I recently acquired a NIB Apple IIe card and put it in a Quadra 605. Everything works just fine, except when I tried to hook up a 5.25 floppy drive (A9M0107), the IIe card doesn't seem to recognize it. I've tried two different drives that were claimed to be in working order, and neither works for me. I have some old 5.25 disks I'd like to use, so this is driving me crazy. Unfortunately, I don't know if I have two dud disk drives, or a dud IIe card or Y cable. As I said, this card was NIB (shrinkwrapped), although the Y cable is pretty discolored. Any ideas how I can narrow down the problem?
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Help: Apple IIe Card (for LC) 5.25 floppy issues
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I'm assuming and hoping this is not a repack sealed box...
First does your cable have two ends on it? One with a little joystick icon, and one with a floppy disk?
If you have the right cable that's a good start. IF you have something else that say has and audio plug on it, or multiple other connections they could have slipped you a PC Dos card cable, or something which is not going to work.
I don't remember if you have to set the drive up in the iie card slot assignment or not. You might want to check that you also have Slot 6 mapped to a floppy drive in the software too.
Knocking the rust off the brain with this one for sure.
Good luck! I hope you have the correct cable however!
First does your cable have two ends on it? One with a little joystick icon, and one with a floppy disk?
If you have the right cable that's a good start. IF you have something else that say has and audio plug on it, or multiple other connections they could have slipped you a PC Dos card cable, or something which is not going to work.
I don't remember if you have to set the drive up in the iie card slot assignment or not. You might want to check that you also have Slot 6 mapped to a floppy drive in the software too.
Knocking the rust off the brain with this one for sure.
Good luck! I hope you have the correct cable however!
The cable is correct---it has the joystick connector as well as the floppy connector. I have the floppy controller set up in slot 6, but when I tell the emulator to boot from slot 6, it tells me no device is connected. The drive doesn't whir, and the power light doesn't flash either.
A couple things can cause this:
- If you are using a mix of 5.25" and 3.5" external drives, make sure the 3.5" drives are connected FIRST (i.e. closer to the computer) on the Y-cable.
- The only 5.25" drive that's compatible is the "Apple 5.25 Drive" (model #A9M0107). You cannot use the "UniDisk 5.25" (model #A9M0104), even though it looks pretty much identical on the outside. Both drives use the same 19-pin connector, but the UniDisk 5.25 requires -12 volts, which the Macintosh LC doesn't support. You can look on the bottom of the drives to find their model numbers.
- The metal frame around the 19-pin connector on the drive's cable can sometimes get bent at the corners. That can keep the plug from connecting firmly, which can cause the IIe card to not see the drive. In any case, I'd suggest unplugging the cable, checking that all the pins are straight, and ensuring you carefully re-plug it in and re-tighten both screws.
I had exactly the same symptoms as you when I first set up my own IIe card in an LC475. In that case, everything looked fine and I knew I was using the correct model of drives (I had two Apple 5.25 Drives daisy changed). But the computer would simply ignore the drives completely. Turned out I wasn't as observant as I thought, and the second drive on the chain was actually a UniDisk. Darn those identical cases.
If none of the above ideas fix the problem, I'd suggest swapping in a different Apple 5.25 Drive and different drive cable to test.
Good luck. The IIe card (when you get it working) is a real treat, and since the Mac LC can use a cheap VGA adapter, it's one of the easiest ways to get a "real" Apple II experience on a modern monitor or big TV.
- If you are using a mix of 5.25" and 3.5" external drives, make sure the 3.5" drives are connected FIRST (i.e. closer to the computer) on the Y-cable.
- The only 5.25" drive that's compatible is the "Apple 5.25 Drive" (model #A9M0107). You cannot use the "UniDisk 5.25" (model #A9M0104), even though it looks pretty much identical on the outside. Both drives use the same 19-pin connector, but the UniDisk 5.25 requires -12 volts, which the Macintosh LC doesn't support. You can look on the bottom of the drives to find their model numbers.
- The metal frame around the 19-pin connector on the drive's cable can sometimes get bent at the corners. That can keep the plug from connecting firmly, which can cause the IIe card to not see the drive. In any case, I'd suggest unplugging the cable, checking that all the pins are straight, and ensuring you carefully re-plug it in and re-tighten both screws.
I had exactly the same symptoms as you when I first set up my own IIe card in an LC475. In that case, everything looked fine and I knew I was using the correct model of drives (I had two Apple 5.25 Drives daisy changed). But the computer would simply ignore the drives completely. Turned out I wasn't as observant as I thought, and the second drive on the chain was actually a UniDisk. Darn those identical cases.
If none of the above ideas fix the problem, I'd suggest swapping in a different Apple 5.25 Drive and different drive cable to test.
Good luck. The IIe card (when you get it working) is a real treat, and since the Mac LC can use a cheap VGA adapter, it's one of the easiest ways to get a "real" Apple II experience on a modern monitor or big TV.
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