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dougal22

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Posts posted by dougal22

  3. Posted

    3 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

    Having just gone through this recently, take my advice: if you’re using the original C64 black power brick, be very, very wary. I had one fail while it was in storage the first time I plugged it in and turned on the machine. It killed two 4164 DRAM chips, at least one of the MOS 7708 memory multiplexor chips, the PLA chip and the SID. When I unplugged the computer I realized the brick was super hot on the outside of the case. I measured it at 127 degrees F! 😮 This is, evidently, a common cause of failure in old C64’s. So get or make a replacement PSU in lieu of the original before it fails and kills your machine. 

    I use a Ray Carlsen '64 Saver' - Basically it connects between the PSU and the C64 and it monitors and protects the C64 in case of PSU failure. So I am still using the original PSU.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    I live in Malta and my very first computer was an Atari 65 XE which was around 1990/1991. It was awesome, I still remember the red label cassettes that came with it which had game compilations and I had some other games like Henry's House, Ninja Commando, Joe Blade II, James Bond (that sucked) etc on cassette tapes and then had Pac-Man, Tennis, Pitfall II and Mario Bros on cartridge. Also had two 7800 joysticks. I loved it but I was always secretly jealous of my Amiga owning friends and got my parents to buy me an Amiga 500 Plus in 1992. 

     

    I would say the C64 was better supported also because it came out with 64KB ram, no less. Granted it came out a couple of years after the Atari 800 when ram was more affordable but still, developers would have probably been making games to support the minimum spec 16K Atari whilst games for the C64 were developed for a 64K machine - The result better looking games and I am sure that helped sell more systems. Also, when comparing specs especially that 64K ram I believe the C64 was cheaper than the competition. 

     

    The 8 bit Atari's are very solid machines but then so are the C64's though many these days seem to suffer failed PLA's and SID's which is a shame. I got back into Atari 8 bit in the last year or so, I resurrected an Atari 600 XL I had for ages and upped it to 64KB but for some reason although games on cassette and cartridge work fine for some reason floppy disk does not work using SIO2SD so I bought a 65XE (Yayy just like 1991) and that is great aside that I had to change some custom chip which is prone to failing and affects the graphics in a small percentage of games (i forgot the name of the chip).

    • Like 3

  8. Posted

    I had done the 64K mod (see pic) but my soldering skills are not the best. The 64K mod works fine first time and I think I did a neat job and no shorts or loose wires or anything. I was very careful.

     

    Since my skills are not the best the two wires that had to be soldered to points on the board were too close for me to do so I soldered one of them direct to the leg of the chip as pictured. That leg was on the same line as I checked using a continuity tester to check, Again no shorting of any legs or wires and tested to make sure. As I said the mod works fine, passed the self test and games of 48K and above work fine.

    I wouldn't imagine its the cause but thought I'd mention it anyway.

    post-24042-0-09122700-1528224480_thumb.jpg

  10. Posted

    Really? It's socketed and 600XLs aren't that common. Top-end POKEY prices are around £15-20, but you can get them cheaper.

     

    Really ? Any links ? Because on ebay they are like 25-30 pounds. - BTW I was not going to scrap it, just put it on the back-burner :)

  12. Posted

    Does the SIO2SD work on another machine?

    Edit: oops you already answered that.

     

    Curious to know if you see any indication the sio2sd powers up.

     

    Yes it works on the 65XE.

     

    On the 600XL the Sio2SD powers on just like on the 65XE and I can go through its functions fine but the XL just boots up to basic.

  13. Posted

    My 600XL works fine in the sense it reads carts fine and the XC12 tape drive works perfectly, but it won't read the Sio2SD. It just goes straight to Basic and if I hold option straight to Self Test. Its like nothing is plugged in.

     

    The PSU is good (perfect 5 volts) and I tried the Sio2SD on my 65XE and it works perfectly on that.

    The 600XL is stock except for I upgraded the ram from 16kb to 64kb by changing the x2 ram chips and performing the simple mod. Ram check passes fine and I loaded up 48K games from cassette and they run perfectly.

  18. Posted

    You should re-seat RAM modules too as first measure. And if possible clean all contacts of socketed chips and sockets.

     

    Yeah I re-seated the RAM.

     

    The issues seem to be:

    Sometimes gives glitches (colors & graphics)

    Sometimes reads the ram wrong

    Sometimes puts out bombs during the self/memory test at boot

    Always: Hear the disk drive spinning and the light remains on but NO clicking of any kind

     

    I'll do as you said and clean the contacts etc..

  19. Posted

    I got given an Atari STe which was spares/repairs. My intention was to either fix it but if not I would take the TOS 2.06 ROM chips and shove them in my other 1040 STe.

     

    I could not switch the ROMS because my working 1040 STe has the TOS roms soldered on the board :(

     

    So i messed around and re-seated some Motorola PLCC and it now boots but with issues

     

    A: Sometimes gives lots of screen glitches whilst booting and even once in GEM

    B: Sometimes won't boot ... will do bombs on the screen and have glitches

    C: Disk drive will not do anything [ I Checked connections ]

    D: Sometimes it reads 1024 RAM, sometimes 2048 RAm and sometimes (most times) the full 4096KB

     

    Any help would be appreciated

  22. Posted

    I'm pretty sure its a PAL model as it is 220V

     

    But there is hardly any color and i have to make the TV color settings to full for it to have colors and still does not look too good and sometimes it just goes black and white. I am using it for Emulators.

    I connected it to a NTSC-PAL converter and color worked fine

     

    I tried to make the settings but no difference.

     

    It is modded. Can anyone help ? I even tried EnigmaX.

  24. Posted

    I couldn't test the power board as mine was different to the one on your pic. What I did do was replace the whole board with one from a broken Game Gear and now it works with batteries and AC adapter but the adapter plug needs to be in a certain angle or else the power cuts off.

    I cant solder to save my life, so i'll try and get a friend to fix it.

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