LCGuy
LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
Well, its been a looong time coming, but I finally have a working Apple //e, 19 years on after I first used one, and actually 10 years after I got this one.
Flash back to 10 years ago to 2000, I was in high school (I went to a private boarding school) and saw a Platinum Apple IIe, complete with an AppleColor Composite Monitor IIe and Apple 5.25" drive on the verge of being thrown out. Story has it that some primary school kids got it, found it didn't work and then ripped all the wires apart. The machine was toast, but the monitor was still good, and I was fairly sure the drive was as well, as the kids hadn't touched it. Anyway, I saved it and had a look...from what I could tell the logic board was dead. Kinda expected it too - Grade 6/7 kids who hate Macs aren't exactly always gentle with computer guts.
In 2005 I got my hands on a logic board, original Apple II Serial Interface card and Disk ][ card. Replaced the logic board and tried powering it up. Still dead. It was the power supply. At this time I was going through a bit of a rough point in my life so I just let it be.
In 2007 I got another Apple IIe Enhanced with a good PSU, but dead logic board, along with an Apple ColorMonitor IIe (basically the same as the AppleColor Composite Monitor IIe) and Apple 5.25" drive. At this point I had everything I needed to build myself a working IIe, but due to time constraints (with university and all) I wasn't able to find time to do it. My lack of software also kinda killed my inclination to do it.
Flash forward to last week - I decided to pull out the IIes and swap the good bits from the Enhanced into the Platinum. Hooked the Enhanced's PSU up to the Platinum and powered it up. It worked! And then the unthinkable happened....
*BANG* *BANG* *fizz* *fizz* followed by that wonderful burning silicon smell. :'( The machine kept running but I turned it off straight away, don't want a fire or anything like that. Time to go to Plan B: Hack up an AT power supply. So thats what I did - got the pinouts for both the Apple II power supply connector and the AT motherboard connector and hacked up a spare AT power supply to suit. Plugged it into the board and turned it on, to hear that wonderful *BEEP* and see "Apple //e" come up on the screen. Now to the next part - getting software. I downloaded ADT and installed it on one of my PCs and transferred the ADT client over to the //e. I now had a bootable disk with at least one piece of software for the IIe - ADT. Yay. After doing some Googling I discovered that a lot of Beagle Bros' software is now freeware. I'm mostly looking to use my //e as a retro games machine, so I downloaded I.O. Silver and transferred that across, giving me another piece of software (a game, at that) to play with.
I have to say - considering that this machine was on the chopping block (literally) 10 years ago, it is pretty damn cool to see it actually running software once again, even if just about every part apart from the keyboard and case has been replaced. I've since loaded it with a Super Serial Card, 64k/80 column expansion card, Apple 5.25" controller and one drive (need to find the other), Apple ColorMonitor IIe, and what may be the most interesting part - an "Echo II" voice synthesiser - something I'm really quite looking forward to playing with.
Anyhoo, now for a pic:
Flash back to 10 years ago to 2000, I was in high school (I went to a private boarding school) and saw a Platinum Apple IIe, complete with an AppleColor Composite Monitor IIe and Apple 5.25" drive on the verge of being thrown out. Story has it that some primary school kids got it, found it didn't work and then ripped all the wires apart. The machine was toast, but the monitor was still good, and I was fairly sure the drive was as well, as the kids hadn't touched it. Anyway, I saved it and had a look...from what I could tell the logic board was dead. Kinda expected it too - Grade 6/7 kids who hate Macs aren't exactly always gentle with computer guts.
In 2005 I got my hands on a logic board, original Apple II Serial Interface card and Disk ][ card. Replaced the logic board and tried powering it up. Still dead. It was the power supply. At this time I was going through a bit of a rough point in my life so I just let it be.
In 2007 I got another Apple IIe Enhanced with a good PSU, but dead logic board, along with an Apple ColorMonitor IIe (basically the same as the AppleColor Composite Monitor IIe) and Apple 5.25" drive. At this point I had everything I needed to build myself a working IIe, but due to time constraints (with university and all) I wasn't able to find time to do it. My lack of software also kinda killed my inclination to do it.
Flash forward to last week - I decided to pull out the IIes and swap the good bits from the Enhanced into the Platinum. Hooked the Enhanced's PSU up to the Platinum and powered it up. It worked! And then the unthinkable happened....
*BANG* *BANG* *fizz* *fizz* followed by that wonderful burning silicon smell. :'( The machine kept running but I turned it off straight away, don't want a fire or anything like that. Time to go to Plan B: Hack up an AT power supply. So thats what I did - got the pinouts for both the Apple II power supply connector and the AT motherboard connector and hacked up a spare AT power supply to suit. Plugged it into the board and turned it on, to hear that wonderful *BEEP* and see "Apple //e" come up on the screen. Now to the next part - getting software. I downloaded ADT and installed it on one of my PCs and transferred the ADT client over to the //e. I now had a bootable disk with at least one piece of software for the IIe - ADT. Yay. After doing some Googling I discovered that a lot of Beagle Bros' software is now freeware. I'm mostly looking to use my //e as a retro games machine, so I downloaded I.O. Silver and transferred that across, giving me another piece of software (a game, at that) to play with.
I have to say - considering that this machine was on the chopping block (literally) 10 years ago, it is pretty damn cool to see it actually running software once again, even if just about every part apart from the keyboard and case has been replaced. I've since loaded it with a Super Serial Card, 64k/80 column expansion card, Apple 5.25" controller and one drive (need to find the other), Apple ColorMonitor IIe, and what may be the most interesting part - an "Echo II" voice synthesiser - something I'm really quite looking forward to playing with.
Anyhoo, now for a pic:
