Basement-find Apple ][ + problems

Hi...i recently dug out an Apple ][ + from the basement. It includes a green monitor, dual disk drives, and printer. I’m hoping to find advice (for sure) and buy parts (if needed) from people who have one or both to spare.

Plugged it in and started right up...even ran for a half hour before the power supply fried in an exciting cloud of sparks, smoke, and stink. Through the wonders of the web, i learned about and replaced a bad capacitor and ps seems to be ok. Good reminder not to leave old electronics on and unattended.

Cards installed on mobo:

Microtek Bam 16 slot 0

APL board (printer) slot 1

Hayes MicroModem slot 2

Videx 80 column card slot 3

Mockingboard Sound/speech card slot 4

Floppy controller slot 5

Also: Sup ‘R’ Mod TV interface module on the right side of the case

The video output from the mobo seems ok, but i want to run a Wordstar disk in order to look at some old letters, and when i boot from that disk get an error message that says i need z-80 softcard---which is installed, so something’s wrong.

There’s also a small Videx pc board on mobo that has a 2-wire jumper to the Videx 80 column card. This seems to be a Videx Soft Video Switch (as per http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ftp.apple.asimov.net/documentation/hardware/video/videx_soft_video_switch_manual.pdf )

One side of the small videx board has 2 wires (3 pins not used) badly connected to a female RCA cable (with a loose knot for strain relief); the other side of the small board has 4-pins that match an unused connector from the tv card.

The removable case cover says “videx” on it, has a row of (so far non-working) lights parallel to the keyboard, and has a plug-in/out ribbon cable that has to be disconnected to fully remove the cover. Is this videx cover important for anything?

Back to the 80 column card problem (i don’t know beans about Apples, i’m afraid): [1] the monitor input i found is an RCA cable from the mobo; using it, i get the ‘can’t find z80 softcard’ message, but a couple of games i tried work; [2] if i connect the 2 wires from the videx slot-4 card to the small videx card in the mobo, i get no video output (solid green screen) or error message when i try to boot with the Wordstar disk; [3] if i connect the 4-pin xor between the small videx board and the tv module i get a more flickery solid green screen, no error message.

All of the jumper connections are flaky, but show continuity with an ohmmeter, and wiggling them doesn’t make any visible change in the monitor.

I’ve looked at more detailed Videx documentation [http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ftp.apple.asimov.net/documentation/hardware/video/Videx%20Videoterm%20-%20Installation%20and%20Operation%20Manual.pdf] but don’t understand it.

I apologize for the confused and confusing description; hope the pix (if i can figure out how to attach them) are more informative.

Suggestions?

Two additional smaller problems: (1) the “0” key is intermittent; contact cleaner spray didn’t help (2) the “rpt” key is broken off; i’ll try to glue it back if no one has a better idea.

Thanks for reading this.