BEGINNER getting started (Was: Diagnosing and Reparing Commo

On Sun, 24 Jun 2012, Tony Duell wrote: Nor mine. For that matter, Tony won't like my answers, either :-) Maybe NOBODY will like the suggestions that I'm making off the top of my head, . . . Step ONE: The first tool for you to buy is a DISPOSABLE multimeter. You WILL buy a better one. LATER. When you have a clue what it is and can do, have learned what can damage it, and have learned what aspects of the cheap one are intolerable. YES, there are dome aspects of that cheap one that are HORRIBLE! THIS one is only for learning about multimeters. Go to Harbor Freight Tools or online at harborfreight.com The list price is $9.95 , but they are often on sale in their retail stores for $3.99, $2.99, or free with a coupon! #98025 #92020 or #69096 Take apart one of their $1 or free with coupon flashlights. How many things can you measure of it? What happens if you use the wrong scale, or get it backwards? measure everything else within reach! Keep YOURSELF clear of everything! Killing yourself while measuring a mains outlet could set you back! WHEN you blow up the meter, go get another one, and remember what you did, so that you won't ever do THAT again. NOW, for the big moment, . . . measure all of the voltages of the C64 power supply! (a likely cause of the problems, anyway!) Look up what each voltage is supposed to be, and decide whether they are close enough. Even bigger excitement, . . . Open the case! Find where ground is, and where it is supposed to be. Now find where voltage (typically 5V DC) is supposed to be. Measure it EVERYWHERE that it is supposed to be, including the power input pin of every chip. Studying the "pinout" of chips to find out which one that is supposed to be is one of your first "research" assignments. (HINT: it will be the same on MOST of the chips) Do NOT touch anything in the power supply of a computer until you get to the point of knowing what can or can't bite or kill you. Most of us have been thrown across a room now and then - best not to duplicate all of our stupid moves. STEP TWO: Buy a cheap soldering iron, and some 60/40 rosin core lead solder. ($5) You WILL buy a better one LATER. In fact, you will NEVER use this POS one on ANYTHING that you want to keep! Take a stack of SCRAP boards, that are irreparable and useless (you said that your friend had destroyed some, . . . ) Unsolder a large resistor from one of the boards. Unsolder another one. Solder them back on. remove EVERY component from the board. Put every one back on. How many did you get backwards? How many did you destroy? Once you've soldered and desoldered everything on a few boards, Start planning to buy a REAL ("temperature controlled") soldering iron. (try flea markets, eBay, etc.) You might find the POS one to be useful for rewiring lamps and toasters, etc., but once you've used a REAL soldering iron, you'll never want to touch the POS again. STEP THREE: Get a better screwdriver for taking apart your computers. A cheap one with 1/4" bits will do until you understand WHY you need a better one. STEP FOUR: Learn resistor color codes. Do you know what an ohm is? farad? "If your car headlight draws 10 amps, how many watts is it?" Read a few basic electronics books. Used textbooks from the local community college, perhaps? Maybe even TAKE some of those classes! "Art of Electronics" by Horowitz is GREAT, but it costs money. Got relatives who XMAS shop? STEP FIVE: Buy some kits and assemble them. Now get them to WORK. STEP SIX: Watch for deals on cheap (used) logic probes and even [oscillo]scopes. Even a POS scope is fun to play with (what does the speaker signal of your hi-fi look like?, if you put the left channel on the X axis, and right channel on the Y axis, what do you get?) and to learn how to use one, and to learn what you want to get when you invest in a "REAL" one. STEP SEVEN: Get all of the technical documents for all of the machines that you want to work on, or are even just curious about STEP EIGHT: Read up on the start-up process for computers, particularly the ones that you want to work on. "How can you tell whether the microprocessor is getting clock?" STEP NINE: Have you learned enough about your cheap tools to know what to look for, and what YOU want, in some decent tools? STEP TEN: Fix the computers. If you got this far, you've almost certainly abandoned these "silly steps", and have taken off on more interesting projects and tangents.