Howdy friends:
I recently had a new friend come to live with us, an Apple IIc Plus. The machine is in pristine condition and was used very little.
I have had success connecting it to ADTPro and began formating 3.5" floppies, some true 800k floppies and others HD floppies with the hole covered.
I have had some odd behaviors and could use some advice.
1) Everything boots properly with a system disk, etc BUT, if you switch it off and switch it back on without waiting a couple minutes, the screen is filled with random characters and even bts of what was on the screen before shut off. I am guessing things are still in RAM. Is this normal or am I looking at the beginnings of bad RAM?
2) I tried loading CPM on the Apple IIc Plus. I am guessing it does not have Z80 compatibility out of the box. Saw a youtube video talking about a Z-RAM Ultra 3 card. Anyone have any experience with these or any info on their availability? eBay was a bust.
One fun aside, I ordered a floppy adapter from a2heaven.com. Unsing an Apple II floppy drive with the machine---> fun. :-)
Cheers,
mark
First off - STOP USING THOSE HD DISKETTES! The drive in the //c+ is not compatible with those (and covering the hole does not make them work).
As for the "phantom RAM" issue, most //c's and some //c+'s show this behavior. Apple specifically says to leave the machine off for at least 30 seconds. And some need even more time after all these years. You can avoid this by either holding down the Open-Apple key when turning on or check out the ROMXc+. It will fix this along with adding a real-time clock, multiple ROM images, and more.
The computer does not come with a Z-80 for running CP/M but there are add-in cards to allow this. You might also want to look at the FujiNet device; it can offer CP/M and other features using an external device that plugs on the back of the computer.
No Apple has CP/M compatibility without a Z80 card such as the Microsoft SoftCard or the PCPI Appli-Card. Some clones, however, did have an onboard Z80 (and usually no Slot 4, where the separate SoftCard would have been installed).
It's normal to have to wait a few seconds before turning an Apple II back on to ensure that firmware detects a cold-start. A couple minutes is too long; there may be a problem with the POR circuit (555 timer) or firmware. What happens if you press Control-Reset?
Why shouldn't I use the HD floppies?? They work. I have had fine success with them. It shouldn't be a risk to the physical well being of the drive.
I am most interested to understand what issue they pose. If its potential data loss.......meh......I can re-write the disk with ADTPro if it fails.
Just curious as you appear to feel very strongly about that.
Cheers,
mark
Control reset works great. No issues.
Glad to hear this is normal behavior. I had not seen this with my II+ or IIe so I wasn't sure what was up.
Thanks all for the reassurance.
Cheers,
mark
The advice against using HD floppies in non-HD drives (5.25" or 3.5") is well documented. Yes they might work for a while but they will not be reliable. If you can live with that, then feel free to go ahead. The problem is that the media inside these diskettes is made from different materials which have a higher magnetic coercivity which, in turn requires a larger writing current. You can google this if you want or read this.
FYI - If you do use the HD disks there's no need to cover the HD hole; the Apple //c+ drive does not even have a sensor to detect it.
The difference in coercivity is small (660 Oersteds for double density vs. 720 Oersteds for high density), but it may cause problems with incomplete erasure of data when overwriting a floppy disk previously used in a high density machine. The magnetic coating is also half as thick with high density disks, causing a weaker signal when they are read.
I think the advice is not to use them for archival purposes, but no floppy disk is really suited to data archival at all.
Thank you all for the info and the education. Much appreciated. I will use what DSDD floppies I have and keep an eye out on eBay for a deal on more. Its sad, mainly b/c I have a metric ton of HD floppies. :-(
Thanks again for helping me understand the specifics.
Cheers,
mark