This Can't Be Normal

[ThisPostContainsComputers]

Alright...

I few months ago I got my hands on a Profile interface card for my Apple /// and it is doing odd things. When I boot up the computer it goes into the ram check automatically (I did some reading and it is because the lamp on my computer keyboard is burnt out) and always comes up with no ram errors. I can just press Control-Reset and the computer boots the disk in the drive and proceeds to function normally. What is odd is when I plug in the Profile card it will go through 1 ram check, tell me everything is ok, then repeat it and I get slammed with half the chart filled up with inverse "1"s indicating that there are ram errors and then the computer locks up and crashes. This will happen with the Profile drive plugged in but not on, not plugged in, and plugged in but on. If I do Control-Reset and allow it to boot a disk before that second check the computer will act normally and there will be no more crashes. I have not been able to communicate with the Profile drive either through that could be since I didn't get a whole lot of time to mess with the drive as 30 minutes into trying to test it I hear a loud crack and the "magic smoke" comes pouring out of my profile drive :stern:.

So basically, Is the profile card acting normally and if it isn't how should I go about fixing it?

On a side note when I got my Apple /// it came with the Disk II (S/N ~2300) drive with a Disk /// connector, I tested it and it functions normally with my Apple ///, even formatting and reading some disks. Is this an actual Apple product or some crazy mod to a Disk II?

Thanks!

 

[david__schmidt]

What is odd is when I plug in the Profile card it will go through 1 ram check, tell me everything is ok, then repeat it and I get slammed with half the chart filled up with inverse "1"s indicating that there are ram errors and then the computer locks up and crashes.

It sounds like you want to get the cleaned up; for sure the lamp is an issue, but make sure nothing else is wrong once that gets fixed.

I have not been able to communicate with the Profile drive either through that could be since I didn't get a whole lot of time to mess with the drive as 30 minutes into trying to test it I hear a loud crack and the "magic smoke" comes pouring out of my profile drive :stern:.

That was likely the filter capacitor on your ProFile drive's power supply; not likely fatal, and will probably work in spite of it.

So basically, Is the profile card acting normally and if it isn't how should I go about fixing it?

There's so much going on here... I'm not sure it's the fault of the card.

On a side note when I got my Apple /// it came with the Disk II (S/N ~2300) drive with a Disk /// connector, I tested it and it functions normally with my Apple ///, even formatting and reading some disks. Is this an actual Apple product or some crazy mod to a Disk II?

The early "external" drives came out that way; I've got one too. In the universe of all external Disk /// drives (of which there's not millions anyway), they're not all that uncommon.

 

[ThisPostContainsComputers]

That was likely the filter capacitor on your ProFile drive's power supply; not likely fatal, and will probably work in spite of it.

I was thinking it was a filter cap, I have already had to replace one on the Apple /// itself. I also have a extra Profile drive I can use but it is not in very great condition.

It sounds like you want to get the cleaned up; for sure the lamp is an issue, but make sure nothing else is wrong once that gets fixed.

I can try to replace the lamp (I think I saw some on Ebay a while ago). I just thought it was kinda concerning that I am getting a bunch of RAM errors from putting the card in.

The early "external" drives came out that way; I've got one too. In the universe of all external Disk /// drives (of which there's not millions anyway), they're not all that uncommon.

Thanks for clearing that up, I'm not a expert on Apple /// things and I was not able to find very much on the disk drives online