aguyandhisappleii Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 Hi kind folks. I would have posted this on Applefritter forums but they never emailed me the registration steps. I just bought an Apple II (Model A2M001) that had not been used at all since 1980. It was manufactured February 1979 and had a ROM Card 600 when I bought it (literally picked it up just today). I do not have a disk drive or tape player with it. When I booted it up today, I got a screen with columns of As and ?s (sometimes this changes, but it at least mostly has As and ?s). It also boots to a monitor (*) prompt instead of the BASIC prompt and none of the keys do anything (except for the reset key). I am not sure what to do. I tried taking out the ROM card, pushing in chips that looked loose, and reconnecting the keyboard cable, and I am still having the same issues. I have attached a picture of the problem I'm having. I have no prior experience with Apple IIs and have never desoldered or soldered anything. Any ideas as to what's going on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 I forgot to mention that it does beep as normal when powering on and when I press reset Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Also this machine only has 16K RAM and is a regular Apple II (not II Plus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 I can't really help with the keyboard issue, but this is how an Apple II starts. It does not boot to BASIC and it shows a screen full of characters. If the keyboard worked, once you are at the monitor prompt, pressing Ctrl-B and then return would get you into Integer BASIC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 It’s just weird because it goes straight to that weird screen and doesn’t even say “APPLE ][” at the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 (edited) And to be very clear, it’s not like this screen only shows up for a second. All the weird characters stay on the screen and adds the star prompt at the bottom Edited November 3, 2022 by aguyandhisappleii Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick3092 Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 As Casey already said, that screen is normal. Original Apple IIs don't have an auto start rom (which looks for a disk and displays "Apple ][" until it finds one). They have a monitor rom, and the * prompt indicates you are now in the monitor. The screen you show is normal for an Apple II. It has nothing to do with your keyboard issues. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Okay this makes me feel a lot better. Thank you! Any suggestions on how to fix the keyboard issues? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 4, 2022 Author Share Posted November 4, 2022 UPDATE: My friend worked on it today (he has experience w/ electronics but not Apple IIs specifically), and now there is some response but it's still not totally working. What happens is that the Reset key now generates several underscore characters, and the Apple II will also sometimes "type" underscores by itself (as if it had a mind of its own) without me pressing any keys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 4, 2022 Author Share Posted November 4, 2022 Also any tips on how I can get the video to look less blue and yellow? I realize it could just be my TV but would like to see for sure what’s causing it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick3092 Posted November 4, 2022 Share Posted November 4, 2022 If your friend is good with electronics, have him look at the schematics to try and figure out what's wrong. There is a book out there I'm sure you can find the PDF of, called the Apple II circuit description. Looking at the schematics (and barring any mechanical issues), on the keyboard itself you have the encoder chip (probably the largest of them all), a 555 timer IC (this most likely only affects the repeat key), and what looks like a couple logic chips (these all start with 74LSxxx). If any of those are socketed, I'd start with taking them out and using a good contact cleaner on the pins and sockets. Make sure everything has had time to dry before powering up. In the mainboard, there are a few more chips involved in the input from the keyboard. If you look at the board, you'll notice letters on one side, and numbers on the other. Using those as a grid, check/clean the chips at c11, a12, a13, b10, b6, and b7. Keep in mind I really don't know these older apples. I just know a lot of time these chips when socketed can corrode and need a good cleaning. And I just looked at the schematics to see which chips are in the keyboard path to see which ones are most likely culprits. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted November 4, 2022 Share Posted November 4, 2022 Regarding the color fringes on the text characters, I believe an original Apple II just behaves that way because the original ROM doesn't disable the color burst signal when it is in text mode. Later revisions of the Apple II do that, as do all subsequent models. But the fringing colors show up on any of them when they are in graphics mode. Just an artifact of how the Apple displays colors. Apple was not alone on this. All of the home computers had this problem to some varying degree. My TI 99/4A, when displaying white characters on a black background, shows reds, blues and yellows on the edges of the characters, depending on where on the screen the character is. A monochrome monitor would not have that issue at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 6, 2022 Author Share Posted November 6, 2022 After reseating a few of the chips myself (I didn't reseat B6, B7, or A13, iirc) and reconnecting the keyboard cable (which turned out to be loose), I'm unfortunately back to where I started where none of the keys work except for the reset button, which is back to adding another star prompt to the bottom of the screen. Some of the pins on one of the chips (forgot which one but it was one of the ones nick3092 said to check) had some beige looking stuff on it. Could that be the culprit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 The early Apple ][‘s Keyboard Controller can be damaged fairly easily... You might have one of these units... MarkO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 Can you get some pictures of the serial number/ assembly date.. and the keyboard controller board.. MarkO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted November 7, 2022 Author Share Posted November 7, 2022 Serial number is A2S1-14646. Assembly date on mobo is "7902", which I think actually means second week of 1979 (i.e., January 1979, not February 1979; my mistake). I have a busy week this week (I'm a college student), so it might be a bit before I can get a picture of the keyboard controller board. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted November 24, 2022 Share Posted November 24, 2022 On 11/7/2022 at 12:13 PM, aguyandhisappleii said: Serial number is A2S1-14646. Assembly date on mobo is "7902", which I think actually means second week of 1979 (i.e., January 1979, not February 1979; my mistake). I have a busy week this week (I'm a college student), so it might be a bit before I can get a picture of the keyboard controller board. My Apple ][ is dated 7916 and Serial Number 25422... Your Computer might have a Rev-02 MB or Rev-03.. It might halve the original Keyboard Controller... my Apple ][ : http://tech.markoverholser.com/?q=node/11 MarkO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted November 28, 2022 Share Posted November 28, 2022 Here is a Ventless ][ that sold recently: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155253528976?mkcid=16&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=0bIPRHFwS2e&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=DGsb_5zqRmu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY&nma=true&si=RSwMW4JdqvTsW7YxaGncZbKGbmY%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 Does your have a similar keyboard?? MarkO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted December 1, 2022 Author Share Posted December 1, 2022 I tried working on the keyboard with someone else. We used alcohol to clean the contacts on the logic chip's socket but it didn't work. We also didn't see anything obviously wrong with the keyboard PCB. I'm studying for a final exam but I'll post some pics of the keyboard PCB and mobo by tomorrow afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted December 4, 2022 Author Share Posted December 4, 2022 Sorry for not posting these sooner. Here are some pics of my Apple II’s keyboard and mobo. The ventless II seems to have a green keyboard PCB, whereas mine is more brown looking (as you’ll see in the pics) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 On 11/27/2022 at 9:18 PM, MarkO said: Here is a Ventless ][ that sold recently: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155253528976?mkcid=16&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=0bIPRHFwS2e&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=DGsb_5zqRmu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY&nma=true&si=RSwMW4JdqvTsW7YxaGncZbKGbmY%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 Looks like it's back up for sale? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted December 25, 2022 Author Share Posted December 25, 2022 I just bought a Disk II Drive and card for this Apple II. Whenever I have the drive connected to the interface card, the Apple II refuses to power on and its PSU makes a rapid ticking sound when I switch it on. No light on the power lamp or screen. When I power on the computer with the card but without the drive connected to the card, it boots fine and just takes me to the monitor prompt like usual. Any ideas? P.S. I still haven’t fixed the keyboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted December 25, 2022 Author Share Posted December 25, 2022 (edited) If it makes any difference, I left the Disk II and its card in their package (same package) out in ~37-42 degree weather for a few hours (big mistake on my part), and it was kind of cold when I took it out of its package (although I didn’t try it til after it warmed up a little) EDIT: Disk II model no is A2M0003 and serial no is 794791 Edited December 25, 2022 by aguyandhisappleii Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aguyandhisappleii Posted December 25, 2022 Author Share Posted December 25, 2022 Never mind on the disk issue! I just had it connected improperly! 🥴 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 (edited) On 12/25/2022 at 3:17 PM, aguyandhisappleii said: Never mind on the disk issue! I just had it connected improperly! 🥴 That can lead to the 74LS125 being Blown Up... I ALWAYS, remove the Disk ][ Controller and turn Upside Down, to plug in the Drive "correctly".. This I learned to do after Blowing Up 2, of the 74LS125s... The Clicking is the Apple ][ Power Supply, shutting down to prevent damage... MarkO Edited December 27, 2022 by MarkO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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