7 Dec
2002
7 Dec
'02
2:45 p.m.
Hi,
Someone contacted me wanting his Commodore 64 fixed.
Can anyone recommend a person, place or thing?
I don't know where he lives...
Thanks!
Steve.
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7 Dec
7 Dec
3:25 p.m.
What's wrong with it? If it doesn't do anything at all, it's most
likely the power supply, they overheat and burn out easily.
Fortunately, these aren't that hard to construct/find replacements for.
Is it a disk drive related issue? Those 1541 drives go out of alignment
if you look at them funny. I've also heard of the video chips failing,
although I have never seen it happen. Fortunately, there were millions
of C64's sold, so they turn up very frequently. If it's a problem with
the computer itself, it may be simpler to get another one off ebay,
especially if you don't have spare parts or good experience fixing
something like this.
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
On Saturday, December 7, 2002, at 08:47 PM, steve wrote:
Hi,
Someone contacted me wanting his Commodore 64 fixed.
Can anyone recommend a person, place or thing?
I don't know where he lives...
Thanks!
Steve.
__________________________________________________
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Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
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3:57 p.m.
What's wrong with it? If it doesn't do
anything at all, it's most
likely the power supply, they overheat and burn out easily.
Fortunately, these aren't that hard to construct/find replacements for.
Is it a disk drive related issue? Those 1541 drives go out of alignment
if you look at them funny. I've also heard of the video chips failing,
although I have never seen it happen. Fortunately, there were millions
of C64's sold, so they turn up very frequently. If it's a problem with
the computer itself, it may be simpler to get another one off ebay,
especially if you don't have spare parts or good experience fixing
something like this.
CIA (6522) and RAM. In mid 1990's fixed a C64 of bad ram.
Yeah, power supply bricks were weak link.
Cheers,
Wizard
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
Thanks!
> Steve.
8 Dec
8 Dec
9:33 a.m.
--- Sark <ian_primus(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
What's wrong with it? If it doesn't do
anything at all, it's most
likely the power supply, they overheat and burn out easily.
True, but if it has power and doesn't do anything (black screen, etc.),
it's probably the 82S100 PLA. It's much more fragile than any of
the C= custom chips.
Cheapest source - another dead C-64 (with a different problem, obviously).
-ethan
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9:59 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
True, but if it has power and doesn't do anything
(black screen,
etc.), it's probably the 82S100 PLA. It's much more fragile than any
of the C= custom chips.
Guess I know what was wrong with my dead C64 then. No
biggie. I'm trying to
track down a 15-series (1541, etc) drive - anyone got a spare they want rid
of?
Later.
--
Phil.
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/
7 Dec
7 Dec
5:54 p.m.
On Sat, 7 Dec 2002, steve wrote:
Someone contacted me wanting his Commodore 64 fixed.
Can anyone recommend a person, place or thing?
I don't know where he lives...
Commodore 64 Repair Made Easy
1. Pick up broken C64
2. Walk to your parts bin
3. Place C64 in parts bin
4. Go to local thrift store or log on to eBay
5. Search for C64
6. Buy it
7. You have now "fixed" your Commodore 64. Pat yourself on the back for a
job well done.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
8 Dec
8 Dec
7:59 a.m.
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9 Dec
9 Dec
6:22 a.m.
On Sun, 8 Dec 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
Sorry, I couldn't resist ;)
Commodore 64
Repair Made Easy
1. Pick up broken C64
2. Walk to your parts bin
3. Place C64 in parts bin
4. Go to local thrift store or log on to eBay
5. Search for C64
6. Buy it
7. You have now "fixed" your Commodore 64. Pat yourself on the back for a
job well done.
Err, it's just possible that the original poster wants to _learn_ about
computer repair (that's real computer repair, not board-swapping!). The
C64 is a fairly good machine to practice on because they are so common.
If you make a mess of it, you've not done too much real damage. ARD's guide to C64 repair :
1) Check the outputs of the power brick
2) Check the supply voltages at the ICs on the mainboard
3) Check if the master clock is running. Is it getting to the CPU?
4) Check data and address buses for activity. Any lines stuck?
5) Check video circuitry -- is it attempting to access memory? Check
video output signals.
For the novice repairer:
1. Make sure the power supply is working (use a meter, not your tongue)
2. Check if the fuse is blown
3. Swap all the socketed ICs one at a time
4. Swap all the socketed ICs from another (ideally broken) C64
Apologies to Tony.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
6:42 a.m.
New subject: Sharp PC-7100 Configuration Question
I have a question regarding a Sharp PC-7000 series computer. I think mine
is a 7221 or such. It has a hard drive and a floppy drive (FDD)
My problem is that when the computer boots up, I get a "configuration"
error. I can hear the HD spin up but apparently there is nothing on it.
The "configuration" error says to strike F1 to continue and when I do, I
get an error that indicates that the device is not a boot device. The FDD
is never accessed and the FDD light never lights.
So, my questions are these:
1) Is there a source for the configuration diskette somewhere on the
internet, so that I can get a copy of that diskette?
2) What can I do to reset the configuration, since I don't seem to have
FDD access? Ctl-Alt-Setup does not seem to allow me to set the FDD to
boot.
Thanks,
1:05 p.m.
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4:56 p.m.
Your (4) suggests taking parts from a broken C64. This
C64 therefore has
a fault. If that machine and the machine you're repairing have the same
fault (likely if there are small number of 'stock faults') or a fault in
the same chip, then you're not going to get very far...
How long does it take the DEC field service agent to fix a flat tire?
Depends on how many flat tires he brought with him.
5:55 p.m.
How long does it take the DEC field service agent to
fix a flat tire?
Depends on how many flat tires he brought with him.
*rofl* I thought that was IBM field support, though. (Robert, you'll get a
kick out of this :-)
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- Klein bottle for immediate occupancy; inquire within. ----------------------
7:33 p.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
Here's a special project for you, Tony:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2079939801
What's mind boggling is that the seller powered the system on in this
state. I'm sure that if any of the Qbus modules were salvagable, it's
safe to say a smaller number of them are now.
-brian.
10 Dec
10 Dec
4:04 a.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
Brian Chase wrote:
Here's a special project for you, Tony:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2079939801
What's mind boggling is that the seller powered the system on in this
state. I'm sure that if any of the Qbus modules were salvagable, it's
safe to say a smaller number of them are now.
Jerome Fine replies:
I don't know why I am bothering to reply, except to say:
If the seller is dumb, those first two bidders (at $ US 20 and
$ 21.50) must be even dumber. The CPU is an 11/23 quad
board, but the RQDX1 is probably just that - since it looks
like just an RD51. Even in perfect working order and
guaranteed against at least DOA, it would not be worth
even $ US 10.00 in my opinion.
Since the power supply is on the other side, the power supply
might still actually work.
And although the back cover seems intact, the backplane cage
does not seem worth fixing. As for the boards, I don't understand
how the picture can show them as being almost normal with the
kind of damage sustained on the left hand side.
I wonder who actually bid?
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
--
If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail
address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk
e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be
obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the
'at' with the four digits of the current year.
1:55 p.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
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2:05 p.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
>
> Here's a special project for you, Tony:
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2079939801
Since I don't currently have a couple of years
free, could someone please
describe this lot. I assume from the description below that it's a Qbus
PDP11 or MicroVAx in some terrible state...
BA23, looks like somebody drove a bobtail (lorry, to you) over it.
The card cage is crushed. I'd be literally afraid to approach it with
a power cord, much less hit the switch.
I didn't even read on to find out what used to live in it...
Doc
2:39 p.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
On Tuesday, December 10, 2002, at 08:07 PM, Doc Shipley wrote:
BA23, looks like somebody drove a bobtail (lorry, to
you) over it.
The card cage is crushed. I'd be literally afraid to approach it with
a power cord, much less hit the switch.
I didn't even read on to find out what used to live in it...
Unfortunately, the "Hey, I know, lets plug it in and see if it works!"
mindset is pretty common. I heard of someone that spilled something
into a television set (it was not plugged in), then they plugged the
set in and turned it on to test it (big bang). I ALWAYS take a look
inside old hardware that I come across before plugging it in, and have
found a couple things that would have become problems if it had been
powered up in that state, such as screws laying on boards, parts
completely loose in the case, bad wiring jobs, leaky capacitors, etc. I
learned this lesson the hard way very shortly after I started
collecting. Someone gave me a rather dusty XT clone, and I hooked it up
without looking inside first. I flipped the Big Red Switch, and nothing
happened. A few seconds later, the magic smoke escaped. Apparently
something had been wedged into the back of the machine through an empty
card slot, such as a screwdriver or something, because there were a lot
of deep scratches on the motherboard and a nearby serial card, several
small capacitors on the motherboard had been smashed, as well as a
small logic chip. The magic smoke had come from the wiring leading from
the power supply to the motherboard! Two wires had heated up so much
the insulation had melted away. Amazingly enough, the power supply
still worked fine after I patched up the wires, and so did the drives
and non-gouged cards. Fortunately, this was a rather non interesting
computer, and XT clones are very common, so no real loss here, but I
did learn an important lesson in plugging in old hardware without
checking it first!
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
3:15 p.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
Doc Shipley wrote:
On Wed, 11 Dec
2002, Tony Duell wrote:
BA23, looks like somebody drove a
bobtail (lorry, to you) over it.
The card cage is crushed. I'd be literally afraid to approach it with
a power cord, much less hit the switch. Here's a special project for you, Tony:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2079939801
Since I
don't currently have a couple of years free, could someone please
describe this lot. I assume from the description below that it's a Qbus
PDP11 or MicroVAx in some terrible state... from both the crushing and the power on?
Since I have more empty (without even a power supply) BA23
boxes than I can use, there seems NO point in attempting to
repair the backplane/card cage. The RD51 might have escaped
damage due to the vertical bulkhead between the drive and the
crushed area near the stern.
Any one want to pick up a couple of empty BA23 boxes in Toronto?
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
--
If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail
address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk
e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be
obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the
'at' with the four digits of the current year.
16 Dec
16 Dec
2:01 p.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin@classiccmp.org]On
Behalf Of Brian Chase
Sent: 10 December 2002 06:35
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: A project for Tony...
Here's a special project for you, Tony:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2079939801
What's mind boggling is that the seller powered the system on in this
state. I'm sure that if any of the Qbus modules were salvagable, it's
safe to say a smaller number of them are now.
"Something heavy was on top of it?" The mind boggles!
--
adrian/witchy
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
2:26 p.m.
New subject: A project for Tony...
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9 Dec
9 Dec
10:51 p.m.
On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
Sure, but chances are it will work.
Don't get me wrong, I whole-heartedly agree with your philosophy on proper
computer repair. But if you just want to get your machine up and running
quickly so you can play with it, this is one way to do that, as not
everyone has the time, patience or tools to do it the Tony Duell Way(TM)
;)
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
For the novice
repairer:
1. Make sure the power supply is working (use a meter, not your tongue)
2. Check if the fuse is blown
3. Swap all the socketed ICs one at a time
4. Swap all the socketed ICs from another (ideally broken) C64
You have inadvertantly pointed out one thing I object to about mindless
part-swapping.
Your (4) suggests taking parts from a broken C64. This C64 therefore has
a fault. If that machine and the machine you're repairing have the same
fault (likely if there are small number of 'stock faults') or a fault in
the same chip, then you're not going to get very far...
Chip swapping can only be of use if you _know_ all the chips you're
swapping in are good..
10 Dec
10 Dec
1:56 p.m.
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2:55 p.m.
New subject: Fixing a C= 64, was: Can you fix a C64...
On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
I've not repaired many C64s, but I was under the impression that the
82S100 PLA was a common failure. If that's failed in both the 'to be
repaired' machine and the 'parts' machine, you're not going to get
anywhere.
The PLA is the most common chip to fail on a Commodore 64.
The most common thing to fail in the whole C64 setup is the black power
bricks, which are generally considered a piece of garbage.
I'm currently in the process of repairing a SX-64 from a donor C64, and
have managed to get the machine "working" - but there's a break in the
Luma/Chroma lines to the CRT pack.
However the first issue WAS a bad PLA.
Resources I used, aside from a couple C= geeks I know:
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm
In particular, in my case:
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/documents/repair/troubleshooting-c64.txt
funet.fi has schematics, software, ROM dumps, everything.
JP
Chip swapping can only be of use if you _know_ all the
chips you're
swapping in are good..
Sure, but chances are it will work. 
6:47 p.m.
New subject: Fixing a C= 64, was: Can you fix a C64...
I've often seen references to the failure of the Commodore black
power bricks, and fortunately haven't had that experience. Were the
tan ones more or less satisfactory ? Were the tan ones referred to as
the "superbrick" ? What about the 2(4?) pin Vic20 ones ?
Thanks, Lawrence
On 10 Dec 2002, , JP Hindin wrote:
On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
I've not repaired many C64s, but I was under the impression that the
82S100 PLA was a common failure. If that's failed in both the 'to be
repaired' machine and the 'parts' machine, you're not going to get
anywhere.
The PLA is the most common chip to fail on a Commodore 64.
The most common thing to fail in the whole C64 setup is the black power
bricks, which are generally considered a piece of garbage.
I'm currently in the process of repairing a SX-64 from a donor C64, and
have managed to get the machine "working" - but there's a break in the
Luma/Chroma lines to the CRT pack. However the first issue WAS a bad
PLA.
Resources I used, aside from a couple C= geeks I know:
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm
In particular, in my case:
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/documents/repair/troubleshooting-c64.txt
funet.fi has schematics, software, ROM dumps, everything.
JP
lgwalker(a)mts.net
bigwalk_ca(a)yahoo.com
Chip swapping can only be of use if you _know_ all the
chips
you're swapping in are good..
Sure, but chances are it will work. 
9:11 p.m.
New subject: Fixing a C= 64, was: Can you fix a C64...
Lawrence Walker wrote:
I've often seen references to the failure of the Commodore black
power bricks, and fortunately haven't had that experience. Were the
tan ones more or less satisfactory ? Were the tan ones referred to as
the "superbrick" ? What about the 2(4?) pin Vic20 ones ?
Thanks, Lawrence
6:37 p.m.
New subject: Daynafile on generic SCSI card
I was just looking at an email from a fellow with a Daynafile, a few
drivers and docs (waiting to be scanned), and he told me at least one
person told him the Daynafile worked without drivers in OS X using a
generic scsi card. Anybody else try one on a scsi card?
11 Dec
11 Dec
6 a.m.
On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
I've not repaired many C64s, but I was under the impression that the
82S100 PLA was a common failure. If that's failed in both the 'to be
repaired' machine and the 'parts' machine, you're not going to get
anywhere.
Sure, but as I said, and as I will qualify here, chances are probably more
likely that it will work than not.
Chip swapping can only be of use if you _know_ all the
chips you're
swapping in are good..
Sure, but chances are it will work. Time : It's a hobby, right. Who cares how long it
takes
Some people would rather play than work.
Patience : There's always time to bodge it again,
there's never time to
do it right, or something like that.... One thing I've learnt time and
again in classing <anything> repair is that rushing in will often cause
more problems than it solves. I may spend _months_ just examining a
device before even thinking about repairing it.
Tony, it's a Commodore 64 we're talking about. Why must you always tilt
toward the extreme?
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
6:28 a.m.
Sellam Ismail wrote:
Well the C64 was state of the art at one time. :)
This brings up a good point ... how long can one expect to
have the older computers running in the future. 20 years
30 years 50 years? Ben.
Patience :
There's always time to bodge it again, there's never time to
do it right, or something like that.... One thing I've learnt time and
again in classing <anything> repair is that rushing in will often cause
more problems than it solves. I may spend _months_ just examining a
device before even thinking about repairing it.
Tony, it's a Commodore 64
we're talking about. Why must you always tilt
toward the extreme?
12:37 p.m.
On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, ben franchuk wrote:
Sellam Ismail wrote:
Well the C64 was state of the art at one time. :)
Was it when it was released? Considering it's low price, I doubt it could
be called 'state of the art'. That's like calling the Walmart $200 PC
state of the art when it was introduced (IMHO)... not that I'm saying a
C64 is the same quality of a machine, but they seem like comparable
circumstances.
Pat
--
Purdue Universtiy ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www-rcd.cc.purdue.edu
Patience :
There's always time to bodge it again, there's never time to
do it right, or something like that.... One thing I've learnt time and
again in classing <anything> repair is that rushing in will often cause
more problems than it solves. I may spend _months_ just examining a
device before even thinking about repairing it.
Tony, it's a Commodore 64
we're talking about. Why must you always tilt
toward the extreme?
2:16 p.m.
Well the C64 was state of the art at one time. :)
This brings up a good point ... how long can one expect to
have the older computers running in the future. 20 years
30 years 50 years? Ben.
Many things are built to last a VERY long time, go no further than an
Apple IIe, after 20 years in a school, and 10 years in a closet
almost all boot right up.
What I see as the issue is how repairable when the unit eventually
fails is it. Take those darn Dallas battery/clock modules for
example, bears to fix.
12 Dec
12 Dec
2:01 p.m.
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11 Dec
11 Dec
12:03 p.m.
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16 Dec
16 Dec
1:56 p.m.
Commodore 64 Repair Made Easy
1. Pick up broken C64
2. Walk to your parts bin
3. Place C64 in parts bin
4. Go to local thrift store or log on to eBay
5. Search for C64
6. Buy it
7. You have now "fixed" your Commodore 64. Pat yourself on the back for a
job well done.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
Yeah, Commodore did sell 22 million of the things, making it the most
popular model of computer ever made :)
Stu
7 Dec
7 Dec
6:09 p.m.
Someone contacted me wanting his Commodore 64 fixed.
Can anyone recommend a person, place or thing?
There are some people who will do it, but the cost of shipping it up there
usually is far more than simply buying a "new" one. Sad but true. :-/
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all? -- F.T.
7890
days inactive
7899
days old
33 comments
20 participants
participants (20)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
foo＠siconic.com -
ghldbrd＠ccp.com -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
ipscone＠msdsite.com -
jhfinepw4z＠compsys.to -
jpero＠sympatico.ca -
jplist＠kiwigeek.com -
lgwalker＠mts.net -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
pat＠purdueriots.com -
philpem＠dsl.pipex.com -
s.d.birchall＠pgr.salford.ac.uk -
spectre＠stockholm.ptloma.edu -
tosteve＠yahoo.com -
vaxzilla＠jarai.org -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk