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Apple IIc+ problem

phogren

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
582
Location
Eagle River, WI
I recently bought a IIc+ from a very reliable source. The first floppy drive was NFG by a bent upper head bracket (I never pulled a disk out of it so I don't know how it got bent). The seller sent me a new floppy drive. It won't boot with that drive so I tried 2 other comparable drives (with the extra motor that ejects the disks) but the same result with all of them. I can boot it with an Apple floppy that does not have that motor and it boots fine. I tried an external 3.5 drive but the same problem.
I checked the power supply and the voltages make no significant drop when booting.
With the "extra motor drives" It boots to the second screen and then freezes. With the non extra motor drive it goes through all the normal boot process and boots normally.
any suggestions?
 
I recently bought a IIc+ from a very reliable source. The first floppy drive was NFG by a bent upper head bracket (I never pulled a disk out of it so I don't know how it got bent). The seller sent me a new floppy drive. It won't boot with that drive so I tried 2 other comparable drives (with the extra motor that ejects the disks) but the same result with all of them. I can boot it with an Apple floppy that does not have that motor and it boots fine. I tried an external 3.5 drive but the same problem.
I checked the power supply and the voltages make no significant drop when booting.
With the "extra motor drives" It boots to the second screen and then freezes. With the non extra motor drive it goes through all the normal boot process and boots normally.
any suggestions?
I don't know what you mean by "extra motor drive", all the compatible auto-inject drives are the same design, all I can figure is you might be trying a later mid-90's manual-inject 1.44m macintosh drive, which I don't think will work, certainly wont work well. I know a few years back Tony Diaz did a KansasFest session (video on youtube) on fixing the drives (including bent head arm), the video is a MUST watch for anyone working with vintage apple's and relying on floppy drives.
 
I understand about the 1.4 drives. But the 800K drives that will eject electrically have an extra motor also that I have always assumed was to eject the disk. Not sure what other purpose it would have.
I bit the bullet and with tremendous fear tried a 3.5 drive from my IIgs. It worked! So apparently all the drives I was trying were NFG including the one I was sent , oh well.
Thanks for the link to the video. Maybe by watching it I will be able to fix one of the drives.
 
I understand about the 1.4 drives. But the 800K drives that will eject electrically have an extra motor also that I have always assumed was to eject the disk. Not sure what other purpose it would have.
I bit the bullet and with tremendous fear tried a 3.5 drive from my IIgs. It worked! So apparently all the drives I was trying were NFG including the one I was sent , oh well.
Thanks for the link to the video. Maybe by watching it I will be able to fix one of the drives.

ALL of Apples 800k drives were electric eject, they did not make a manual eject 3.5, if you have a manual eject 800k its aftermarket, with that said, ALL of them have the manual EMERGENCY eject lever, but you shouldn't be using that normally though, on an Apple II those drives should electrically eject via the button.

The 3.5 unidisk and plain 3.5 drive from a IIgs should all work just fine with a IIc+, but you should watch that video to learn to clean and lube it, because ALL of them will have drying up grease and will need service sooner or later, if the lube drys up it can cause poor movement of the mechanism, which in turn can strip the teeth off the eject gears, and that is bad. That video gives A LOT of GREAT info on the apple drives, certainly a must watch for vintage apples of any kind.
 
A little offtopic but where could I find //c+ schematics? It is known to be in "Apple IIc Technical Reference Manual, Second Edition" but this manual is not available easily ;(
 
I don't exactly remember the issue, but I recall you can have an issue with the IIc+ not booting off an external 5.25" drive but I can't remember if it's because of the order of operations and drive or the drive numbering. I think it was a unique IIc+ issue that the IIc didn't have though. IIRC you had to disconnect the internal drive to get it to work.
 
Not sure what versions these are over at 1000bit.it. You probably already found Applelogic seems to have (or had?) the manual but their link is accidentally pointing to the Apple III manual. Perhaps contacting them they might have it and correct the link unless you can guess it :)
 
I believe that the second edition came out in 1987:

Apple IIC Technical Reference Manual, New York: Addison-Wesley, 1987 ( ISBN 0-201-17752-8 )

smp
 
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