Apple IIe - trying to get drives to work

From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf_at_siconic.com>
Date: Tue Nov 18 11:03:08 2003

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, B.Degnan wrote:

> In a nutshell, I turn on the Apple IIe and drive 1 spins and the drive
> light comes on, but does not read any bootable disks. On the display the
> screen reads: Apple ][
>
> I have a number of boot disks so I don't think the disks are all bad. I
> have checked the cables and the drive card. I have swapped out the drive
> card with another that works. I have swapped cables and they seem OK.

It's definitely a problem with the drive. Most likely the analog card as
someone else suggested, though it may also be that the head is missing or
very dirty (though it usually gets cleaned after a while at the expense of
your diskettes).

> Is there an internal diagnostic? (key combinations?)

Yes, but not for the disk drives. Pressing CTRL-Closed Apple-Reset (on a
//e, //c, //c+) performs a system self test of the mainboard (RAM, etc.)

> Playing around with key combinations I found that control+clear
> apple+filled apple+reset brings me to a prompt of some kind, but I do
> not know what I can do from this prompt.

A prompt? What kind of prompt do you get? Normally, pressing this key
combination does the self-test but with some audio.

> I have no manuals.

I have plenty of spares. Send me your address if you want a set.

-- 
Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Tue Nov 18 2003 - 11:03:08 GMT

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