Appli-Card on enhanced Apple IIe

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BillO's picture
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Appli-Card on enhanced Apple IIe

This seems not to be working.  It's been a while since I brought up CP/M on either of my Apple IIe and I think it had the 'enhanced' upgrade done since that time.  Now on both of my enhanced Apple IIe machine the Appli-Card no longer works.  Is this a known compatibility issue or has mu Appli-Card gone south (so to speak)?

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There is a bug in the

There is a bug in the Applicard which is known to kill the MMU in a //e under certain circumstances.

 

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I never knew that, I'll be

I never knew that, I'll be sure to only test the ones I have here in a 2+

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Petar Puskarich and Ian Kim

Petar Puskarich and Ian Kim on the Facebook Apple II Enthusiasts group could fill you in on the details of the bug.

 

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I bought an Applicard DOA and

I bought an Applicard DOA and needed to replace the Z80 chip . It works on my enhanced //e just fine. Make sure it's a Z80B for 6MHz

 

Larry G

 

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It does have a Z-80B in it.

It does have a Z-80B in it.

The symptoms are, when booted with the CP/M disk the disk is read, then the system resets again.  This will just loop indefinitely.  The same thing happens on two different machines.  I tried un-enhancing one of the machines, but the same thing occurred.  Both machines work just fine with Prodos, so the MMUs are not the issue.

It could be a bad CP/M disk.  I'll try making another at some point to see if this clears things up.

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Are you sure it is the right

Are you sure it is the right CP/M disk?  I don't think the one for Microsoft Softcard and compatible cards will work with an Applicard.

 

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yes it has to be cp/m for the

yes it has to be cp/m for the Applicard not SoftCard. The symptom of a dead AppliCard is the Applicard cp/m boot disk keeps rebooting like you're seeing.

 

Larry G

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Yes, it's the CP/M for the

Yeah, it's the CP/M for the Applicard alright.  As I said, it had worked just fine before.

 

So, at this point I've tried everything I can without starting to replace chips on the Applicard, including making a new CP/M disck, trying different Aplle IIes, de-enhancing, and re-seating all the chips on the Applicard.   I'll find anopther Z80 and try that out.

 

Weird how stuff like this can just happed out of the blue.

 

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I keep a large assortment of

I keep a large assortment of 74*** chips on hand for just such an occasion.  (said in my best "Foghorn Leghorn" voice).

 

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Here was another confirmed

Here was another confirmed case of bad Z80 on an Applicard from last summer:

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?64332-Appli-Card-(Z80-Card)-disk-images-Apple-IIE&highlight=applicard

 

Larry G

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retrogear wrote:Here was

[quote=retrogear]

Here was another confirmed case of bad Z80 on an Applicard from last summer:

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?64332-Appli-Card-(Z80-Card)-disk-images-Apple-IIE&highlight=applicard

 

Larry G

[/quote]

 

Those are exactly the same symptoms I'm having.

 

A new Z80 will be on the way shortly.

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I finally received the new

I finally received the new Z80s last night.  That took a loooooong time, considering they came from the UK to Canada.  Normally only about 1 week – not 3.

 

Anyway, popped a new one in just a minute ago and everything is hunky-dory now.  It was the Z80 that was the issue.

 

Now my question would be - why would a Z80 ever die?  I have never had this happen to any other CPU - ever!  Not 8080s or 6502s (and it’s derivatives) or 6800s or 1802s or anything else.  Does the Z80 have flaws?  Is the Appli-card doing something funky?

 

I’m just not used to the concept of a chip like a CPU failing.  It’s not like they should be under physical/electrical stress.

 

Weird.

 

Oh, and I really hate this new forum software.  Why did the admins go with this?  It's just awful!

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Dead Microprocessors

[quote=BillO]

Oh, and I really hate this new forum software.  Why did the admins go with this?  It's just awful!

 

[/quote]

 

But we LOVE it !  <grin>

 

Regarding those dead Microprocessor chips... If you see enough of them, you're bound to see a few dead ones from time to time.

Memory & TTL chips, all the same.  Sometimes "time" alone is the killer.  I can only guess that with temperature variences, expansion and contraction of the materials that make up the chip and impurities during manufacturing all contribute to these flaws.  I suppose that if the legs can rott off by simply sitting in carbonized foam, pretty-much anything can happen.  Maybe that's why Ceramic chips usually hold up better to extreme environments.

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I've run into dead or dying

I've run into dead or dying 6502s a few times. Any chip can fail

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Dead or dying 6502?

Dead or dying 6502?

 

Hah!  Never!

 

I've blown up 1 or 2, but never seen one roll over and die.  Even some of my own wonky designs have been tooting along for the best part of 40 years now.  In fact I just designed 2 new 6502 systems in 2018.  I must have had more than 120 6502/6507/ 65C02/ WDC65C02 processors go by under my eyes since 1978 or so without a single un-forced demise.  Of course, it could be that I'm lucky that way.  Lord knows I have a dearth enough of luck in my life.

 

I am that guy that gets to the end of his driveway every day and has to wait for 3 cars to go by before puling out onto the road ... the only thing is I live out in the woods  and have about 5 cars total pass my driveway each day :-(

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