C64 Video Issues - any suggestions?

[+wood_jl]

I thought I was going crazy tonight; I had almost decided retrogaming is for the rich! At first I thought BOTH my C64s had bitten the dust. The first one (thru S-video) put out a scrolling horizontal bars - just gibberish with diagonals moving from southeast to northwest on the screen. Then I tried the other and video PERFECT....for a while then same thing!!. I was using one of those "combination S-video and composite video in one cable" deals from our [now defunct] Ebay pals "atari-commodore-n-morestore." Remember them? They're the ones that took everyone's money and never delivered cables.

 

So long story short, it's the cable!! I **NEVER** pull and tug on cables; and these are, evidently, unavailable [Mirage knows where to get more - I forgot which thread that was]. So After I thought the second C64 went crap, then I started switching and swapping all kinds of cables [dig out the cable archives] and then finally got both machines to put out good S-video when the cable was held at exactly the right angle. So atari-commodore-n-morestore made CRAP quality cables, too. So much for the "lifetime" warranty in the listing, eh?

 

I'm no expert at cables, but I took apart the connector (hard to do as it was hot-glued) and it looks like this: click pics to enlarge

 

It looks like they crimped down on the tiny wires with the metal crimp and cut into the insulation! I've never made cables, but isn't that metal crimp supposed to go on the black outer insulation? Didn't they needlessly strip too much of the black off? Is this a rookie mistake? Someone please advise; I may try to fix this or consider making my own by ordering parts. It appears impossible to get the thing apart as it's all glued over the soldering points in the plug. I'm thinking maybe I can just order a plug and then probe the pins and colored wires with the multimeter and figure out how to solder the new one?

 

So while I'm at it, I noticed a **REAL** problem with one of the C64s; the composite is "ghosted" while the S-video is rock-solid. How can this be? Any suggestions as to component failure? I would have thought the video should all be bad or good; I figured the composite is derived from the same elements that went into the chroma/luma, yet those are working very well. Here are some screenshots:

 

First, S-video on the same machine - very sharp!: (must enlarge these with a click or see nothing)

 

 

Now, composite - look just to the right of each column, see ghosting:

 

 

And a couple shots that particularly show it:

 

 

 

Anybody had this problem before? Could my VIC-II be burning up or something??? (I don't know beans, just thought I'd sound cool tossing jargon like Vic-II around).

 

Thanks for any suggestions!!!!

Edited May 25, 2010 by wood_jl

[Mirage]

There's probably places stateside, but in a pinch, http://www.protovision-online.de/catalog/

 

I don't know if it's the Vic-II, but if you need another one, let me know. They're usually socketed, so it's an easy swap. Helps to have a real chip puller though, since those chips are a bit long and they're inside that shield. I guess you could still use a small screwdriver if you're really careful.

 

BTW, he announced on Sunday that he's about ready to start shipping the 1541-Ultimate-II's.

[Rybags]

Just make another cable.

 

Probably best to leave the composite out altogether, chances are it'd cause some degree of interference along the line anyway.

 

Re pulling chips - IMO it's easier to just get the larger chips out by gentle levering anyway. With chip pullers it's way easy for one side to pop out first, inadvertantly causing the last 3 or so pins on the other side to get bent.

[Mirage]

 

Re pulling chips - IMO it's easier to just get the larger chips out by gentle levering anyway. With chip pullers it's way easy for one side to pop out first, inadvertantly causing the last 3 or so pins on the other side to get bent.

 

Yeah, but depending on which revision board he has, they're inside that shield, and I always had a hard time getting a screwdriver in there at a suitable angle. One of the pullers I have is small enough to fit in there, and then I just carefully loosen up each side like you would with a screwdriver, then at a certain point, pull it straight out and it's never an issue. I think there's some revisions where it isn't like this though. YMMV, whatever works, works.

 

[channelmaniac]

There are 3 different VIC-II revisions and they each offer different video quality on output...

 

there's an R56 - a.k.a. R5 - the oldest.

Then R8

and finally, R9 - the newest