Apple II clone - screen full of apples on boot

[wottle]

I finally got around to trying to figure out this old Apple II clone I picked up some years back (it was one of my first vintage purchases and I had no idea what I was doing).
Anyway, it was booting to gibberish on the video out and I read it was likely RAM related. So I removed all the RAM and added just the first bank back. I was able? Through trial and error, to get to where it would boot to a solid white screen.
I also read it could be a CPU issue. So I grabbed the processor from a working IIe platinum and I was able to get further. Now when it boots, I get a full screen full of Apple characters.

I couldn’t find anyone else experiencing this. Is it a ROM issue? Something because it’s a clone? Any guidance would be appreciated!

 

[jdmcs]

Maybe it's an early clone without auto-reset capability? In that case, try Reset or Ctrl-Reset.

A photo of the motherboard would be helpful so we could see which clone it is (and by extension, which Apple II it is a clone of).

 

[wottle]

Yeah, made some progress and posted updates on another forum. So it appears it is a clone that is using a real Apple II board. The problem appears to have been from a bad socket on one of the first row memory chips. I replaced all the sockets and I can get to the Apple II ] prompt. I tried loading a disk image from audio using Asciiexpress.net but I get errors. Possibly due to low memory, or maybe there are other issues because I’m getting some very inconsistent behavior still (sometimes I still get garbage on startup; maybe a trace that is broken but making inconsistent contact?).
This board may simply be beyond my ability to repair without a good supply of replacement chips / a known good machine to be able to test individual chips.

 

[jdmcs]

Even though you have a clone, this book might be useful for troubleshooting: https://vintageapple.org/apple_ii/pdf/Apple_II_Plus_IIe_Troubleshooting_&_Repair_Guide_1984.pdf

Inconsistent behavior at power on could be a failing 555 timer, as garbage on screen could be that the CPU hasn’t cleared the contents of memory because it’s stuck in reset.

 

[Kay K.M.Mods]

I think your clone's F8 ROM is 2716((IDK because there's no picture), so try burning that ROM and testing it.
Try this:

GitHub - misterblack1/appleII_deadtest: ROM based March-U RAM test for the Apple II

ROM based March-U RAM test for the Apple II. Contribute to misterblack1/appleII_deadtest development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Dead test runs without using ROM (only with its own ROM). If there is something wrong with the logic circuit, the test will be aborted, good luck.