a II with the Applesoft card.

> Is there nothing wrong with this thing then?
> Could it be something stupid? (wrong thing in wrong slot?)

Well, having to hold down Esc to get it to work sounds like a
problem to me... but I think I'd try taking out all the boards
and seeing if it works without a problem that way, and if it
does, putting them back in one at a time to see which one it
is that doesn't like to be accelerated. I think there may
have been some way to configure the Zip Chip to say which
slots should be accelerated and which shouldn't, but I never
had one myself, so this is just a hazy memory of secondhand
knowledge...

> > This is probably another 80-column card, but the old II+ style
> > instead of the newer IIe Aux style.
>
> Should I take one of the video cards out? Are they supposed to BOTH be in
> there?

Probably the former owner either had some program that required
a Videx-style card or just preferred the picture quality you get
from the Videx (they had models that did 132x40 with a nice solid
font -- much nicer than the spotty ugly standard IIe 80 column
picture). But for normal use, there doesn't seem to be much
point in having both installed.

eric
Received on Wed May 28 1997 - 00:02:58 BST