Archive-name: apple2/part2 Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: Jan 1 1997 Version: 5.1.1 This part 2 of 4 of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) posting of the comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup. Copyright (c) 1997 by Nathan Mates (nathan@visi.com) This document can be freely copied so long as 1) it is not sold, 2) any sections reposted elsewhere from it are credited back to this FAQ with the FAQ's copyright info and official WWW location left in place. This FAQ is posted on the WWW for 24 hour a day (barring system and/or internet malfunctions) availability from http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html. Please do NOT make a copy of this FAQ and post it on the web; I'm continually updating and fixing sections of it. A html link is fine. --- Begin part 2 of 4 Adding Hardware: 4.1 Can the Apple II connect to 3.5" drives or flopticals for other platforms? A: For 400K or 800K Mac 3.5" drives, in general, no. Apple's 3.5" drive that was sold with Apple IIGSs has logic to sense which machine it is hooked up to (Apple II or Macintosh) and it works accordingly. Most 3rd party drives don't bother to put in Apple II support in their drives. Some may work if you hook them up to a UDC instead of an Apple 3.5" inch card. Old style Mac 800k drives are very slow. Mac 1.44MB (High Density) 3.5" drives can be used if you have both both the High Density 3.5" drive and the new Apple 3.5" superdrive controller card. If you don't have both, you will only be able to do regular density (800K). Of course, you will also need High Density Disks. ProDOS 8 programs not only recognize the 1.44MB disks, but most programs format and recognize HD disks just fine. You can even boot off of a HD disk, allowing plenty of room for GS/OS Desk Accessories and such. There are a few drawbacks: you cannot boot copy-protected software or some FTA demos. Also, you can't daisy-chain a 5.25" off a HD card. Also, it takes up a slot, even on the GS. Unfortunately, Apple never seemed to have sold very many of the Superdrive controller card, while used superdrives are apparently plentiful, so you may have a hard time getting your hands on a superdrive controller card. The SCSI Floptical drive (also rare, but may be a bit easier to find) can also read and write 1.44MB and 720K disks, as well as its special 21MB disks, but not 400K or 800K Apple II disks. You'd need a SCSI controller card, and special drivers with an Apple High Speed SCSI board or a recent ROM version with the RamFAST board. For more information, please see the Apple II & Floptical FAQ at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/floptical.html, and this FAQ's section on SCSI. IBM PC 3.5" drives (as well as all sorts of low and high density 5.25" drives) can be connected only with the (discontinued) Applied Engineering PC Transporter card, or the Bluedisk card from SHH Systems (See the section on dealers and hardware addons of this FAQ for their address and WWW page). There are also reports that the "CTI Drive" allows you to hook up IBM 3.5" and 5.25" disk drives (no High Density support yet) to your Apple II. [IBM drives are cheaper] Some software is included to read MS/DOS disks on your Apple. Otherwise, ProDOS and GS/OS recognize them like normal drives. Unfortunately, information on this "CTI drive" is minimal at best, and nobody's responded to my requests for more information on them. 4.2 Can the Apple II connect to keyboards, mice, etc. from other platforms? A: IBM PC keyboards are almost impossible to connect to any Apple II; the only possibility is to buy a device used to connect such a keyboard to a Macintosh, and try that with your GS. IBM PC Serial Mice (usually have 9-pin serial connectors) can be connected to Apple //es with Sequential System's board. Although the connector is shaped identically, the //c, //e, and GS's 9-pin joystick port in back is not a serial port; serial mice just won't work if connected to it. (If you have a GS, just buy a Mac ADB mouse and use that) Most Macintosh (except for the ones with the phone jack connector, such as the original Mac and Mac 512) keyboards and mice are Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) devices. ADB made its debut on the Apple IIGS; it was later adopted by the Mac SE and other computers in the line. This means that most Mac ADB mice and keyboards will work on the GS. There are no reported incompatabilities with Mac mice that I've heard about, though multibutton mice may only have one button work on the GS. Macintosh keyboards may not work; here is a list of ones known to work and not, compiled by Bradley P. Von Haden (bpvh@primenet.com) Work: Apple ADB Keyboards I and II AppleDesign Keyboard ($85 - MacMall(66s), Mac Zone(47b)) +Apple Extended Keyboard (original) Apple Extended Keyboard II ($155 - MacMall(66s), Mac Zone(47b)) Adesso 105 Extended Keyboard ($80 - Mac's Place, Mac Zone, Tiger SW) Adesso 102 Wxtended Keyboard w/ Trackball [Trackball does NOT work] ($100 - Mac's Place, Mac Zone, Tiger Software) Arriva Extended ($40 - MacMall(66s)) Interex 105 Extended ($55 - MacMall, Syex Express; $34 - Computer City) Key Tronic MacPro Plus ($130 - Mac Zone, APS Tech.) OptiMac Extended Keyboard (???) PowerUser 105E Extended Keyboard ($50 - MacWarehouse(59)) SIIG, Inc MacTouch Model 1905 (~$100.00) Sun OmniMac Ultra [extended, ADB type] (???) Suntouch ADB Extended Keyboard ($75 - Syex Express) VividKey Extended Keyboard ($60 - MacMall) Do not work: Apple Adjustable Keyboard MacALLY Peripherals Extended Keyboard MicroSpeed Keyboard Deluxe MAC ???: +Adesso Easy Touch ext kb ($44 - Mac Zone(47b)) +Adesso ProPoint ext kb w/ thinkpad ($60 - MacMall(66s)) +Alps GlidePoint kb ($110 - Mac Zone(47b)) ClubMac Extended Keyboard ($39 - ClubMac(13)) Datadesk MAC 101 E ($100 - MacWarehouse, Mac Zone) Datadesk TrackBoard ($100 - MacWarehouse, Mac Zone) Key Tronic Trak Pro Plus ($230 - APS Tech.) Performance Soft Touch Extended Keyboard ($49 - Mac Zone(47b)) Spring Sun Tech MacPride 97 ($90 - MacMall) Spring Sun Tech MacPride 105 ($59 - MacMall) Spring Sun Tech MacPride 110 ($80 - MacMall) [MAC/IBM switchable] Spring Sun Tech MacPride KidBoard ($100 - MacMall) ????: +Adesso NUForm Ergonomic ext kb ($60 - MacMall(66s)) +Adesso NUForm Ergomomic ext kb w/ pointer ($70 - MacMall (66s)) +Adesso NUForm Ergonomic ext kb w/ touch pad ($90 - MacMall (66s), Mac Zone (47B)) Adesso Tru-From Ergonomic ext kb ($79 - Mac Zone(47b)) Adesso Tru-Form Ergonomic ext kb w/ pointer ($90 - MacMall(66s)) Some have noted that the Adesso NUForm keyboard works only on a ROM 3 system, but not a ROM 00/01. 4.3 Can I use Macintosh RGB or IBM VGA/SVGA Monitors with my ][? A: Not normally. Even with the GS's RGB monitor connector, the GS puts out a 15Khz horizontal refresh signal. Most modern monitors (notable exceptions are the old NEC Multisync 1 and 2 monitors) require the signal to be at least 30Khz, and thus won't display the picture. If you have a question on whether a given monitor will work, check the manual for it or contact the manufacturer to see if it'll support 15Khz horizontal syncs. Older Apple II RGB cards (such as those to extend AE Ramworks cards) should have the same problem. The one way to bridge the "use Apple II monitors with Apple IIs" rule of thumb is to purchase the Second Sight (tm) VGA display board from Sequential Systems. (See the dealers section of this FAQ for their address and WWW page). The Second Sight mirrors Apple II video modes fairly well onto the VGA display, as well as supplying some VGA modes that programmers have begun to tap into. With it, you can connect VGA/SVGA monitors to your //e or GS If you are desperate for a monitor, the Apple II line puts out a video signal from the back port that can be hooked into the 'line in' port of a NTSC VCR or modern TVs-- just use a male-male RCA phono jack, which electronics shops should carry. Alternatively, a 'RF Converter' (try your local Radio Shack or the equivalent) can be used to connect that signal to a TV without a 'line in' connector. 4.4 Can I hook up a modem to my Apple II? A: Yes, most external serial modems should work great with an Apple II. Models such as the //c, IIc+ and IIGS have a serial port built in; the ][, ][+ and //e do not and will need to have one added. An Apple ][, ][+ or //e with Apple's Super Serial Card and an external modem that's fast enough can connect at 9600 baud fine; 19200 may be iffy. (Past 19200 pretty much requires an accelerated Apple II). There is an addon to the Super Serial Card called the Turbo ASP that has a theoretical maximum of 230,400; see the entry for Lightning Systems in the dealer's section of this FAQ. The very first revision of the //c motherboard had a faulty serial setup that prevented most machines from reliable serial communications faster than 2400 baud. See the section on the //c in this FAQ for information on how to determine if a system is likely to be affected. Various companies sell cables for the Apple //c's more oddball 5-pin serial ports; check out Atlaz Computer Supply (516-239-1854) or LYBEN Computer Systems at (800) 493-5777. The GS (and probably the IIc+) and the appropriate software (such as ProTERM, Spectrum or ANSITerm) can connect at up to 57600 baud. (Once again, an accelerator is recommended for the higher speeds). For any Apple II, speeds past 9600 pretty much require you to get a 'Hardware Handshaking' modem cable. This is a cable with connections between the handshaking pins (cheapo cables may only have the 3 wires necessary to do simple serial) and thus allows the computer to tell the modem that it is temporarily too busy to receive data, so the modem doesn't send more data until the computer's ready. Internal modems for Apple IIs only seem to have gone up to 2400 baud, which was fast for the time the boards were made, but is now fairly outdated. You cannot use internal PC modems in Apple IIs. 4.5 Can I hook up a LaserWriter, DeskJet, etc to my Apple //e? A: A number of them. The best bet is probably the HP DeskJet series. Most supported printers have either regular serial or parallel connections. The tricky part is getting the software to do what you want. The DeskJet, for example will print very nice-looking text with regular old "PR#1". But if you want to change the font or print graphics, you may have to purchase some software. One excellent program for these types of printers is PublishIt 4. For AppleWorks fans, there is the program called SuperPatch. Among it's patches is a cool DeskJet 500 (most DeskJet 6xx printers should be compatible, but check the documentation) printer driver. You can print sideways, and change fonts with normal AppleWorks commands. The DeskJet driver is built in to AW 4.0 and later. The Apple Stylewriter family is not supported by any //e program to my knowledge. 4.6 Can I hook up a Laser printer, ink jet, or bubble jet printer to my Apple IIGS? A:In short: a number of them, but not all. Please look through the following list to check if a particular model you're looking at is supported. Also, the following applies to all programs which support the GS system toolbox methods for talking to printers through drivers. Most GS programs support this; Print Shop GS is an exception-- it'll pretty much only work with the printers listed in the program, and then only at its printing resolutions. On the GS, you can hook up most LaserWriters made by Apple via AppleTalk-- if it supports Postscript and Appletalk, it should work. [Apple's Quickdraw printers are not usable.] A GS program can typically print to a LaserWriter if it's connected to the GS via AppleTalk; just install the LaserWriter drivers from the System 6 disks. Note that some LaserWriters from Apple may be 'Quickdraw,' not true Postscript printers, so they won't work from the GS. The Laserwriter, Laserwriter II, LW IINT, LW IINTX are all known to work fine. Of the Apple Stylewriter family, ONLY the original Stylewriter will work on the GS, and then only from GS/OS with the System 6 drivers. As Apple has not written drivers or released the specifications so that drivers could be written by third parties, none of the rest of the Stylewriter models works when connected to a GS. The HP DeskWriter family is mostly only for Macintoshes; the DeskJet 3xx, 5xx or 6xx (xx= any 2 numbers, plus some optional letters) printer families is much more friendly to all models of the Apple II. If you get a DeskJet, or PaintJet, etc, you can hook them up via a parallel printer card or serial cable depending on what ports the printer has. The exceptions to this are HP's recent 'Windows Only' printers, such as the HP DJ 820C models, which don't work at all with Apple IIs. But, in order to use pretty much any inkjet or bubblejet printer that the GS can talk to effectively, you will need Harmonie from Vitesse (better-- supports color printing on HP inkjets that have such support built in) or Independence (cheaper, but only black & white printing) from Seven Hills. They are new printer drivers for GS/OS programs only. These two programs extend the ranges of printers supported by the GS. If you want to print from an 8-bit program, see the previous question. Harmonie's drivers also support a number of printer modes that other printers can handle. Apparently the Canon BJ-200e works well with Harmonie 2.1's Epson LQ or Epson LQ 4000 drivers. As provided by Richard Der, here is a list of printers and such supported by Harmonie; there may be other printers that are compaible with such models listed here, but are not listed. Nobody's gotten a list of printers supported by Independence to me yet, unfortunately. Printers supported by Harmonie: --Canon Dot Matrix-- Canon 1080 --HP DeskJet (or DeskWriter) Ink-Jet-- DeskJet (Manual states all DeskJet and DeskJet 5xx drivers DeskJet 500C work with DeskWriter series of the same number DeskJet 520 using the high speed Printer 57.6 serial port DeskJet 550C driver included with on the disk) DeskJet 560C *560C driver is compatible with DJ/DW 600C and 660C printers. The DJ 400 is like th DJ 600C. The DJ 560C driver is listed as a 600x300dpi one whereas all the rest are 300x300dpi. [Other models like the 680C/682C should work also.] --Epson LQ 24-pin Dot Matrix (or Canon Ink-Jet)-- Epson LQ (Epson LQ drivers work with Canon BJ models for Epson LQ 4000 hi-res 360dpi printing. Some older models have Epson LQ 800 dip switches that must be set to enable automatic Epson emulation -> for example, the BJ-200e requires DIP switch 12 to be set to ON. The printer manual should say what to do for the specific model. BJ-10e, BJ 100, BJ-200, BJ-210, BJ-4100, and BJ-600 models also list Epson LQ emulation and should work with one or more of these drivers.) --Epson 9-pin Dot Matrix-- Epson MX 80 --HP LaserJet laser Printers-- LaserJet LaserJetIIP LaserJet III (Newer LaserJet models also work with these drivers as are any HP compatible laser printers) --Misc. Dot Matrix Printers-- Okimate 20 Panasonic 1124 Pinwriter --Misc. Ink-Jet-- HP PaintJet QuadJet Gareth Jones adds the following from his list on his Harmonie 2.11 disk: -- Apple Dot Matrix Printers-- ImageWriter LQII ImageWriter II I'd like to get a list of all printers that are 1) officially supported by Harmonie/Independence, 2) not officially listed, but a driver exists that works well with them and 3) don't work at all with Apple IIs. Given that I have neither the time nor the money to test every printer on the market, I'd appreciate feedback sent to me at nathan@visi.com. 4.7 Can I add more memory to my Apple II? A: Yes. The hard part is getting machines before the GS to recognize all of it. The Apple ][ and ][+ have a practical limit of about 64K, which is accomplished by the 16K language card in slot 0. [Some accelerators provided 128K, as well as some very old ram cards, but I don't have any real info on that.] The //e had the widest variety of memory expansion options. The AUX slot used for 80-column cards could also handle memory expansion-- Apple's own Extended 80-column card provided an extra 64K of memory. Other cards in that slot could reportedly add several megs of memory. There were also RAM cards for slots 1-7, the so-called 'slinky' cards, also capable of adding a meg or more. Most of these cards are only available used, but Sequential Systems is still making and selling a 1MB //e RAM card. Later models of the Apple //c had an internal memory expansion port, which RAM 'cards' could be added internally-- see the section on Apple //cs for how to determine if a //c could have RAM added. Such RAM cards are only available used; Sequential used to make one, but it's not listed anymore on their WWW page. The problem with adding extra RAM to Apple IIs (before the GS) is that not much software would take advantage of it at all. Only a few programs like Appleworks had any form of support-- versions 1.x or 2.x needed to be patched to recognize more memory, 3.0 and up could use an externally supplied file. [To get the patch or the file, see the disks that came with the RAM card.] Applesoft and Integer Basic, most games, and the like don't care about any RAM beyond the 48-128K they require to run. The GS, due to its processor design, can directly address up to 16MB of memory (about 2MB is reserved in the GS's design for ROM), though RAM cards only go up to 8MB in a ROM 01 and 7MB in a ROM 3. [The 1MB on the ROM 3's motherboard reduces the RAM card's range] Sequential Systems and Alltech Electronics still sell 2-8MB RAM boards for the GS; there were also lots of other manufacturers. Although SIMMs are now dirt cheap, there are only a few SIMM based GS RAM boards-- you'll probably have to buy a card using some other form of RAM. Going to 7 or 8 MB of RAM on a GS is not always recommended. A number of devices cannot handle DMA (Direct Memory Access, used to speed Hard Drive cards and accelerators) past the first 4MB of RAM, so you may take a performance hit. The GS can also have //e 'slinky' cards plugged in, but aside from Appleworks and ramdisk support, the memory on these boards is NOT available to GS programs. This is because they are accessed via slots 1-7 manually, one byte at a time in sequential order, while the 65816 wants program RAM to be directly accessible in random order. It would require rewriting a program to address slinky cards from a GS, and as the numbers of those are extremely limited, no real support for them was ever widespread. 4.8 Can I accelerate my Apple II? A: Yes. Over the years, many accelerators were produced for the varios models in the Apple II series. Most of these were slot-based cards, though the ZipChip (4 and 8 Mhz models) and RocketChip (5 and 10 Mhz models) were drop-in processor replacements. For the GS, the Transwarp GS and the Zip GS were the only options; Ego Systems still sells 8Mhz Zip GSs. [I don't know of anyplace selling non-GS accelerators new; you'll probably have to look for one used.] A separate FAQ for upgrading ZIP GS or TransWarp GS accelerators is available at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/zip.html. For only a few dollars, you can buy a faster 65C02/65816 from an electronics parts catalog. However, this most likely won't do you a bit of good without an ungradeable accelerator card. This is because the Apple II's system bus runs at 1Mhz, and provides a 1Mhz signal to the processor socket. The processor derives its timing off that signal; running it at a speed under what it's rated at is perfectly safe and legal. Accelerator cards or chips provide their own oscillator at a faster speed, plus the logic necessary for a chip to interface with the slower 1Mhz bus. 4.9 What are the pinouts for all the various Apple II connectors? A: While these pinouts are a little too big to include in this FAQ outright, you can still find them in the same place on the WWW as this FAQ, in Nathan Mates's set of Apple II Resources. The pinouts page is available at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/pinouts.html. 4.10 Can I hook up a scanner up to my //e or IIGS? Can it do OCR? A: Yes and Yes. (OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition -- the ability to convert a scan into text) Just pick up a Quickie scanner (by Vitesse) and InWords (by WestCode Software). You can scan 4" columns (you must have 512K to 1 Meg) and can even paste them together to make 8" scans. Then you can use InWords to "read" text and put it into a text file or AppleWorks Word Processor file. Apple put partially completed support for a few Apple flatbed scanners onto the System 6.0 Golden Master CD, but the test program for it could not save a scan to a file. No programs support various popular TWAIN-compliant scanners such as those from HP. 4.11 Can a Disk ][ be used on a GS smartport? A: Yes. Contact Jameco Electronics (http://www.jameco.com, phone: 1-800-831-4242) S20 PIN HEADER TO DB19-PIN CONNECTOR MODULE ADAPTS II/II+ DRIVES FOR APPLE IIC. PART NO: 10022 PRODUCT NO.: AAM APPLE IIC ADAPTER $3.95 If you don't mind some soldering, you can make this cable up yourself. Take a look at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/diskiicable.html 4.12 I want a Y-adapter for my GS keyboard. A: Redmond Cable has an ADB Y-connector cable for separating your mouse from the side of your keyboard (also can be used to work around a failing ADB port on the keyboard). See the 'Resources' section of this FAQ. 4.13 How about hooking up cheap IDE Hard Drives? A: There's a card called the Turbo IDE, does DMA, and is apparently as fast as a RamFAST SCSI card. See http://users.ids.net/~kerwood/shh.html, or contact jlange@tasha.muc.de for details like technical specs, pricing, and S/H procedure. The first revisions of the Turbo IDE controller's ROM supported only 256MB of capacity on a single drive. With IDE HDs now being sold at ten times that capacity, you may have to do some hunting to find drives that small. 4.14 Can an Apple II connect to a SCSI device? SCSI is a protocol (method of transmitting data) that lets you hook up to 8 SCSI devices on a SCSI bus (SCSI devices connected together). There are Hard Drives, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, scanners, and more available as SCSI devices. To get SCSI on an Apple II, you need to buy and install a SCSI card. (//cs and IIc+s have no native SCSI cards, but Chinook (later bought out by Sequential) made a Smartport capable drive as your only choice for HDs). At first, there was the Apple Rev 'C' SCSI card (named after the final ROM version--all previous versions MUST be upgraded to work with current software). There were several clones from the likes of CMS and Chinook. Then Apple came out with it's High Speed DMA SCSI card. This has the ability to do Direct Memory Access to the RAM in your computer, which speeds things up. This created a lot of problems with cards that were not DMA compatible. CV Technologies (bought out by Sequential Systems) also has a DMA SCSI card called the RamFast. This card has 256K or 1MB of on-board RAM to make it even faster than Apple's card. It can also supply terminator power if you drive does not supply it. Both of the new cards support things like SCSI tape backup units, removable SCSI drives, SCSI CD-ROM, and of course SCSI hard drives. Both the new cards also require an Enhanced //e. RamFasts have had their ROM upgraded many times; you may want to look into getting the latest if you have removable devices such as Flopticals, CD-Roms, Zip Disks, and tape drives. Most fixed and removable SCSI disks can be connected to Apple IIs with the addition of a SCSI card. People have used Zip, Syquests, Bernoulli, CD-ROMs, Floptical devices. With older revisions of the SCSI cards, they may NOT recognize them as removable devices, leading to crashes and/or data corruption if you switch removable disks with the computer on. Most SCSI HDs can also be used, but certain SCSI II devices that insist that the SCSI card have a SCSI ID (the Quantum Fireball seems to be one of the main culprits) won't work with at least the RamFAST 3.01f ROM version and possibly others. There are separate mini-FAQs for connecting Floptical and CD-ROM devices; you may view them at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/floptical.html and http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/cdrom.html You must manually give each device it's own unique ID number from 0-7. The SCSI card is usually set to 7. On a SCSI chain, there must be a Terminator (a bunch of resistors) at each end. Some drives have internal terminators (3 small yellow-orange packs) that can be switched on and off, and some drives come with an external terminator (a "plug" to put on the back of the drive). Nothing other than the ends of the chain should be terminated. Also, somebody on the bus must supply terminator power (one of the SCSI lines). If There are any problems (multiple things with the same ID, too much termination or not enough, or no terminator power), you may be able to use the drive, but your data will get corrupted. Most of the time, the computer will refuse to recognize the drive. There are two types of SCSI cables: the 50 pin Centronics-type (like on parallel printers) or the 25-pin "D" connector. The 50-pin is the SCSI standard, the 25-pin is the Apple standard. There are also cables with the 50-pin centronics connector on one side and the 25 pin "D" connector on the other. 4.15 Tips on setting up a SCSI system: * You can have multiple drives on one SCSI card, just make sure you remove the termination on all the drives but the last one. This is because the newer SCSI cards are terminated (and they count as a SCSI device). * Always check that the cords are plugged in properly. Never connect/disconnect anything when the computer is on. * SCSI ID numbers 0 and 7 tend to have special meanings; the Apple High Speed SCSI displays multiple copies of partitions online if a drive has that ID. Use 1-6 instead. * The computer will boot the hard drive with the highest SCSI ID, which should be ID 6. * Try letting the drive 'warm up' for 15 seconds before turning the computer on. The SCSI cards look for drives only at startup, and may ignore any drives that are not ready. * Try turning off DMA. If this helps, you may have a non-DMA compatible card, such as the early versions of the TransWarp, early versions of the GS RAM, or any 8-bit accelerator. Alternately, try setting up a RAM disk for all but 4 MB. Some RAM cards can only do DMA in the first bank. * Check that each device has a unique ID. Most drives have a thumbwheel on the back to set the ID. Your SCSI card (yes, it counts too) is probably ID 7. Number your drives from 6 downwards for best compatibility. The IDs have nothing to do with what slot the card is in. * Is there a terminator at each end of the SCSI bus? (the DMA cards are terminated, and some drives are internally terminated.) * Try the software that came with the card. It may give helpful diagnostic messages (I.E. the Apple DMA SCSI utilities-- Does it say "No Apple SCSI card found" or "No SCSI devices found"?) * RamFast boards have gone through many ROM revisions. The latest is 3.01f; if you want to use any removable disks (Zip/Syquest disks, CD-Roms, Flopticals, tape backups), you should contact Sequential Systems (see above for address) to purchase a ROM upgrade for your board. * Do you get the message "Unable to Load ProDOS"? If so, it's booting your drive but you have no system software on it. Try hitting Control-Reset, then PR#5 (or PR#6) to boot a floppy. Then install the system software (i.e. ProDOS or GS/OS). * In extreme cases, try reformatting the drive, repartitioning, and re-installing the System software. * If the drive access light blinks in a regular pattern before the computer is turned on, it is telling you that it has a hardware malfunction. It needs to be serviced. * Did you try re-installing the System software? Many times, the data on a drive will get corrupted if you run the drive with improper terminators or conflicting SCSI ID's. Sometimes you will not notice the corrupted data until after you fix the problem. If re-installing the System software helps, it was probably a software problem, not a hardware problem. * The Apple HS DMA SCSI card requires an Enhanced //e. It will not work on the older //e without an Enhancement Kit. * To really put a drive through it's paces, copy a LOT of stuff from one partition to another (copy the entire partition if you can). If there is a problem with DMA or SCSI ID's, it will probably show up as a strange GS/OS error. (GS only) * Make sure you do not have the Apple SCSI drivers installed if you have a RamFast. It may cause random problems (they leave an interrupt handler dangling if they can't find their card.) (GS only) * Make sure you are booting the right slot. If the card is in slot 7, you can set the startup slot to Scan or 7. (GS only) * If you boot up and only 1 partition shows up, you need to install the SCSI drivers. (GS only) * If you boot up and it says "Drive XXX is already on the desktop" over and over: Probably a SCSI ID problem. (GS only) * If you add a CD-ROM, drivers are availiable from Trantor Systems LTD, 5415 Randall Place, Fremont, CA 94538 (415)770-1400 (GS only) * At least one device must supply terminator power to the bus (Pin 26). The Apple Cards do not supply this, and some drives don't either. Result: The drive won't be seen by any software. * Some CMS Platinum drives had pin 40 disconnected for obscure Mac compatibility reasons. This can cause problems with the Apple IIs. * Make sure you use the drivers from GS/OS, and not the ones that ship with the Apple HS SCSI card. (Doesn't apply to RamFast). * To low-level format an AE Vulcan drive, go into PART.MANAGER, move the highlight to "format" and type "AE". Then say yes to all the prompts. 4.16 What about internal Hard Drives? There were a few models of internal HDs made for Apple IIs over the years. Applied Engineering's Vulcan and Applied Ingenuity's InnerDrive were both power supply replacements that had the HD in the power supply and a cable running off to a card in one of the slots. These tended to fail a lot; to low-level format an AE Vulcan drive, go into PART.MANAGER, move the highlight to "format" and type "AE". Then say yes to all the prompts. Alltech Electronics is currently manufacturing their 'Focus' line of internal hard drive cards, which is a HD (20, 120, 200MB sizes appear to be available) on a card will all of the necessary interface on the card. Contact them for drive sizes and pricing. _________________________________________________________________ Email suggestions to nathan@visi.com. As always, let me know of any mistakes, updates, corrections, additions, etc. There are a lot more questions with answers not included directly in this FAQ; please see http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq for more of them. Copyright 1997 by Nathan Mates ( Nathan Mates) --- End Part 2 of 4 -- <*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/ <*> # What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_? # Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors # think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? -R.A. Heinlein