I picked up a working apple iie for a pretty low price two months ago and I've been working on it as a christmas present for my dad ever since. (We both like vintage apple products!) When I bought the computer, I also purchased an untested disk drive meant for the original ii. The guy at the store gave me an adapter card for the logic board for free with it so I could still use it with the iie. (The card is placed correctly in slot 6.)
During my initial demos with the computer, the disk drive passed all tests: electricity flowed, the motor worked, it could read and write disks, etc. I didn't want to computer to be an empty shell when I give it to him, so I started making software with the cassette port hooked up to my MacBook using the audio files from the apple disk archive website. A friend of mine brought me some double density diskettes to work on, and I made a copy of both Oregon Trail disks and the most recent version of PROdos.
Everything worked fine at first.
About two weeks ago, I was in the lab with the computer to test play Oregon Trail to make sure everything transfered ok, only this week the apple iie couldn't seem to boot the disks. I don't know a thing about the ][ disk drive so I really wasn't sure what to do. I took it apart and made sure everything was secure, but the disk still wouldn't boot. I cleaned the read-head, but it really didnt seem that dirty, and it didn't solve the problem either. A colleague of mine played around with the very back-most and largest connector on the main board, which seemed to do the trick, so I walked away assuming it had simply come loose.
A few days later, I attempted to boot again, and had the same problem. This time, I thought perhaps it was an issue with the rails the read-head sits on, since moving the track back and forth seemed to fix the issue this time around.
TODAY, I took the whole thing apart and cleaned most of the inner-surfaces of it with alcohol. I also specially removed the rails, and cleaned them entirely. To my dismay, the disk still would not boot. And even weirder, when we hooked it up to an ACTUAL iie disk drive today, it still would not boot, which made me fear that the actual computer is having issues.
I'm at a total loss right now since tonight was my last workshop night before I come home for the holidays. Nothing seems visibly wrong with the disk drive, iie logic board, serial cards, etc. I just won't boot. I really wanted to gift this computer in a fairly working condition with something to do/play.
I did realize tonight however that I've been storing the computer and the disks under my bed when its not in use. I often have a large window cracked open right against the bed because the heat in our dorm works too well. As you can imagine, the December cools the room down pretty fast, but it ESPECIALLY effects the area under my bed, probably reaching temps below 50 degrees F, meaning its possible I actually just ****ing froze all my diskettes.
What should I do at this point? Is the frozen floppy diskettes theory possible at all?
During my initial demos with the computer, the disk drive passed all tests: electricity flowed, the motor worked, it could read and write disks, etc. I didn't want to computer to be an empty shell when I give it to him, so I started making software with the cassette port hooked up to my MacBook using the audio files from the apple disk archive website. A friend of mine brought me some double density diskettes to work on, and I made a copy of both Oregon Trail disks and the most recent version of PROdos.
Everything worked fine at first.
About two weeks ago, I was in the lab with the computer to test play Oregon Trail to make sure everything transfered ok, only this week the apple iie couldn't seem to boot the disks. I don't know a thing about the ][ disk drive so I really wasn't sure what to do. I took it apart and made sure everything was secure, but the disk still wouldn't boot. I cleaned the read-head, but it really didnt seem that dirty, and it didn't solve the problem either. A colleague of mine played around with the very back-most and largest connector on the main board, which seemed to do the trick, so I walked away assuming it had simply come loose.
A few days later, I attempted to boot again, and had the same problem. This time, I thought perhaps it was an issue with the rails the read-head sits on, since moving the track back and forth seemed to fix the issue this time around.
TODAY, I took the whole thing apart and cleaned most of the inner-surfaces of it with alcohol. I also specially removed the rails, and cleaned them entirely. To my dismay, the disk still would not boot. And even weirder, when we hooked it up to an ACTUAL iie disk drive today, it still would not boot, which made me fear that the actual computer is having issues.
I'm at a total loss right now since tonight was my last workshop night before I come home for the holidays. Nothing seems visibly wrong with the disk drive, iie logic board, serial cards, etc. I just won't boot. I really wanted to gift this computer in a fairly working condition with something to do/play.
I did realize tonight however that I've been storing the computer and the disks under my bed when its not in use. I often have a large window cracked open right against the bed because the heat in our dorm works too well. As you can imagine, the December cools the room down pretty fast, but it ESPECIALLY effects the area under my bed, probably reaching temps below 50 degrees F, meaning its possible I actually just ****ing froze all my diskettes.
What should I do at this point? Is the frozen floppy diskettes theory possible at all?
