Help With Getting Apple IIc to Function

[milry62]

Hello everyone, I was able to find an Apple IIc computer from a garage sale with tons of classic game floppys, the original monitor, external disc drive, power supply, mouse, and video modulator. I have never had any experience with vintage computing, but I am more than willing to learn.

 

It's in kind of a rough state with plenty of dirt and grime, but I am having issues with the hardware functioning. First, the monitor is faded out on the left side so that I am unable to see anything typed there. There are also green lines extending across the screen. Secondly, every time I insert a disc into the drive, the message "check disc drive" shows up at the bottom of the screen. I have even tried triggering the external drive using the "PR#7" command, and it will do one of three things. First, it will simply say "check disc drive" again. Second, it will click and whir for a second, then the internal disc drive will start making grinding noises at a timed interval. Third, the disc will continue to spin, but there will be a series of characters at the bottom of the screen that look like this: X=XX (with the X's representing some letter or number).

 

Any help finding a solution to these problems would be greatly appreciated. I would love to be able to use this machine for classic gaming, and to learn about classic computing.

 

Picture of the issue are added:

[Keatah]

The series of characters at the bottom tells me the system isn't fully reading a disk.

 

One of the first and simple things I'd try would be to use a known, good, and verified disk to boot the machine. Second, ensure that the drive heads are clean.

 

Failing that, then it'll be time to look at hardware & chip issues.

Edited November 11, 2016 by Keatah

[milry62]

The series of characters at the bottom tells me the system isn't fully reading a disk.

 

One of the first and simple things I'd try would be to use a known, good, and verified disk to boot the machine. Second, ensure that the drive heads are clean.

 

Failing that, then it'll be time to look at hardware & chip issues.

I just opened up the machine and did a dumb thing by unseating the keyboard rom chip and breaking two of the legs by mistake Now when I boot I am only seeing bars across the screen. Is there anywhere I can buy a new chip?

[Keatah]

Don't know off hand. Try google searching. Otherwise you'll need to get a blank rom and burn it. The code is available. Or get someone to repair the chip. Repairing the chip is a cinch - keep in mind the repaired chip will be a little more fragile.

 

Another idea is to get another //c and keep one for parts. I do that with all my Apple stuff - keep spares and a coupla piles of parts..

Edited November 11, 2016 by Keatah

[milry62]

Thank you for the advice! I don't want to spend a ton of money so buying a new Apple //c might not be the move right now. How would I go about burning the code to a new ROM?

 

 

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[Keatah]

You can get rom code from ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.com/pub/apple_II/emulators/rom_images/

.. since I don't know the part number offhand I can't tell you which one. Is it 342-0132-D

 

Then you need to get a blank EPROM, again, part number needed. But likely a 2716 style.

 

And finally you need to get EPROM burner, ebay sells them pretty cheap.

 

All-in-all, it may be cheaper to get another //c and scrap it for parts, or use the one you have now for parts to repair a "newer" unit. Or find someone to do a chip repair and/or general system cleanup.

 

Such is life with classic computing.

Edited November 11, 2016 by Keatah

[milry62]

Thank you very much for your responses. I will look into some of these solutions and see what I can do, because I really want to get this system up and running. I am completely fascinated by it. But being a college student doesn't help since I don't have much money[emoji23]

 

Any insight into why the monitor is acting the way it was in the photo?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Keatah]

I'm not a monitor repair expert and would need schematics to start troubleshooting it. So I wouldn't care to guess. But the lines are normal if brightness or grid acceleration is turned up too much.

 

Other forum members here will eventually post suggestions too.

[Keatah]

What does the monitor look like when not connected to the //c?

 

And, regarding the disk drive, the speed may be out of spec. Just a thought.

Edited November 12, 2016 by Keatah