Old Computers
Veteran Member
I recently acquired an Apple II plus with a few cards.
When I proceeded to power it up, the display was all ?'s and it kept beeping. The pattern of beeping was the typical start up beep, then several beeps very close together (it almost sounded like a continuous tone), and then it would repeat.
I have tried all of the basic troubleshooting: checking voltages from the PSU, removing the cards, and reseating the chips. The PSU voltages checked out fine, but removing the cards and reseating the chips did not help solve the problem. I also swapped around the banks of RAM chips to see if there may have been a bad RAM chip.
I do believe that there must be some activity going on because the computer does respond when I press reset. When I hold it, no sound comes from the speaker, and when I release it the pattern starts up again, so it seems to respond to the reset. Although there is no change on the screen. Pressing any other keys did not have any noticeable effects.
At one point I did manage to get the system to stop beeping. The ROM in slot ROM-F8 was not inserted all the way, but was making contact with the socket. The screen was still filled with ?'s, but the system only beeped when I pressed the reset button. The keyboard would also not respond. It only did this for a little bit, then the problem manifested itself again.
Searching the internet produced very little information to help me solve this issue. What should my next step in troubleshooting be?
When I proceeded to power it up, the display was all ?'s and it kept beeping. The pattern of beeping was the typical start up beep, then several beeps very close together (it almost sounded like a continuous tone), and then it would repeat.
I have tried all of the basic troubleshooting: checking voltages from the PSU, removing the cards, and reseating the chips. The PSU voltages checked out fine, but removing the cards and reseating the chips did not help solve the problem. I also swapped around the banks of RAM chips to see if there may have been a bad RAM chip.
I do believe that there must be some activity going on because the computer does respond when I press reset. When I hold it, no sound comes from the speaker, and when I release it the pattern starts up again, so it seems to respond to the reset. Although there is no change on the screen. Pressing any other keys did not have any noticeable effects.
At one point I did manage to get the system to stop beeping. The ROM in slot ROM-F8 was not inserted all the way, but was making contact with the socket. The screen was still filled with ?'s, but the system only beeped when I pressed the reset button. The keyboard would also not respond. It only did this for a little bit, then the problem manifested itself again.
Searching the internet produced very little information to help me solve this issue. What should my next step in troubleshooting be?