Apple II

Apple II disk drive cable clamp - add 2nd screw, won't power up?!

Submitted by Juve101 on April 3, 2026 - 9:01pm

My Apple IIe has two Disk II drive cables, each secured to the back panel with a U-shaped clamp and a single screw. The clamp has two screw holes with captive nuts, but only one screw was installed (on the open end of the U I believe, didn't quite look). Figuring the second screw was just missing, I added one to the closed end, and the computer wouldn't power up at all. Removed it, powers up fine. Repeatable.

I must have shorted something with the 2nd screw. Has anyone else run into this? Is a single screw actually the intended installation, despite the clamp having two holes?

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Apple II

Dead //e Platinum

Submitted by Sarnian on April 3, 2026 - 8:30pm

Hi 

Have been running my //e Platinum for a few months since giving it a good clean and after about an hour last night the program I was running crashed, thought nothing of it, turn it off and went to bed. Turning it on today all I got was garbage on screen and no beeb.

1. Any thoughts on how to fix?

2. Can someone point me to a Platinum schematic pdf?

Thanks

Robert 

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Apple II

Disk ][ erasing disks on read

Submitted by okto on April 1, 2026 - 3:36pm

I've read that this is a common problem when the 74LS125 goes, and mine was so fried it blew a hole in the case such that you could see the die. I replaced it with a brand-new part, and the behavior has not changed.  

C4 is not visually damaged and is not a dead short. None of the legs on Q2 are shorted. The drive reads okay until it tries to read a track it has already passed over (and thus erased).

All the pins on the head connector are a dead DC short; is this normal? 

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Apple II

Apple IIgs (Unearthed), Keyboard (Not Working), Battery (Exploded)

Submitted by zsthompson1 on March 31, 2026 - 5:05pm
Hello. I recently unearthed my family's old Apple IIGS from the basement. I'm trying to get everything up and running to bring it to my classroom (I run a middle-school makerspace). It has all worked except for the keyboard and the mouse. I took a look at the motherboard to discover that the battery had exploded at some point in the last 35ish years. I'm not sure whether that is what's causing the keyboard not to work. I could use some advice on what to try.
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Apple II

Apple II DuoDisk - Connecting to Classic Disk ][ Interface Card

Submitted by SQ9PXB on March 31, 2026 - 3:14am

Hi,

While browsing various forums, I've noticed that people are having trouble connecting a DuoDisk to a Disk ][ card with two IDC20 connectors. Below is a diagram of such a cable (without the DB19 connectors). It's a direct connection from the DB25 to the two IDC20 connectors. Everything works and has been tested. The DB25 pinout is as described on the connector, but pay particular attention to the correct IDC20 pin assignment.

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Apple II

FujiNet Create New Disk now automaticlally creates filesystem.

Submitted by Thomas Cherryhomes on March 30, 2026 - 10:00pm

The latest nightly builds of #Apple2 #FujiNet have improved the New disk feature, by automatically placing a ProDOS or DOS 3.3 filesystem on the newly created disk image, as shown here.

https://youtu.be/re2RXZBS7PU

#retrocomputing

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Apple II

How did various accelerators handle accessing the FDD?

Submitted by gregor on March 30, 2026 - 9:17am

I have a question. How did various accelerators handle accessing the FDD?

Did they adapt to the DISK II's clock speed, utilize the 6502's main processor, or did they disable it?

 

 

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Apple II

FujiNet NGET and NPUT tools show what's possible, can we do better?

Submitted by Thomas Cherryhomes on March 29, 2026 - 6:53pm

FujiNet has tools like NGET and NPUT to move stuff between an #apple2, and any network endpoint. But I have consistently tried to ask, what could make the experience more integrated?

-Thom

 

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Apple II

FujiNet NGET and NPUT tools show what's possible, can we do better?

Submitted by Thomas Cherryhomes on March 29, 2026 - 6:51pm

FujiNet has tools like NGET and NPUT to move stuff between an #apple2, and any network endpoint. But I have consistently tried to ask, what could make the experience more integrated?

-Thom

 

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Apple II

Need help troubleshooting IIc keyboard

Submitted by superbenk on March 29, 2026 - 6:06pm

I have a IIc that is perfectly functional except for the space key.  I've done everything I can think of to troubleshoot but I can't figure out what's wrong.  

 

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Apple II

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