12-11-2017, 01:43 PM
I have two Commodore 64s. I bought the first one knowing it didn't work, but there's a ton of information about repairing them online, and they make test harnesses to help diagnose system failures. It didn't sound too difficult to troubleshoot the issue, replace a chip or two, and get it running again.
That little bastard turned out to be the most perplexing system failure anyone had ever seen. Even experienced C64 repairmen were left scratching their heads. The test harness didn't find a thing wrong with it. I tried replacing the chips in order of most likely to fail. No joy.
The second C64 worked when I got it. I thought, "Great!" and bought a shitload of cartridges and accessories for it, including the rare VIC-1011A RS-232C serial interface and a new-in-box dialup modem.
I had fun with it for awhile, then the video became scrambled. Probably because I left it turned on for too long. The original "brick" power supply for the C64 is prone to destroy itself from overheating, and when it does, it takes the whole computer out with it.
Well, I was disgusted with jumping through hoops trying to keep one running at that point, and was about to give up, when I learned that a German company made a modern replacement motherboard for the C64. Unfortunately, that was a few years back, and they had completely sold out by the time I caught wind of it. So I put the two dead C64s away and forgot about them.
Fast forward to today. That German company has released an improved version of their replacement board, and guarantees fulfillment of all orders placed by December 31st. I'm totally going to do this. The dream can never die.
That little bastard turned out to be the most perplexing system failure anyone had ever seen. Even experienced C64 repairmen were left scratching their heads. The test harness didn't find a thing wrong with it. I tried replacing the chips in order of most likely to fail. No joy.
The second C64 worked when I got it. I thought, "Great!" and bought a shitload of cartridges and accessories for it, including the rare VIC-1011A RS-232C serial interface and a new-in-box dialup modem.
I had fun with it for awhile, then the video became scrambled. Probably because I left it turned on for too long. The original "brick" power supply for the C64 is prone to destroy itself from overheating, and when it does, it takes the whole computer out with it.
Well, I was disgusted with jumping through hoops trying to keep one running at that point, and was about to give up, when I learned that a German company made a modern replacement motherboard for the C64. Unfortunately, that was a few years back, and they had completely sold out by the time I caught wind of it. So I put the two dead C64s away and forgot about them.
Fast forward to today. That German company has released an improved version of their replacement board, and guarantees fulfillment of all orders placed by December 31st. I'm totally going to do this. The dream can never die.
) have shipped the new motherboard already. Hopefully it'll be here next week.