I had a similar problem on my old Apple //e back in the day. The bit wasn't completely dead, but it was noisy, causing a lot of crashes. I narrowed the problem down using HGR mode, looking to see which pixels weren't displaying properly.
This technique is kinda unique to computers of that era, where a single chip is responsible for 1 bit in a word. There is no way you could do the same with modern DRAM. But then again, computers these days don't come with a schematic.
What a long way we've come in 41 years! All these chips carried so little, and the 40 year old Language Card from 1980 just shows how far we've come. A card that size made now can pack some serious power. Really nice to have these pieces of computing history around to show us how simple these used to be, despite their large sizes. Also found out that this uses the same processor as the NES (MOS Technology 6502 architecture), but running at 1.002 mhz, instead of the 1.79 mhz on the NES! The NES just had a different manufacturer, Ricoh, but still just about the same processor! This stuff is just so fascinating to research! :)
using an Apple 15 as a base line for a modern board size to power ration, a card that size would equal a half a dozen current for 1980 Crays....maybe more?
With that many cards, I suggest active cooling. My father manufactured the "Super Fan ][" which hung on the left side of that series of cases/stands. There were plenty of clones of his design, and a lawsuit against Kensington for patent infringement. I assembled thousands of units myself as a child. We also made a unit that sat on top of the early Macs, the "Mac'N'Frost".
WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT - FIXED! I literally did a weird like evil laugh at this part. It was like a good vs evil triumph. I get so caught up in your troubleshooting Adrian! Thank you so much for what you do!
Great video, I just missed out on this earlier golden era of computers. It gives me the same satisfaction of my early troubleshooting days with the addition of board level repairs. Narrowing down the possible problem parts and swapping them out will never go away.
Hi Adrian, Really enjoyed this video - as always. I've never owned an Apple ][, so it's all new to me. I love how you explain the steps you took and how you used the Machine Language Monitor to troubleshoot the RAM. Very educational! Also, I love that you show your mistakes - such as mounting the PSU the wrong way around! Keep it up and thanks for making this content!
Thanks to your channel, my kit now has a can of deoxit! I only just picked up a joystick just like the one you have near the end of the video too which I hope to get working with my Apple IIe card for my LC III. And hearing the 'head knock' sound of those Apple floppy drives brings back so many memories of friends gathering around the Apple II's we had at school. It's amazing all the rabbit holes this hobby opens up!
I do love watching your Apple ][ related content. As a child of the 70's in the UK these just weren't really a thing here. We had the Sinclair / Commodore stuff mostly. So it's fascinating to me to learn how these things were used, debugged and expanded. Wish I'd got into them back then! :D Keep up the great work Adrian. It's awesome.
I'm in the UK and in the early 2000s I managed to buy a 128K Apple IIe, with dual floppies and Super Serial Card, from the local recycling centre for £5. I had a load of fun with it, especially the process of sending a floppy transfer program over the serial port to create a boot disk. I sold it a few years ago and have regretted it ever since.
I'd argue that the BBC Micro was the British Apple II. Same CPU, similar build quality, similar expandability (even if the technology differed i.e. cards on the Apple vs ports/ROMs on the Beeb). I'm fortunate to live where both the Apple II and the Beeb were reasonably successful in the market. Oddly enough, Adrian's current Apple II+ series has given me some inspiration to revisit a couple of Beebs in my collection that I'd almost written off as parts donors.
Machine language troubleshooting is tantamount to sorcery as far as I'm concerned. Holy cow that's impressive! *Hagrid Voice* "You're a wizard Adrian!"
I really enjoy your videos. They have inspired me to learn more about retro computing including a better understanding of machine code. For the first time I actually fully understood what you were taking about!
Some of my earliest computer experience was playing Oregon Trail (the original text version!) on an Apple IIe in 4th grade (1982-83), so this really brought back memories. Thanks for the upload!
That Amdek display is AMAZING! I used to have the same model that was bought with my hand-me-down II+ - I had it set up in my bedroom back in the day and i'd run the apple II through the video input on my VCR using it to record graphics from the II+ with the video out going to the Amdek as well as using the VCR with a set of bookshelf speakers as a cable TV tuner. it made a fantastic tv and computer setup, and man that display had WAY better clarity and sharpness than any other tv I saw at that time (the early 90's) and the color reproduction was on point! - I had lots of great times watching tv, movies, and messing with my II+ on that thing.
Really enjoying this series Adrian. I especially love the machine language monitor technique of debugging RAM issues. One I’ll have to remember for future sessions. Looking forward to the next instalment 👍
Nice sleuthing. The Adrian Method (poking at memory in a debugger) wins again! Also, I love the Internet. Where else can you get high-res scans of a rad towel?!
Thank you, I never used any old apple computers back in the day, not something you saw in the uk so I was very interested to learn so much about them in this series. I am also slowly learning 6502 and z80 assembly and I was so happy that I understood the assembly program you entered in this episode.
You are spoiling us with intro ... " i will fix this and this and this ... " we want DRAMA !!! Thanks again for great content dear Adrian , stay safe .
I really liked how later utility and productivity software would scan for memory on the Apple II. I always got a kick out of seeing the 16K language card appear in addition to the motherboard and 128K card I had.
The code is handy - especially with the faulty ram card. A really simple way to copy the memory within the monitor is to tickle C083. C083 toggles the WRITE on the language card, but READ still comes from ROM. You can then enter D000
I bought a chip lifter thingy you use, that looks like a screwdriver turned into a crowbar and it's a really neat little tool. I think these are not product placements but when you use a tool successfully I feel the need to buy one for myself too as it makes to job easier. I also want to buy a chip lifter you use on bigger chips, like a VIC-II chip but I already spent waaay too much money on things this month.
Every time I watch video's on Repairing and Troubleshooting older Apple II's, I appreciate the Apple IIe even more. Anyway, I am very much enjoying watching this series and your trouble shooting skills are incredible too me. I tend to get ticked off too quick and just start throwing parts at the problem until it resolves lol
Hey Adrian, the stacked sockets trick to route the pins works in a pinch, but if you've got a veroboard or better yet in this case, some plated hole stripboard, you can solder in some headers in from the top, the socket, offset, and then the other set of headers from the top. That'll cut the size of your adapter almost in half. Also, "memory card in slot #" … isn't a language card test, it's a "slinky" card test. Expansion card (1-7) RAM for the Apple II came in a form where you could set an address on three bytes would load a counter and an access (be it read or write-careful with 6502 opcodes that access an address twice!) would auto-increment the counter. So you'd read from the same address multiple times in a loop to copy stuff to sequential addresses in main memory, or write in a loop the same way to save stuff to the card from main memory. The language card has the totally different bank switching mechanism to the slinky-replace the ROM for 8k, and the two swappable banks of 4k each, as noted. Obviously a test for slinky RAM isn't going to work on a language card, and a test for a language card (which oddly wasn't present?) won't test a slinky RAM card. What uses skinky RAM? … ALMOST NOTHING! It was possible to use it as a RAM disk. Some few people did that. No, the only app you've ever heard of that used it as RAM somehow … was AppleWorks. I've never heard of more than a 1MB slinky, but theoretically you could have 16M. And I recall some magazine ads talking about "up to 17MB" in an Apple II, but … nobody did that, it would require both slinky _and_ extended aux RAM on a IIe to even try it, nobody really had more than 4MB of aux RAM, etc. Even AppleWorks would use ONE of 65c816 RAM, IIe aux RAM > 128k, OR slinky RAM. Nothing used all of the above, if available.
This would be my favourite series thus far. Your videos just get better and better, Adrian. I can see the methodology used to solve multiple issues being applicable to almost any other vintage computer (assuming said computer is as well documented as the Apple II+).
Total blast down memory lane. I remember struggling with my ][ Plus in the '80s locking up every time I enabled the Language Card by reading from address $C080. Finally found docs that indicated the need to copy the ROM contents to the card's RAM. Grin from ear-to-ear when I read from $C080 after doing that and the machine didn't freeze. Scary what one remembers from almost 40 years ago.
I've mentioned on one of the previous parts my experience with the Apple II. It's definitely on my bucket list of vintage machines to collect, but all the ones I've seen have sold for ridiculous prices. Maybe the buyers might think they got a good deal, so I hope they're getting a working machine for the premium they're paying. But I'll be patient and hopefully find one that's a reasonable price. Possibly one that needs some repairs. It looks like these machines are fun to work on, so that's something to look forward to! Keep up the great work! Can't wait for Wednesday's video! 😉
Adrian, to clean keyboard switches , You can use an ultrasonic cleaner. I do it for all the vintage switches I want to restore. You can grab one on Amazon ; the process is simple and You can use plain tap water. After cleaning just use compressed air to dry the parts and let them fully dry for one day in a dry place. :) With older Apple II switches that can't be opened, injecting 1cc of IPA alcool in the switch helps salvaging them 80% of the times .
I can second the ultrasonic cleaner recommendation. They're great for anything that can't be fully disassembled, or that's really difficult to disassemble.
I'm definitely re-watching these episodes once I get some time to check out my Apple ][+. I haven't tried powering it on in several years, so want to be careful with it when I do.
Did it work? Mine hasn't been powered on in 37 years - currently in storage (long story), so I expect by the time I get access to it it will be 40 years old. I believe that it's mainly the switching power supply capacitors that should be checked.
@C B Newham Sadly I _still_ haven't had or made the time to set it up and check it out. I can't believe my post was two years ago! Still hoping to get to it one of these days. 🙂 🍎 🍏 +
DeOxit *will* work, but you need to use it as a flush, not as drops, to force any contamination out of the contactor plates. This means that you need to spray it it under pressure. I suggest a three step process, which is what I used on sealed keys: Flush with DeOxit D5. Press keyswitch rapidly ~100 times. Flush with DeOxit F5 (Fader Lube), again press rapidly ~100 times. Finally, flush once more briefly with DeOxit D5, and slowly press switch ~50 to 100 times. Allow to dry.
No laser printer? Why not snag one on your next trip to the electronics recycler? I grabbed an older office-grade HP Laserjet 4050 for around $50 at a recycler 10 years ago, and it's still working great for me. I had to upgrade the memory to print really long documents, but that wasn't expensive. A lot of printers get discarded just because they're old, there's nothing else wrong with them.
Also keep an eye for deals on Brother lasers (Amazon and Newegg). I got my aunt a new basic Brother laser for like $50 with shipping. Plus Newegg haves generic toner sales for CHEAP. I pay like $10 for toner and get about 3 - 4,000 pages.
Heh. Hi. I want to share with you my experience of fixing all the kinda buttons. At first I used alcohol,solvent,gasoline and sort of chems, but it didn't helped or helped for a short period. But then I've found solution that helps in 95% cases. This way I fix all kinds of buttons, switches, tumblers etc. In many cases you even don't need disassemble thing, just poor some over the thumb and stroke it for some time enough to lick it through to the contacts inside. First time i've tried it on mouse button switch - and it worked flawlessly, long term tests confirmed its reliability. The solution is - thin silicone oil, yes its that simple. Also - for some cases I used syringe, just poke a side of a button and deliver oil in.
Would be really a neat idea to find the font that was on the original power light, create a stencil and paint on the original lettering. Takes some precision and would need to fill in the bridges holding the lettering together, but it could look really nice.
With continued use, those keys treated with Deoxit may likely improve, simply due to the fact the machine seems to have been sitting idle for a long, long time, and that any corrosion / dust or crud build-up will likely get knocked around due to vibration, and "percussive mechanics" on the contact plate.
I never had an Apple II whatsoever. A friend of mine had one and I remember playing Captain Goodnight on it. I had a C64 at the time. Greets from Canada!
...and the race is on, will Adrian finish before Jan Beta, who is stuck in Septandy for 1776 consecutive months now, manages to get his TRS-80 into working condition?!
Ah, the old days of using Apple Cillian to diagnose problems...memories...I assume that you did try the standard "Apple Fix" on the language card...the Apple Fix is basically first pressing down the chips to make sure they were properly seated. I used to tell people I had "healing hands" for broken Apples. I would take the top off, press down on as many of the chips I could, and many times would "fix" their no-boot, or crashing problems. More advanced "repair" would be removing and re-inserting the chips, based upon knowing which error was normally would cause what problems...the next was swapping said chip(s).
I have an Apple II+ too, and I love it! I'd say it's my favorite vintage computer and for sure my favorite to write BASIC programs. I'm definitely not a fan of modern Apple crap, but their early computers were awesome.
Oh, i remember getting a Radio Shack CGP-115 (i think) 4-pen mini-plotter/printer to use with my Apple ][ Plus - it had a Centronics parallel interface, and i drove it by breadboarding a shift-register and connecting the data and clock to my joystick connector pins, and writing a little machine-language routine to bit-bang print output through the joystick port, and it was MY turn to not--believe-that-it-freaking-worked! I think you actually have one of those printers from one of your mail calls, would love to see you work on that, it is a fantastic little piece of gear, cheapest printer available, think i paid about $120 US for it, new.
Use typewriter eraser stick to clean the switches. If you can't find (most likely), use a sharpened jeweler's screwdriver to scrape the corrosion off. Use a 6 inch mill file and 2000 grit sandpaper to make the sharpened screwdriver and use only for that purpose.
I can't imagine how the label came off the power light, but compared to almost any keyboard made in the last couple decades, it's fortunate that the labels on the actual keys haven't worn off. That's one thing I've noticed is consistently more reliable about older computers. I wonder what they were doing back then that they don't do anymore.
As Adrian said, but there's also dye sublimation and laser etching (plus infill occasionally), which also class as permanent. Starting about 20 years ago, they simply silkscreened the letters on, or even worse, just stuck tiny stickers on. All of my school's cheap keyboards had worn-out letters, but the librarian's early-90s keyboard still looked brand new.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Unlike _crap_ modern keys. Anything "enthusiast grade" is a double shot or laser etched even now. (Dye sub works a treat, but it's kind of expensive so not really done at a mass level.)
If you are worried about the piggy back chips and the floppy card coming into contact, put the floppy card in slot 7. Then type PR#7 to boot. It brought back a lot of memories seeing you type in, run, list machine code. Did a lot of that back in the early 1980's. CALL-151 for a good time !
It would be interesting to bust out a dremmel tool and slice open one of those bad keys, so you (we) can really take a peek at what's really going on with the contacts at the bottom.
Adrian! 8:00 timestamp > Nope, you can't use inkjet printers for that type of media, the best way is to use a label thermal printer, brother makes some of them that you can replace the ribbon in different styles, they have transparent, laminated ecc. or a laser one, but you need to pay a bit of attention of the quality of the transparent media! If it's too high weight or it's low quality it could stick to the fuser unit and make a big mess.
You can remove the contact plate from the keyswitch body. You have to dig out the red sealant on the bottom of the switch body and then you can carefully pry the contact plate out of the switch body. Sometimes this is necessary for seriously oxidized or dirty switch contacts. You don't have to replace the sealant afterwards.
I've had jail bars On my c64 and I just bought a nice rca composite with gold ends and silver and copper wire with good insulation it helps a lot and I deoxit the output and wiped it down . I'm also running a old magnvox glass flat screen from 2003? It got rid of all of the bar problems that I had
Great video! You should have WAY more subscribers. Your videos are fantastic. Question, what camera do you use to record? Who would thumbs down this video? What's not to love?
I was a kid when my brother and I opened the Apple //e to tinker with it. Not sure why my brother decided to unplug the Disk ][ ribbon cable from the controller and then plug it back again... shifted by one row. We powered up the Apple to see magic smoke coming out of the drive... :(
As I recall, slot #7 was recommended by Apple for coprocessors. Slot #4 was the recommended slot for the Apple Mouse controller (which let you plug the original Macintosh/Lisa mouse into the Apple ][ )
I can confirm that moving from a thin off brand cable to an ohelbach shielded and all (with Goobay shielded ones running around for audio) saves my bacon. Never using cheap stuff again :)
I was also thinking but don't see it in his old videos what is that fancy scrolling little monitor on the top on many video's something DIY or you can buy it some where thats not something from the 80' i think
He mentioned it in a video a while back, however I don't know which one. I think it's this (or something like it: ) divoominternational.com/products/divoom-timoo-smart-16-16-led-app-controlled-bluetooth-speaker-with-gift-package Basically, these are 16x16 pixel display. You could DIY one like this guy did: ruclips.net/video/jkg7T7jlIzU/видео.html&ab_channel=Brainy-Bits
When buying supplies, try to enter a negative dollar amount. When I played this game back in grade school, I found it had a bug in that it did not check for negative amounts. By entering -1000000 I could become an instant millionaire!
![Apple ][ plus: 8304 replacement from AliExpress, more keyboard fixes, and a huge surprise!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/984mZex2pKY/mqdefault.jpg)
![Apple ][ plus: 8304 replacement from AliExpress, more keyboard fixes, and a huge surprise!](/img/tr.png)
![Apple ][ plus: VIDEX 80 column card, CPM on the Apple II and servicing the disk drives](/img/1.gif)
Dude, finding that stuck bit was awesome! That's some serious troubleshooting!
You’re not kidding. That was some next level troubleshooting. Bravo to him
I had a similar problem on my old Apple //e back in the day. The bit wasn't completely dead, but it was noisy, causing a lot of crashes. I narrowed the problem down using HGR mode, looking to see which pixels weren't displaying properly.
This technique is kinda unique to computers of that era, where a single chip is responsible for 1 bit in a word. There is no way you could do the same with modern DRAM. But then again, computers these days don't come with a schematic.
What a long way we've come in 41 years! All these chips carried so little, and the 40 year old Language Card from 1980 just shows how far we've come. A card that size made now can pack some serious power. Really nice to have these pieces of computing history around to show us how simple these used to be, despite their large sizes.
Also found out that this uses the same processor as the NES (MOS Technology 6502 architecture), but running at 1.002 mhz, instead of the 1.79 mhz on the NES! The NES just had a different manufacturer, Ricoh, but still just about the same processor! This stuff is just so fascinating to research! :)
using an Apple 15 as a base line for a modern board size to power ration, a card that size would equal a half a dozen current for 1980 Crays....maybe more?
With that many cards, I suggest active cooling. My father manufactured the "Super Fan ][" which hung on the left side of that series of cases/stands. There were plenty of clones of his design, and a lawsuit against Kensington for patent infringement. I assembled thousands of units myself as a child. We also made a unit that sat on top of the early Macs, the "Mac'N'Frost".
Yes i had a side fan too. It was noisy too.
Mine got a Papst fan mounted on the right. Sounds like a jet plane starting
WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT - FIXED!
I literally did a weird like evil laugh at this part. It was like a good vs evil triumph. I get so caught up in your troubleshooting Adrian! Thank you so much for what you do!
Great video, I just missed out on this earlier golden era of computers. It gives me the same satisfaction of my early troubleshooting days with the addition of board level repairs. Narrowing down the possible problem parts and swapping them out will never go away.
Hi Adrian, Really enjoyed this video - as always. I've never owned an Apple ][, so it's all new to me. I love how you explain the steps you took and how you used the Machine Language Monitor to troubleshoot the RAM. Very educational! Also, I love that you show your mistakes - such as mounting the PSU the wrong way around! Keep it up and thanks for making this content!
Thanks to your channel, my kit now has a can of deoxit! I only just picked up a joystick just like the one you have near the end of the video too which I hope to get working with my Apple IIe card for my LC III. And hearing the 'head knock' sound of those Apple floppy drives brings back so many memories of friends gathering around the Apple II's we had at school. It's amazing all the rabbit holes this hobby opens up!
I do love watching your Apple ][ related content. As a child of the 70's in the UK these just weren't really a thing here. We had the Sinclair / Commodore stuff mostly. So it's fascinating to me to learn how these things were used, debugged and expanded. Wish I'd got into them back then! :D Keep up the great work Adrian. It's awesome.
I'm in the UK and in the early 2000s I managed to buy a 128K Apple IIe, with dual floppies and Super Serial Card, from the local recycling centre for £5. I had a load of fun with it, especially the process of sending a floppy transfer program over the serial port to create a boot disk. I sold it a few years ago and have regretted it ever since.
I'd argue that the BBC Micro was the British Apple II. Same CPU, similar build quality, similar expandability (even if the technology differed i.e. cards on the Apple vs ports/ROMs on the Beeb). I'm fortunate to live where both the Apple II and the Beeb were reasonably successful in the market.
Oddly enough, Adrian's current Apple II+ series has given me some inspiration to revisit a couple of Beebs in my collection that I'd almost written off as parts donors.
I like how you use the ']['.
@@OzRetrocomp The BBC Micro was probably superior to the Apple ][.
@@infinitecanadian almost certainly, with a second processor on the tube bus
Do you guys also pause the video to see what's on the shelves, or it's just me?. Another fine video from Adrian. Keep up the good work !!!!
WOW! That CALL -151 usage was a bunch of nice low level debuging. Chapeau bas.
"The power cord doesn't connect inside the Apple ][" gave me a good chuckle. Thanks for leaving your mistakes in the video.
Machine language troubleshooting is tantamount to sorcery as far as I'm concerned. Holy cow that's impressive!
*Hagrid Voice* "You're a wizard Adrian!"
0300: A0 03 A9 07 4C 3A DB D9
0308: CF D5 A7 D2 C5 A0 C1 A0
0310: D7 C9 DA C1 D2 C4 A0 C1
0318: C4 D2 C9 C1 CE A1 00
300G
I really enjoy your videos. They have inspired me to learn more about retro computing including a better understanding of machine code. For the first time I actually fully understood what you were taking about!
Some of my earliest computer experience was playing Oregon Trail (the original text version!) on an Apple IIe in 4th grade (1982-83), so this really brought back memories. Thanks for the upload!
Nice work fixing it. Going to suck when there are no more spare parts for old computers.
Adrian's diagnostic ability is fantastic.
That Amdek display is AMAZING! I used to have the same model that was bought with my hand-me-down II+ - I had it set up in my bedroom back in the day and i'd run the apple II through the video input on my VCR using it to record graphics from the II+ with the video out going to the Amdek as well as using the VCR with a set of bookshelf speakers as a cable TV tuner. it made a fantastic tv and computer setup, and man that display had WAY better clarity and sharpness than any other tv I saw at that time (the early 90's) and the color reproduction was on point! - I had lots of great times watching tv, movies, and messing with my II+ on that thing.
I truly enjoyed this whole series. Thank you from an old school hacker.
G=C800:5
I still remember upgrading my PC and FINALLY being able to select 1:1 interleave. :D
I envy and admire your troubleshooting skills. Very impressive. Thanks for this series.
This was an excellent video Adrian! A little bit of everything.
Really enjoying this series Adrian. I especially love the machine language monitor technique of debugging RAM issues. One I’ll have to remember for future sessions. Looking forward to the next instalment 👍
Nice sleuthing. The Adrian Method (poking at memory in a debugger) wins again! Also, I love the Internet. Where else can you get high-res scans of a rad towel?!
my favorite part of youtube! I find the troubleshooting sooo fascinating. It's truly a service to society
Thank you, I never used any old apple computers back in the day, not something you saw in the uk so I was very interested to learn so much about them in this series. I am also slowly learning 6502 and z80 assembly and I was so happy that I understood the assembly program you entered in this episode.
Nice job taking everything apart & a round of applause for taking the time to replace all those keys!
You are spoiling us with intro ... " i will fix this and this and this ... " we want DRAMA !!! Thanks again for great content dear Adrian , stay safe .
I really liked how later utility and productivity software would scan for memory on the Apple II. I always got a kick out of seeing the 16K language card appear in addition to the motherboard and 128K card I had.
The code is handy - especially with the faulty ram card. A really simple way to copy the memory within the monitor is to tickle C083. C083 toggles the WRITE on the language card, but READ still comes from ROM. You can then enter D000
Why does the whole video just make sense for me? Must be because i had an Apple ][ growing up. Good work Adrian !
I bought a chip lifter thingy you use, that looks like a screwdriver turned into a crowbar and it's a really neat little tool. I think these are not product placements but when you use a tool successfully I feel the need to buy one for myself too as it makes to job easier. I also want to buy a chip lifter you use on bigger chips, like a VIC-II chip but I already spent waaay too much money on things this month.
Every time I watch video's on Repairing and Troubleshooting older Apple II's, I appreciate the Apple IIe even more. Anyway, I am very much enjoying watching this series and your trouble shooting skills are incredible too me. I tend to get ticked off too quick and just start throwing parts at the problem until it resolves lol
Absolutely love that memory issue troubleshooting!
Never had an Apple II back in the day, but I drooled over them at my local store. This makes me want one.
Hey Adrian, the stacked sockets trick to route the pins works in a pinch, but if you've got a veroboard or better yet in this case, some plated hole stripboard, you can solder in some headers in from the top, the socket, offset, and then the other set of headers from the top. That'll cut the size of your adapter almost in half.
Also, "memory card in slot #" … isn't a language card test, it's a "slinky" card test. Expansion card (1-7) RAM for the Apple II came in a form where you could set an address on three bytes would load a counter and an access (be it read or write-careful with 6502 opcodes that access an address twice!) would auto-increment the counter. So you'd read from the same address multiple times in a loop to copy stuff to sequential addresses in main memory, or write in a loop the same way to save stuff to the card from main memory.
The language card has the totally different bank switching mechanism to the slinky-replace the ROM for 8k, and the two swappable banks of 4k each, as noted. Obviously a test for slinky RAM isn't going to work on a language card, and a test for a language card (which oddly wasn't present?) won't test a slinky RAM card.
What uses skinky RAM? … ALMOST NOTHING! It was possible to use it as a RAM disk. Some few people did that. No, the only app you've ever heard of that used it as RAM somehow … was AppleWorks. I've never heard of more than a 1MB slinky, but theoretically you could have 16M. And I recall some magazine ads talking about "up to 17MB" in an Apple II, but … nobody did that, it would require both slinky _and_ extended aux RAM on a IIe to even try it, nobody really had more than 4MB of aux RAM, etc. Even AppleWorks would use ONE of 65c816 RAM, IIe aux RAM > 128k, OR slinky RAM. Nothing used all of the above, if available.
Love the Schneider Cup poster in the background
Adrian: Fantastic; I really enjoy your repair series, and I think especially this Apple ][ series of videos has been the best so far. Love it!
This dude is the Bob Ross of retro repairs.
This would be my favourite series thus far. Your videos just get better and better, Adrian.
I can see the methodology used to solve multiple issues being applicable to almost any other vintage computer (assuming said computer is as well documented as the Apple II+).
I loved the Apple II+ IIes and IIe enhanced they had in high school. The teacher would hardly ever let anyone touch the II+.
Total blast down memory lane. I remember struggling with my ][ Plus in the '80s locking up every time I enabled the Language Card by reading from address $C080. Finally found docs that indicated the need to copy the ROM contents to the card's RAM. Grin from ear-to-ear when I read from $C080 after doing that and the machine didn't freeze. Scary what one remembers from almost 40 years ago.
You're probably going to be sent a million key switches now.
For the power light...Letraset dry transfer covered with nail polish or some such.
Excellent video as usual. The troubleshooting of the card really captured my brain and you made it easy to comprehend. Cheers
Cool and dreary outside, but warm and a new ADB video inside. Its a good Saturday!
I've mentioned on one of the previous parts my experience with the Apple II. It's definitely on my bucket list of vintage machines to collect, but all the ones I've seen have sold for ridiculous prices. Maybe the buyers might think they got a good deal, so I hope they're getting a working machine for the premium they're paying. But I'll be patient and hopefully find one that's a reasonable price. Possibly one that needs some repairs. It looks like these machines are fun to work on, so that's something to look forward to!
Keep up the great work! Can't wait for Wednesday's video! 😉
Adrian, to clean keyboard switches , You can use an ultrasonic cleaner. I do it for all the vintage switches I want to restore. You can grab one on Amazon ; the process is simple and You can use plain tap water. After cleaning just use compressed air to dry the parts and let them fully dry for one day in a dry place. :) With older Apple II switches that can't be opened, injecting 1cc of IPA alcool in the switch helps salvaging them 80% of the times .
Deoxit works great in the switches but when they are really bad ones I have soaked in vinegar for a while, rinsed *very* well and then again Deoxit.
I can second the ultrasonic cleaner recommendation. They're great for anything that can't be fully disassembled, or that's really difficult to disassemble.
Top tier troubleshooting and skills in this one. Awesome video!
When I was a kid, we had a Fingerprint card in our Apple //e.
Excellent =D Lovely to see these Apple ][ videos - they weren't very popular over here and quite rare as pickups!
So, we're upgrading to "ADLR" now: Adrian's Digital Living Room? 😉
I'm sometimes actually allowed upstairs!!!
I'm definitely re-watching these episodes once I get some time to check out my Apple ][+. I haven't tried powering it on in several years, so want to be careful with it when I do.
Did it work? Mine hasn't been powered on in 37 years - currently in storage (long story), so I expect by the time I get access to it it will be 40 years old. I believe that it's mainly the switching power supply capacitors that should be checked.
@C B Newham Sadly I _still_ haven't had or made the time to set it up and check it out. I can't believe my post was two years ago! Still hoping to get to it one of these days.
🙂
🍎 🍏 +
DeOxit *will* work, but you need to use it as a flush, not as drops, to force any contamination out of the contactor plates. This means that you need to spray it it under pressure. I suggest a three step process, which is what I used on sealed keys:
Flush with DeOxit D5. Press keyswitch rapidly ~100 times. Flush with DeOxit F5 (Fader Lube), again press rapidly ~100 times. Finally, flush once more briefly with DeOxit D5, and slowly press switch ~50 to 100 times. Allow to dry.
No laser printer? Why not snag one on your next trip to the electronics recycler? I grabbed an older office-grade HP Laserjet 4050 for around $50 at a recycler 10 years ago, and it's still working great for me. I had to upgrade the memory to print really long documents, but that wasn't expensive. A lot of printers get discarded just because they're old, there's nothing else wrong with them.
Also keep an eye for deals on Brother lasers (Amazon and Newegg).
I got my aunt a new basic Brother laser for like $50 with shipping. Plus Newegg haves generic toner sales for CHEAP.
I pay like $10 for toner and get about 3 - 4,000 pages.
Heh. Hi. I want to share with you my experience of fixing all the kinda buttons. At first I used alcohol,solvent,gasoline and sort of chems, but it didn't helped or helped for a short period. But then I've found solution that helps in 95% cases. This way I fix all kinds of buttons, switches, tumblers etc. In many cases you even don't need disassemble thing, just poor some over the thumb and stroke it for some time enough to lick it through to the contacts inside. First time i've tried it on mouse button switch - and it worked flawlessly, long term tests confirmed its reliability. The solution is - thin silicone oil, yes its that simple. Also - for some cases I used syringe, just poke a side of a button and deliver oil in.
Would be really a neat idea to find the font that was on the original power light, create a stencil and paint on the original lettering. Takes some precision and would need to fill in the bridges holding the lettering together, but it could look really nice.
With continued use, those keys treated with Deoxit may likely improve, simply due to the fact the machine seems to have been sitting idle for a long, long time, and that any corrosion / dust or crud build-up will likely get knocked around due to vibration, and "percussive mechanics" on the contact plate.
I always learn so much watching your vids, love it!
I never had an Apple II whatsoever. A friend of mine had one and I remember playing Captain Goodnight on it. I had a C64 at the time. Greets from Canada!
22:47 No program is needed to copy the contents of the ROM into RAM. Just use the monitor command D000
Adrian has to be one of the smartest men on the planet.
Might be able to restore some of those intermittent keys by using an ultrasonic cleaner for a period of time. Worth trying if you ever get one.
The year is 2168, Adrian has just uploaded Part 1262 of the Apple ][+ repair series - Keyboard nearly working.
Sorry. (LOL)
...and the race is on, will Adrian finish before Jan Beta, who is stuck in Septandy for 1776 consecutive months now, manages to get his TRS-80 into working condition?!
@@catriona_drummond Ha Ha
Great diagnosis on the language card.
Love your living room artwork!
Ah, the old days of using Apple Cillian to diagnose problems...memories...I assume that you did try the standard "Apple Fix" on the language card...the Apple Fix is basically first pressing down the chips to make sure they were properly seated. I used to tell people I had "healing hands" for broken Apples. I would take the top off, press down on as many of the chips I could, and many times would "fix" their no-boot, or crashing problems. More advanced "repair" would be removing and re-inserting the chips, based upon knowing which error was normally would cause what problems...the next was swapping said chip(s).
I have an Apple II+ too, and I love it! I'd say it's my favorite vintage computer and for sure my favorite to write BASIC programs. I'm definitely not a fan of modern Apple crap, but their early computers were awesome.
37:53 - gave me a chuckle, checked it out and it's really there, this is crazy :D
Awesome! Thanks for rescuing this beauty!
Oh, i remember getting a Radio Shack CGP-115 (i think) 4-pen mini-plotter/printer to use with my Apple ][ Plus - it had a Centronics parallel interface, and i drove it by breadboarding a shift-register and connecting the data and clock to my joystick connector pins, and writing a little machine-language routine to bit-bang print output through the joystick port, and it was MY turn to not--believe-that-it-freaking-worked!
I think you actually have one of those printers from one of your mail calls, would love to see you work on that, it is a fantastic little piece of gear, cheapest printer available, think i paid about $120 US for it, new.
Use typewriter eraser stick to clean the switches. If you can't find (most likely), use a sharpened jeweler's screwdriver to scrape the corrosion off. Use a 6 inch mill file and 2000 grit sandpaper to make the sharpened screwdriver and use only for that purpose.
30:57 Bono Vox was the guilty one all this time. 😂
Fart noises, then... "That was a pain in the ass". 🤣
I was reading an ebay message and thought the same when I heard it!!!! :P
Lol, I popped into the kitchen to get a pizza out of the oven and was like "what is going on?!"
I can't imagine how the label came off the power light, but compared to almost any keyboard made in the last couple decades, it's fortunate that the labels on the actual keys haven't worn off. That's one thing I've noticed is consistently more reliable about older computers. I wonder what they were doing back then that they don't do anymore.
They are double shot keys, so they can't wear off. The light color is moulded right into the plastic unlike modern keys.
As Adrian said, but there's also dye sublimation and laser etching (plus infill occasionally), which also class as permanent. Starting about 20 years ago, they simply silkscreened the letters on, or even worse, just stuck tiny stickers on. All of my school's cheap keyboards had worn-out letters, but the librarian's early-90s keyboard still looked brand new.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Unlike _crap_ modern keys. Anything "enthusiast grade" is a double shot or laser etched even now. (Dye sub works a treat, but it's kind of expensive so not really done at a mass level.)
Great stuff. Got to love some bit bashing
I need a couple of those key switches to fix a TI-99/4A keyboard! :)
Amazing work. Maybe using an ezyout screw to remove the bad screw may have worked.
If you are worried about the piggy back chips and the floppy card coming into contact, put the floppy card in slot 7. Then type PR#7 to boot. It brought back a lot of memories seeing you type in, run, list machine code. Did a lot of that back in the early 1980's. CALL-151 for a good time !
Nice, now you start gaming :) Some of my favorites are: Choplifter, Ceiling Zero, Night Mission and Prince of Persia.
Man! That machine looks good!!
Oh, and some of my favourite games were Wavy Navy, Bilestode, Bouncing Kamungs, Joust and Load Runner. I also spent a lot of time in GraForth.
It will be nice to see have those 80 colon and Z80 (cp/m) card work, maybe an idea for part 6?
Greetings from Serbia!
The next video will dive into checking out those cards :-)
It would be interesting to bust out a dremmel tool and slice open one of those bad keys, so you (we) can really take a peek at what's really going on with the contacts at the bottom.
There are LED replacements for incandescent bulbs now, so it may be worth checking to see if one exists for that bulb in the power indicator.
Adrian!
8:00 timestamp > Nope, you can't use inkjet printers for that type of media, the best way is to use a label thermal printer, brother makes some of them that you can replace the ribbon in different styles, they have transparent, laminated ecc. or a laser one, but you need to pay a bit of attention of the quality of the transparent media! If it's too high weight or it's low quality it could stick to the fuser unit and make a big mess.
You can remove the contact plate from the keyswitch body. You have to dig out the red sealant on the bottom of the switch body and then you can carefully pry the contact plate out of the switch body. Sometimes this is necessary for seriously oxidized or dirty switch contacts. You don't have to replace the sealant afterwards.
And don't throw those "dead" switches away - they can all be cleaned if dismantled unless the corrosion is too far gone.
44:14 actually, it's DE-9, not DB-9.
I've had jail bars
On my c64 and I just bought a nice rca
composite with gold ends and silver and copper wire with good insulation it helps a lot and I deoxit the output and wiped it down . I'm also running a old magnvox glass flat screen from 2003? It got rid of all of the bar problems that I had
Great video! You should have WAY more subscribers. Your videos are fantastic. Question, what camera do you use to record? Who would thumbs down this video? What's not to love?
I remember when you were only at around 16k subs...
Now look at you! Almost to 100k!
I was a kid when my brother and I opened the Apple //e to tinker with it. Not sure why my brother decided to unplug the Disk ][ ribbon cable from the controller and then plug it back again... shifted by one row. We powered up the Apple to see magic smoke coming out of the drive... :(
Love the videos. Thank you for making this content.
Grappler: PR#1 CTRL I GDI
Dumps the hires screen to printer. Funny remembering that!
As I recall, slot #7 was recommended by Apple for coprocessors. Slot #4 was the recommended slot for the Apple Mouse controller (which let you plug the original Macintosh/Lisa mouse into the Apple ][ )
Yeah don't forget this machine came out in 1977, before things such as mice existed on home computers :-)
Great video but why don't you show how to replace the key stems?
I would like to replace the bad keys with ones from the numpad.
10:44 Computer possessed by Satan
Evil around in keyboard shape
It’s the ghost of Steve Jobs....!
Just spray it with holy deoxit
I can confirm that moving from a thin off brand cable to an ohelbach shielded and all (with Goobay shielded ones running around for audio) saves my bacon. Never using cheap stuff again :)
Ah that feeling when it works:)
Perhaps for the keys, what do you think about trying submersing in vinegar? If the contact is the problem, maybe there is corrosion.
Hi Adrian. Maybe you can do a short video on that “large Tamagotchi” on top of your parts bin? It seems to show up in all your videos somehow. 🙂
I was also thinking but don't see it in his old videos what is that fancy scrolling little monitor on the top on many video's something DIY or you can buy it some where
thats not something from the 80' i think
He mentioned it in a video a while back, however I don't know which one. I think it's this (or something like it: ) divoominternational.com/products/divoom-timoo-smart-16-16-led-app-controlled-bluetooth-speaker-with-gift-package
Basically, these are 16x16 pixel display. You could DIY one like this guy did: ruclips.net/video/jkg7T7jlIzU/видео.html&ab_channel=Brainy-Bits
@@michaelburns8073 thanks for the info
Search for "Tivoo Retro 16x16 Pixel Art" and you should be able to find something similar. I see them on Amazon for about USD$60.
I think the first music in The Oregon Trail is after you've bought your supplies from the store and are ready to start the trail.
You're definitely right! Such a let down.
When buying supplies, try to enter a negative dollar amount. When I played this game back in grade school, I found it had a bug in that it did not check for negative amounts. By entering -1000000 I could become an instant millionaire!