A poor 1541 needs your help!

[ApolloBoy]

I dug out a 1541 drive from my dad's old box filled with Commodore stuff about a year ago, and when I tested it, it powered up like it should, but the red drive status light stayed on and I couldn't load or save anything! And the funny thing is, my dad said it worked flawlessly the last time he used it. Are there any bad chips in it, and if so, where's a good place I can get chips from?

[Watson2112]

I dug out a 1541 drive from my dad's old box filled with Commodore stuff about a year ago, and when I tested it, it powered up like it should, but the red drive status light stayed on and I couldn't load or save anything! And the funny thing is, my dad said it worked flawlessly the last time he used it. Are there any bad chips in it, and if so, where's a good place I can get chips from?

 

There are two 6522 VIAs on the controller board in the 1541. Turn the 1541 off, swap these two chips with each other, and turn the drive back on. If it looks like it powered up normally (red light shuts off after a few seconds), try loading a program. If the motor doesn't start up and the red light doesn't turn on within second or two, the 6522 that controls the serial bus is bad. I think I've got some of those chips in my toolbox if you need one.

 

If swapping the 6522s doesn't solve your problem, there may be some deeper troubleshooting involved.

 

Also, you may want to visit Raymond Carlsen's page, which has all sorts of Commodore troubleshooting & repair info: http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm.html

 

Commodore's official service manuals can be found at http://www.devili.iki.fi/Computers/Commodore/

 

Let me know how things go!

 

- Dave Ross