One of the reasons for this procedures is to narrow down possible reasons of malfunction.

That saves a lot of time and besides it also is a kind of standard routine that helps to detect most of the common problems that may occur  when a system is resurrected.

The very start is to prepare the tests:
 

Unplug all interface cards and markup at the card with an adhesive label the slot
where the card has been unplugged from.

All cards shall be stored in antistatic bags while remaining unplugged
due to the  fact that quite a lot of that cards contain static sensitive chips.
Next all chips should be examined if they are inserted with correct orientation in the sockets. The white silk screen
printing at the mainboard indicates the correct orientation by display of the notch side from the chip.
There are quite a lot of different versions of the unenhanced and enhanced IIe model out there. Due to the fact that most of that computers had former owners it's a good idea at this moment to detect which model it is. The first basic point to examine will be the CPU. If the CPU is a 65C02 there is a good chance that it is a enhanced //e. But in some cases only the CPU has been changed and leaving the old ROMs inside - the upgrade is not complete ! Therefor you should also examine the ROMs and note the Apple no.s ( 34N-NNNN ). some bad mistake result from mixing wrong ROMs with each other. Therefor you schould compare your list with legal Set-Versions of the ROMs depending the the language version.

If everything seems to be correct up till now you may try a firts very short "test.powerup". Pay at this moment attention and compare the display with the 2 displays below.

No, if it's showing "][e" on the boot up, it's not enhanced. When enhanced it'll show "//e". To enhance one of these you need to replace four specific ROM chips, and change the CPU from a 6502 to a 65c02. These five chips are collectively known as the Enhancement Kit. To run the built-in self-test, push both the [open apple] and [closed apple] keys on startup. Or if the machine is already running, push [open apple], [closed apple], and reset. If the Apple //e in question is a platinum model, substitute [closed apple] with the [option] key.   If all is well, you will get the message of either "KERNEL OK" (on an unenhanced //e) or "System OK" (on an enhanced //e); otherwise you will get an error message indicating what is wrong (Google will be your friend in this case).

The most remarkable difference between the previous Apple II an II+ models and the Apple //e is the extreme reduction of the amount of used digital logic chips on the mainboard. Apple performed this task by replacing those chips and integrating their functions in so called "LSI" chips ( LSI= Large Scale Integration )- Its like a coin---- the situation has two faces: The advantage: by reducing tha amount of chips the amount of used electric power became reduced and the reduction also was an advantage to reliability by reducing the amount of logic chips that might fail. The big disadvantage at the other side are the 3 LSI chips themselves. That are so called "Custom Chips" that have been made only for Apple and never have been released to public distribution or sale due to patents - and Apple does not have any spares anymore. The 3 Custom chips are the MMU. the IOU and the HAL chip. Some additional information about the functions of the chips on board: The  HAL chip ( Apple Chip No.: 341-0170-A ) is among the 3 custom chips the smallest LSI chip. It devides the basic system oscillator frequency of 14 Megahertz to the lower core frequencies used in the other chips and signal busses and synchronizes the communication among the components along that system busses. The chip is rather sensible and resulting from the small chip package it also produces rather high temperature. A damage of this chip will cause a wide range of malfunctions in the entire system.   The MMU chip ( Apple Chip No.: 343-0010-B ) is responsible for any access  to the extra expanded memory above the 64 Kb limit of the "base" memory. Bear in mind that the 6502 CPU can only adress direct that so called "base" memory of 64Kb that is located on the mainboard. Any additional RAM that adds up the system to a size beyond the 64 Kb limit must be mapped in so called page-mode in chunks of a 16Kb window and that this access is performed by use of the MMU chip ( Memory Management Unit ). That acess to the expanded additional RAM-Memory is performed by use of the so called Memory Expansion slot that also performs the use of the so called 80 column card for extended text display. That Memory expansion slot has other pin connections than the other 7 expansion slots !            The IOU  chip ( Apple Chip No.: 344-0022-A ) ( IOU = Input Output Unit ) handles the communication between the mainboard and the teripherial devices - also the communication by using the seven Interface slots. The general majority of the signals present at the seven Interface Card slots are under Control of the IOU chip. The three custom chips like the HAL-chip might get destroyed by static schock or static discharge or by damaged power supply, the MMU might get damaged by a demaged 80 Card or a damaged RAM-expansion card and the IOU chip can get killed by a damaged (Interfacecard inserted in one of the interface expansion slots. Another reason for damaged power supply can be caused by heat, to heavy load ( more than 2 disk drives in daisychain in conjunction with too many interface cards. But only in very rare conditions all three custom chips get killed. In most cases the two other custom chips survived. So in such case please rescue the remaining intact custom chips by extracting them and storing them at a antistatic foam before salvaging the entire mainboard ! Finally another common Reason for malfunction is to ignore the guidelines of handling static sensitive chips at the enhanced //e and killing the CMOS 65C02 CPU.

Here sketches of the basic mainboard versions :

At the Mainboard there is row of RAM chips: Row 1 is located from F3 to F10 and it's responsible for the memory from 0kB to 64 kB.   The rest of the memory from 64 kB to 128 kB is located  normally inserted in the so called AUX-memory-slot. For the very beginning of the tests it's recommended to start with the very basic system that is required to boot up to the prompt at the display:

This means:   a)  no interfacecard inserted b)  only first 64 kB of RAM inserted c)  keyboard is connected to the mainboard .

Before we start with the testing some additional information about the common RAM chips: It's very strong recommended that all RAM chips in one row are as similar as possible ( same kind, same manufacturer ) !   In general all chips have common kind of marking printed on top of the chip: XX 4164 -nn        XX = Manufacturer       4116 / some more rare times only 416       -nn = timing All chips in one row shall be from same manufacturer ! 4116-15 for example specifies timing to be certified at 150 nano seconds 4116-2 for example specifies timing to be certified at 200 nano seconds 4116-3 for example specifies timing to be certified at 300 nano seconds so in that group above the -15 is fastest   All RAM chips within one row must be of same kind of speed ! This rule overrules the following manufacturer rule ! So first order selection is speed and second order selection is manufacturer ! Another point: All chips with rear / front orientation have pin 1 of the chip at the front ( bottom ) right side and at that chips counting pins is counterclock wise So make sure that at the first row this general rules are obeyed. If your rows are containing mixes of different manufacturers try to get "a clean row" from only one manufacturer. If you have to order memory from any kind of source try to get a "clean row" meaning a set of 8 chips from same manufacturer and same speed !

So now back to the testing: Under normal conditions when switching on power at an Apple IIe  with 64 kB of memory ( only one row of memory plugged in the mainboard ) the computer should issue a short beep and then display the message "APPLE IIe" or "Apple//e" in the top row centered and  the promt "]" should be at the left side 2 rows lower blinking and waiting for input.

the result is: ram: f13 f12 f11 f10 f9 f8 f7 f6 i see that diagnostic test, if there is a ram problem, give something like: 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 indicating which chip is fault,

Without that, I would suggest the following: - Run the built-in system test by holding Open Apple + Close Apple while turning power on. - If SYSTEM OK, you may now proceed to next step adding disk drive controller and 2 drives - but at this point keep the 80 col card/ Ramcard still outside of the system and test only with the testdisks the "base-system" with 64 Kb. If in this first step with disk drives problems rise you might read also this pages.   Only if system passes all tests with 64 Kb you might proceed to next second step adding the 80 col. card and upgrading the system to 128 Kb repeating tests with the upgraded memory.   try one of the many diagnostic disks that are out there:               Apple IIe Diagnostic V2.1.            MECC Computer Inspector       Master Diagnostic //e           XPS Diagnostic         In the case that you do not have one of this disks look for a friend that has a working Apple II with working Disk II drives. Then that person may download this images and make that disks for you. The images are for 5,25 double sided double density floppy disks. After downloading the images to PC use ADT or  ADTpro  to generate at the Apple II the Testdisks.   - If all that fails, short of having an oscilloscope, the only way to check a motherboard would be to replace all chips with those from a known working logic board.

If this does not happen the problem may be split in 7 groups of problems:
 

1 ) Voltage
In most cases such a mistake will result to no display at all.

2) CPU

In most cases such a mistake will result to no display at all.

3) Adressingbus

In such a case in general the display will crash and only display four or eight large vertical

orientated squares or square bars.

4) Databus
 

In such a case in general the display will crash and only display four or eight large vertical

orientated squares or square bars.

5) RAM chips

In such a case in general you will get a display of "splashing random characters".

6) ROM chips

If the trouble is caused by the ROM in most cases the computer will crash to a monitor prompting sign
 "*" and several lines of monitor codes might also be displayed.

   =========================================================================  

Depending to the kind of error related to the number given above and to the tools you have availiable

there will be different kinds of solution to narrow down the problem to a specific chip.

7) other reasons

this will be treated in a later section.

1 )

Well in this case - and it's one of the very first things to check out - by measuring the voltages direct at the
voltage input plug of the mainboard. You should set your multimeter to DC 20 Volt.
The black testing cable shall be positioned either at the left or the right lower ( frontside ) of the powerplug

at the pin marked as Ground. The red testing cable shall be used for measurements.
It then should display the demanded voltages in a range within 6% of the specified volts.
 

- 12,8 Volt to - 11,2 Volt                 + 4,7 Volt  to + 5, 3 Volt

- 4,7 Volt to - 5,3 Volt      + 11,2 Volt to + 12,8 Volt

If one of the voltages or more do not match within specified values the power supply unit must be corrected in next step

to avoid damage to the IC's ! This is also valid if the power supply unit itself issues unusual noise or abnormal smell.
In case of smell the problem is normally caused by leaking electrolytic capacitor. In such case it's recommended to issue a task called "recapping" the power supply - which is a term for exchange of the most electrolytic capacitors.

In a few days i will add / update this page with a detailed description of this specific task.

If you have an oscilloscope and are a bit experienced it's also not a bad idea to check the voltages at various measurement points

in the front rows B and C and hunt for so called "spikes" that may disturb randomly the function of the computer and indicate that

a capacitor is not any more within its specified limits of ESR value.
 

http://www.applefritter.com/?q=content/apple-power-supply-capacitor

additional information about powersupplies at:

http://www.appleii-box.de/D04_allabotpowersupplies.htm
 

 
2)

In case of a damaged CPU there is only one solution: exchange of the CPU and replacement of the damaged IC.
It's recommended to use for replacement -if possible - a CPU of same kind ( type and manufacturer ).

3)

In case of adressing port malfunction one or more of the 3 adressing port chips

4)

In case of trouble with the databus there are 4 sources of trouble possible:
 

5)

In case of this kind of trouble you might swap chip by chip one RAM chip .

6)

If a ROM is bad in general the adresses displayed in the previous line before the monitor prompt are within a similar range.



Just for a hint of interpretation what trouble causes which kind of screen.....
Here some common "crash" boot screens and explenation of the related problems below that screenshot:

	This kind of screen or similar black/white screen is displayed in very early bootup stage if adressing line or dataline is not working. This kind of mistake is not related to a single RAM chip but rather more to the chips controlling the data- or adressing busses ! It's not even able to display the characters so also that bus between Char ROM and RAM is also affected.		This kind of screen or similar black/white screen is displayed in very early bootup stage if adressing line or dataline is not working. This kind of mistake is not related to a single RAM chip but rather more to the chips controlling the data- or adressing busses ! It's able to display the characters so that bus between Char ROM and RAM is OK.
	This kind of screen or similar black/white screen is displayed in later bootup stage if adressing line or dataline is not working. This kind of mistake is not related to a single RAM chip but rather more to the chips controlling the data- or adressing busses ! It's not even able to display the characters so also that bus between Char ROM and RAM is also affected. In such case it's in most cases related to the Databus and not the adressingbus.		This kind of screen or similar black/white screen is displayed in later bootup stage if adressing line or dataline is not working. This kind of mistake might be related to a single RAM chip - but rather more it's related to the chips controlling the data- or adressing busses !  In such case it's in most cases related to the Databus and not the adressingbus.
	This kind of screen or similar black/white screen is displayed in later bootup stage if adressing line or dataline is not working. This kind of mistake might be related to a single RAM chip - but rather more it's related to the chips controlling the data- or adressing busses !  In such case it's in most cases related to the Databus and not the adressingbus.		This kind of screen appears if the bootup procedure is nearly completed - but a stuck key feeds the computer input permanent preventing the systems to finish and remain at the promt waiting for input.
	This is a display related to a rather early crash to the Low resolution graphics screen. It's rather often related to trouble at the Data or adressing bus lines.		This is a display related to a rather early crash to the Low resolution graphics screen. It's rather often related to trouble at the Data or adressing bus lines.
	This is a display related to a rather early crash to the Low resolution graphics screen. It's rather often related to trouble at the Data or adressing bus lines.		This is a display related to a rather early crash to the Low resolution graphics screen. It's rather often related to trouble at the Data or adressing bus lines.
	This kind of crash to memory in monitor mode might occur if a programm crashes to bad RAM by "out of memory"-error and some similar kind of screen may also apear if the system crashes resulting from damaged ROM.		This is a crash related to later after bootup when a program crashes to a crashscreen.
	This kind of display may show after bootup is completed when starting a game with hires screen and if there is a bad RAM chip within the second or third row of RAM that is containing the Hires drawings of the game.		This kind of screen appears after bootup has completed - but the access to the character ROM is disturbed or damaged and text get's displayed with wrong characters.
	This is a problem commen at the German Apple europlus: It's displayed if the Apple II europlus has the German Character Rom inserted without a switch that eneables to choose between US and German characters.		This screen is displayed if the 72LS02 at position B14 is damaged.
	This kind of display may show after bootup is completed when starting a game with hires screen and if there is a bad RAM chip within the second or third row of RAM that is containing the Hires drawings of the game.		This is displayed if the Monitor can't catch the vertical Sync-signal within the videosignal. In most cases it can be solved by adjusting at the Monitor.

7)

This section will be added at later date

If the Computer starts up regular and displays prompt:

The next step after this will be to add the diskcontroller to slot 6 and try to boot from disk !
First try to boot the DOS masterdisk or a ProDOS master disk.
Next if you have a testing disk like the dealers confidence disk or a Master testdisk or a testdisk from XPS then you should

run all tests including the memory tests

then the keyboard test

the display test

the ROM tests.

Before adding additional cards it's also recommended to check the function and speed of the attached diskdrives.
This kind of procedures is explained at this pages and it's follow up pages.

Then you may start adding the remaining cards step by step to their slots

preferrably to their default slots:

sloot 0 allready occupied by languagecard or 16 kB RAM card.

slot 1 => Printer Interface card
slot 2 => Serial or super serial interface card

slot 3 => 80 column card

slot 4 => Z80 CPU / CPM card or alternating CPU card.

slot 5 => soundcard or additional card for storage ( RAMdisk card, Controller for Harddisk IDE or SCSI  or second disk controller card )

slot 6 allready occupied by diskcontroller

slot 7 => special videocard or RGB card or additional card for RAMdisk or Harddisk interface.
 

Description of "normal" bootup behaviour:

i remember that several months ago i made in a thread a complex description to the booting process of a computer in general and explaining the steps performed within this process...

for the second question the correct answer is also not that simple...
so in short the row of steps performed when the apple II is switched on ( and that is valid to nearly every computer )
1. power up and CPU starts performing arbitrary cycles of instruction code....
2. the cpu starts to read and perform the instructions in the so called "BIOS"-ROM ( in the apple II the F8-ROM - its called there the "autostart" ROM sometimes... )
BIOS is the abreviation from Basic Input Output System
3. reading this ROM tells the cpu how to operate the accesses with the peripherial devices ( like devices attached in the slots - i.e. interfacecards like the printercard or the DISK II Interfacecard )
4. while the computer performs this reading it performs besides a short memory check...
in modern computers this self check is more complex and ends up with a short "beep"...
at the apple II this task is smaller and ends up with a short "beep" too
5. If no disk-drive-controller is inserted - that will be the point where the computer will display the Basic-prompt and wait for instructions.....
6. If a disk-drive-controller is inserted the computer then will try to load a Disk-Operating-System ( i.e. DOS )from the diskette inserted in the drive .... ( as explained formerly thats the point were the DISK II Drivelight turns on and the motor starts spinning and the door of the drive should be closed gently to protect the centerhole against damage... ) and the drive will then start to read from the disk... thats indicated by the stepping of the read/write-head accompanied by some slight sliding-noise when the head slides backward and forward with its "sled" inside the drive.... before that process starts up you hear a short task of "knocking"-noise with short sled-moves because the head is "recalibrated" drawn back to the very outside of the disk and searching there for the track zero .... this task is repeated every time the disk looks up for a specific track and does not find it immediatly ....
7. After the Disk-Operation-System has been loaded entirely into the RAM of the Computer the conputer will look at the diskette if there is a automatic startup-program that shall be performed....
just as sidemark: DOS is not limmited to the so called DOS at the apple II - in fact proDOS, UCSD and CPM are also
Disk-Operation-Systems ....
If the Disk does not contain a DOS-System or if the System-tracks are damaged ( i.e. are not entirely readable ) the computer remains with that spinning noise for quite a while - before it will suspend from attempting the disk and the computer sometimes (!) generates a error-code to the display... ( that depends to the point where the computer gets stuck in the task .... )
8. If the task of reading the DOS to RAM is completed successfully and no startup program is at the disk the computer stops the tasks and turns up the BASIC-prompt ...
9. If the Diskette has a startup-program ( at the DOS-system called "hello" - it will perform that program and turnup with the results of that program and then display the Basic-prompt.... ( for example - some "hello"-programs perform a catalog-instruction and then list up the files contained in the disk or launch a game )

So if you turn on the computer and do not get the Basic-prompt the computer has stuck up somewhere with in the one or other task listed above....

for example a common trap is trying to launch a CPM-disk and no Z80 Card inside at slot 4....
or inserting a disk with no DOS-System on the disk...
another trap in this time is that diskettes are not equipped with eternal life...
if stored in wrong mannor or due to age a disk might "loose" its contents....
this is related to the fact that magnetic information on the disk surface is not really
"permanent" - it might weaken by age... this can be avoided by using the disks time by time
and rereading and resaving the contents... this "refreshes" the contents of the disk...


 

when booting from a disk the quality of the used disk ( specially the centering hole )
might be important:
the whiring is in fact the spinning of the motor and the turning of the disk material in the cover.....
with growing experience you might determine if the disk is aligned correct in the drive....
some drives spin up the motor when inserting the disk to help align the disk in proper position ( usually those with half-height construction and some clones of the APPLE DISK II .... the APPLE DISK II does not do this normally....
the spin up of the motor is performed in this drives when the diskette passes an internal light barrier...
the purpose is not to damage the centerhole when closing the drive because most old diskettes ( specially the cheaper ones ) are rather not very hard and mis-aligning the diskette might damage that hole... better and more expensive diskettes have on the one or other side an aditional plastic ring to protect the alignment center hole...
at the apple two it is therefor usefull behavior to close the front door while the motor is spinning - to protect the diskette for expanding the lifetime of the diskette...