From: Rubywand <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, Oct 12, 1998 4k13

Ron Fucci writes ...
> 
> Thanks for the tip.  What are the major differences between the 01 and
> the 03 ?
>

     Mitchell Spector did a comparison a few months ago:

>>

     The ROM 3 Apple IIgs offers many minor enhancements vs. the ROM-01
which make the machine more functional and pleasant to use:

- You get a machine that is about 5-10% faster for GUI, floppy disk
  loading and RAM Disk operations (due to updated smartport firmware
  and System 5 tools being in ROM).

- A machine that is more flexible when working with AppleTalk and
  slots (you don't have to give up an extra slot and you can stick a
  card in slot 4 and still use the mouse in GS/OS).

- A nicer text Control Panel that lets you resize RAM Disk with a
  warm-boot and a cleaner way to size it too (no min/max size junk).
  Also a 'Mouse' menu and other existing things cleaned up and made
  better.

- A just over 1 megabyte of RAM built-in to start off with; so, you
  can have 5 MB of DMA compatible memory in total.

- The MB0 signal provided in slots 1 through 6, so you can stick
  in a Video Overlay Card _and_ Second Sight in together, and not
  worry about having to reserve slot 3.

- Hardware shadowing of text page 2 with Alternative Display Mode
 (no slowing down your system to a crawl when you see a screen full
  of 2's running 8-bit software).

- A newer ADB keyboard microcontroller with built-in sticky keys,
  keyboard mouse and compatibility with the indicator LEDs
000200000A4C0000064FA46,  on extended keyboards.

- A removable Lithum battery (in a snap case. Just pop the old one
  out when your clock and Control Panel settings stop working).

- Less power consumption and electrical noise from the motherboard,

- A set of pins (location 'S1') on the motherboard to make the text
  Control Panel disappear, making your GS settings tamper proof where
  young children are around

    There are even a couple of more goodies, like the Step/Trace
commands in Monitor or the improved disassembler. Even if you are not a
programmer, they're handy for peeking at SHR graphics still in memory
(from Monitor hit 'S' and then the return key).

    Things like sticky keys and mouse keyboard come in handy too-- like
if you are eating or drinking with one hand, you can still reset the
computer using the other.

    The down side is that some old GS games and demos won't run. However
many of the more worthwhile ones have been patched.

<<

 
> Also, is there any hardware diagnostic info on the web for the IIGS ?

     You can run the built-in diagnostic by holding down the OpenApple
and Option keys and turning ON the computer. A description of the error
codes returned is included in the Csa2ERRLIST.txt FAQs file at ...

for on-line perusing via Netscape, etc. ...
 http://www.grin.net/~cturley/A2.FAQs.and.INFO/CSA2.FAQs/
 ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/applegs/FAQs.and.INFO/A2.Csa2.FAQs/

for downloading or Viewing via an FTP program ...
 ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Faqs/

> I have two, both apparently with bad motherboards and I'm interested
> to know if the fault(s) can be localized to CPU or ROM chips.
> Basically, the machines will not boot from the 3.5 drive.  I would
> have expected that at least BASIC would show up.

 ....

     Usually, when no drive boots, you end up looking at some error
display. After turning ON the computer and failing to boot, try pressing
Control-RESET at the error display. This should get you into Applesoft
BASIC.

     If, upon power-up, the green ON indicator lights and you hear a
BEEP, you are likely to be in fairly good shape. If you can get to
BASIC, things look even better.

     If you can get to BASIC and a 3.5" drive is plugged into the Drive
socket, try inserting a diskette and entering PR#5-- type PR#5 followed
by RETURN. (For testing, have just a single 3.5" drive plugged in.)  The
drive should light and the diskette should boot if it is bootable.

     If everything works except that the diskette does not boot, try
another diskette or try cleaning the R/W heads of the drive using a 3.5"
Head Cleaner disk from Radio Shack.

Rubywand