Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!agate!shelby!portia!kodali From: kodali@portia.Stanford.EDU (VAS KODALI) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Hard Drives and Slots Message-ID: <3622@portia.Stanford.EDU> Date: 14 Jul 89 19:39:41 GMT References: <8907071717.AA01377@crash.cts.com> <35@microsoft.UUCP> Sender: VAS KODALI Reply-To: kodali@Portia.Stanford.EDU (VAS KODALI) Organization: Stanford University Lines: 38 >In article <8907071717.AA01377@crash.cts.com> pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-europa!henryh@nosc.mil writes: > >The "traditional" places came about simply so that you wouldn't have to >spend so much time setting the software to find each of your cards. Most >software defaults to looking for a card in the standard slot, but should >allow the owner to change that. Eventually, coders stopped allowing >configurable code (which does save them a little work, like writing a >relocation program to reconfigure the addresses if they didn't use indexed >addressing like Apple recommends). > >If a lazy Apple II programmer assumes that the disk will be in slot 6, >then that code won't work if the drive is in another slot. > In an addendum to this - I was called in one time by the teacher at the local high school, who wanted to know why certain programs wouldn't work on certain Apples. (I think the programs were Print Shop and/or Karateka) Since both programs are copy-protected, I naturally assumed that something simple, like drive speed was off, or they needed cleaning. After spending two hours cleaning, adjusting, and being thoughrally (sp) mystified, I popped the cover on the //e and took a look inside... Lo and behold, the drive controller card was in slot 5! Putting the card into slot 6 fixed all the problems. Later on, I went back and did a "boot-code trace" on the programs - turned out that the loader (custom) was hard-coded for slot 6. Nasty, nasty, nasty. >Brian Willoughby >UseNet/UUCP ...!{sun!uw-beaver!uunet}!microsoft!brianw >Bitnet microsoft!brianw@Sun.COM > brianw@microsoft.UUCP Chan Wilson kodali@portia.stanford.edu or octopus!chan@apple.com