Sinclair - Cheap and Nasty Design :(
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The engineer in me would reply that the glass is twice as large as it needs to be... 
Over the last ~25 years I've bought over 10 rubber speccys & around 15 C64/128 units of different types.
None of the Spectrums work, all have dead membranes & more than half dont boot properly.
Only one C64 and one 128D were faulty (PLA and VIC, respectively).
I'd say those are pretty good odds in favor of Commodore.
IMHO, Sinclair made some of the most cheaply built & unreliable machines out there.
I remember back in the 80's, during Summer, I had to put a fan on my Spectrum, otherwise it would display junk on the screen & hang after about 5 minutes of work.
Never had that problem with Commodore machines.
None of the Spectrums work, all have dead membranes & more than half dont boot properly.
Only one C64 and one 128D were faulty (PLA and VIC, respectively).
I'd say those are pretty good odds in favor of Commodore.
IMHO, Sinclair made some of the most cheaply built & unreliable machines out there.
I remember back in the 80's, during Summer, I had to put a fan on my Spectrum, otherwise it would display junk on the screen & hang after about 5 minutes of work.
Never had that problem with Commodore machines.
as for the spectrum, I have had around 7, 2 where dead black screen, 2 had ram faults of some type and the last 3 fully working. I blame on top of the cheap build was the lack of a power switch, I always cringed when plugging in a 48k (the socket was always to far away 
)
I love the rubber key 48k just for the compact size and memories, sinclair must have done something right as in school when it was released over 70% had the spectrum just down to the price. come xmas time parents did not understand how technically superior the C64 was they just looked at the price and did it come with some games. commodore didn't help themselves trying to market the C64 as a business machine.
It happened to me, back in 1982 my parents looked for a computer to replace the intellivision we had and on offer in 1982 then was, commodore 16k , spectrum 16k and Dragon 32k they just looked at the full size typewriter keyboard and the 32k ram and went for the dragon 32, no one at school had a dragon 32 except me, i saved hard and nagged my parents until in around 84 i got a C64. (xmas 82 in the uk C64 or 48k speccy wasn't on sale or available, or so what my parents told me), i grew to love my dragon 32 and I think i have never found a faulty one, they all just work.
built cheeply or not in my youth i dont remember any of my mates zx48k ever going faulty ,
I do remember a friend whose 1541 died and he cried because he couldn't afford to get it repaired and another who's SID had died.
I only knew about 3 other people with Dragon 32's back in 82-83 (one was my uncle) i don't know how reliable they are but i have never heard of a broken Dragon 32. not only possibly the worse for sound and graphics but the best on build quality ??
)I love the rubber key 48k just for the compact size and memories, sinclair must have done something right as in school when it was released over 70% had the spectrum just down to the price. come xmas time parents did not understand how technically superior the C64 was they just looked at the price and did it come with some games. commodore didn't help themselves trying to market the C64 as a business machine.
It happened to me, back in 1982 my parents looked for a computer to replace the intellivision we had and on offer in 1982 then was, commodore 16k , spectrum 16k and Dragon 32k they just looked at the full size typewriter keyboard and the 32k ram and went for the dragon 32, no one at school had a dragon 32 except me, i saved hard and nagged my parents until in around 84 i got a C64. (xmas 82 in the uk C64 or 48k speccy wasn't on sale or available, or so what my parents told me), i grew to love my dragon 32 and I think i have never found a faulty one, they all just work.
built cheeply or not in my youth i dont remember any of my mates zx48k ever going faulty ,
I do remember a friend whose 1541 died and he cried because he couldn't afford to get it repaired and another who's SID had died.
I only knew about 3 other people with Dragon 32's back in 82-83 (one was my uncle) i don't know how reliable they are but i have never heard of a broken Dragon 32. not only possibly the worse for sound and graphics but the best on build quality ??
I worked in a computer shop/ games shop around that time. c64's always worked on arrival , but LOADS came back dead after a few weeks ; just brush the joystick port as you go for the power switch: dead c64. At one point i'd say a quarter of all Sinclairs were dead on arrival so we'd get 40, pick a short straw to test them all and send 10 straight back! Oh and open the Spectrum Plus the right way up and pop all the keys back on with the palm of a hand.Not a good impression to a customer if you open it upside down andhalf the keyboard falls onto the floor.Ataris always worked. BBC's went wrong a lot for some reason. But DOA spectrums were legend!
manic23
Only Amiga Makes it Happen
I've got 3 Speccys, a 48k, 128 toastrack and a 128+2 all working just fine!
Just saying...
Just saying...
Apart from the obvious membrane problems the only failures I has with my Spectrums was due to my own stupidity (removing expansions when still powered on), but it was well known that Sinclair's QA was practically non-existant in the early days & a large proportion of non-working devices were shipped.
ras2a
New member
I loved my old ZX and +2's.. Happy times
Retro-Protect
Member
I remember buying a few speccys in a job lot. The rubber key speccys looked awful, pitted, faded, worn keyboard plates. All worked fine! But, the spectrum plus had a dodgy membrane... I won't be repairing that crap anytime soon. Worst keyboard ever? :roll:
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papa_november
Member
I have a C64 graveyard, but I've only worked on two Spectrums and it's hard to say which are more unreliable... I did work on a toastrack 128 that had the usual blown transistor issues, and my +2B sometimes acts really weird, but being in America I'll take what I can get Spectrum-wise.
At least the Spectrums don't have the horrendous brittle plastic that was used on the breadbins, or the award-winning cardboard RF shield. And there's only one custom IC on the Spectrum, versus 2 or 4 or more on the c64, many of which are not getting any easier to find.
At least the Spectrums don't have the horrendous brittle plastic that was used on the breadbins, or the award-winning cardboard RF shield. And there's only one custom IC on the Spectrum, versus 2 or 4 or more on the c64, many of which are not getting any easier to find.
I've only had good experiences with C64 units over the years.
Bought many in flea-markets, some in really poor cosmetic condition, but they always worked fine.
My original C=128D (bought in 1986) still works (and used frequently), and so is my original C64 breadbin.
My first Spectrum (from 1985) didnt last very long, it started showing garbage on screen when it got a little warm after about a year of use...
Bought many in flea-markets, some in really poor cosmetic condition, but they always worked fine.
My original C=128D (bought in 1986) still works (and used frequently), and so is my original C64 breadbin.
My first Spectrum (from 1985) didnt last very long, it started showing garbage on screen when it got a little warm after about a year of use...
I remember a friend blew up his 48k by accident. He had it plugged into his parents downstairs tv sitting on the carpet. A pair of scissors were on the carpet next to it and they touched.
So he upgraded to a +3.
Did anyone ever have issues with the Amstrad CPC? I owned one from launch in 1984 with colour monitor and used it for years without any issues.
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
So he upgraded to a +3.
Did anyone ever have issues with the Amstrad CPC? I owned one from launch in 1984 with colour monitor and used it for years without any issues.
Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
yeah most obvious problem with cpc's was the tape deck drive belt or disk drive belt failure.....not so obvious failures are the ram ic's but i dont see that alot,its like any other 20-30 year old machine,also the power switch fails on the computer thats fairly common.
the plus 3 had the same faults when it came to the drive...and really terrible audio...bas will know what i mean
from all the systems ive seen fail,the spectrum is about the same as any other only thing i dont like about the earlier ones was the bad keyboard membrane and its power management...really dont like that.then again thats half the computer,lol
normally in this order...
membrane failure
memory failure
power problems
the last two could be exchangable and be the resposable for each others failings,but,bare in mind early ones made by sinclair were made to a cost or price...so i expect them to fail eventually from something if it hasnt been serviced
the plus 3 had the same faults when it came to the drive...and really terrible audio...bas will know what i mean
from all the systems ive seen fail,the spectrum is about the same as any other only thing i dont like about the earlier ones was the bad keyboard membrane and its power management...really dont like that.then again thats half the computer,lol
normally in this order...
membrane failure
memory failure
power problems
the last two could be exchangable and be the resposable for each others failings,but,bare in mind early ones made by sinclair were made to a cost or price...so i expect them to fail eventually from something if it hasnt been serviced
