Hey 
While waiting for my 1541 ultimate2 to arrive i decided to try to get my oldest c64 working.
Had this thing for about 10 years i think, previous owner was a childhood friend, so this is in fact my first contact with computers
This thing never worked since I got it in my posession, but since i never throw anything I still have it. And it pays off sometimes
When i powered it on, i just got a blank screen, so I did some research (especially Ray Carlsons excellent text files) and figured i should try the PLA chip (906114-01) as it was socketed. I have 3 c64c's with the same chip, so I yanked it out and put in a working c64c (which i had to desolder and socket first, didnt take any pics, sorry), and sure, i got the same black screen. So i put a known working PLA chip in, and now i got results.(kind of)
This time the screen filled with purple characters....
icard
I touched all of the chips, but none was abnormally hot. So what now?
I decided to order some brand new RAM chips off ebay, and swap them out, the ones in there was 3 different brands(?). Dont know if this was usual back then or if this machine had been repaired before. The ones i got was Samsung KM4164B-12
The chips arrived and i started desoldering and socketing the ram chips ( as you can see, about a 3 beer job)
Finally done, it still gave the damn purple characters on screen, OMG!
So some more reading Ray Carlsons txts i decided to try the MOS 7708 chips. My newer c64 had the 74LS257A, which was supposed to be compatible.
So firing up the soldering iron and getting a new beer I soon had both 7708 chips socketed and a 74ls257a from another (dead) c64 in.
THATS IT!
Greeted by the READY. prompt i found a tape player and a random tape(Batman the movie), SHIFT+RUN/STOP and ran to get a beer to celebrate.
Finally after 10+/- years of owning this c64 i get to use it
You can see my dog is impatiently waiting for some c64 demos as well
I should have taken more pics but I get carried away and forget
Later I tried to add home made heatsinks to the chips as i feel they get too hot, maybe I will make a thread about it when I get some results.
While waiting for my 1541 ultimate2 to arrive i decided to try to get my oldest c64 working. Had this thing for about 10 years i think, previous owner was a childhood friend, so this is in fact my first contact with computers
This thing never worked since I got it in my posession, but since i never throw anything I still have it. And it pays off sometimes
When i powered it on, i just got a blank screen, so I did some research (especially Ray Carlsons excellent text files) and figured i should try the PLA chip (906114-01) as it was socketed. I have 3 c64c's with the same chip, so I yanked it out and put in a working c64c (which i had to desolder and socket first, didnt take any pics, sorry), and sure, i got the same black screen. So i put a known working PLA chip in, and now i got results.(kind of)
This time the screen filled with purple characters....
icardI touched all of the chips, but none was abnormally hot. So what now?
I decided to order some brand new RAM chips off ebay, and swap them out, the ones in there was 3 different brands(?). Dont know if this was usual back then or if this machine had been repaired before. The ones i got was Samsung KM4164B-12
The chips arrived and i started desoldering and socketing the ram chips ( as you can see, about a 3 beer job
) Finally done, it still gave the damn purple characters on screen, OMG!
So some more reading Ray Carlsons txts i decided to try the MOS 7708 chips. My newer c64 had the 74LS257A, which was supposed to be compatible.
So firing up the soldering iron and getting a new beer I soon had both 7708 chips socketed and a 74ls257a from another (dead) c64 in.
THATS IT!
Greeted by the READY. prompt i found a tape player and a random tape(Batman the movie), SHIFT+RUN/STOP and ran to get a beer to celebrate.
Finally after 10+/- years of owning this c64 i get to use it
You can see my dog is impatiently waiting for some c64 demos as well
I should have taken more pics but I get carried away and forget
Later I tried to add home made heatsinks to the chips as i feel they get too hot, maybe I will make a thread about it when I get some results.
