Apple II clone - screen full of apples on boot

wottle

Active Tinkerer
Oct 30, 2021
519
272
63
47
Fort Mill, SC
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.

IMG_0640.jpeg


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

TinkerDifferent Board DoP&G
Staff member
Oct 28, 2021
67
39
18
Central Virginia
youtube.com
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

Active Tinkerer
Oct 30, 2021
519
272
63
47
Fort Mill, SC
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.
 

Kay K.M.Mods

Active Tinkerer
Sep 23, 2021
295
647
93
Tokyo
www.kerosmm.com
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:

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.
 
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