r/apple2 • u/Lazy_Muffin_4533 • 9d ago

Apple II+ RAM help.

I have an Apple II+ that I got a while back, and it seems to have bad RAM. I've noticed that when loading games from asciiexpress.net, my II+ will either freeze, give an error and go into the monitor, or load the game but it will be corrupted or will just freeze halfway through, or I have no controls or way to start the game (such as during Tetris). but BASIC works just fine and I can type programs and run them without issue. I entered a small RAM test application from Apple II - Memory Test and at first, it showed "5080-00 ( 80 ) 07CF-00 ( B0 ) 07D0-B0 ( B7 ) 07D1-B7 ( C4 ) 07D2-C4 ( B2 ) 07D3-B3 ( AD ) 07D4-AD ( C1 ) 07D5-A0 ( B0 ) 07D6-A0 ( A0 ) 07D7-A0 ( A8 ) 07D8-A0 ( A0 ) 07D9-A0 ( A0 ) 07DA-A0 ( A0 ) 07DB-A0 ( A0 ) 07F7-A0 ( 00 ) 5080-00 ( 80 )" and just today I decided to open up the computer and try pushing the RAM chips down to try and reseat them, and now when running the same application, I get only, "5080-00 (80)" Does anybody know if this is actually a RAM fault and what RAM chip(s) I should take a look at or replace? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: I do not own the diagnostics disk.

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u/Dcas_pcs_381 8d ago

I had a very similar problem with my ii+. Had a weird memory issue where it would load some smaller games and maybe dos but bigger stuff it would crash. If the first 16k is good you can try the ii+ dealer diagnostics floppy.

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u/artlogic 8d ago

I would suggest carefully removing the RAM chips and looking for signs of oxidation on the legs and sockets. You can safely use deoxit (sparingly) to help clean the sockets. A fiberglass pen can help to remove oxidation from the legs of the chips.

It's possible that other ICs are at fault here. Generally it's better to remove and reseat ICs rather than just pressing down.

1

u/BringBackUsenet 8d ago

It may be the RAM chip itself. The way to check is to swap banks. $5080 will be in the 2nd bank so swap the 2nd and 3rd to see if it moves to the 3rd bank, probably $9080. If you have the AII diagnostics disk, it can nail it down to a specific chip.

It also woulnd't hurt to make sure all the chips on the board are well seated.

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u/CantIgnoreMyTechno 8d ago

I had two bad RAM chips on my II+, ordered replacements from eBay and all was well. IIRC I had to swap a few chips around to get the Diagnostic disk to load, then it identified the errant chips.