svenski Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 (edited) Hi guys, I did a terrible thing.. I bought a C64C. It was cheap, pretty dirty but came with a C2N and joystick so I thought let's give it a whirl. I purchased a SCART lead for it but when I connect to the TV the picture is there but out of sync, flickering, lots of background noise. I then tried a normal TV rf cable and get a pretty decent picture but no sound that I can tell. It came with one tape (Heroes Quest) - it goes through the motions of trying to load, I'm prompted to press play... screen goes blank... tape plays then runs out of tape. I'm not getting any loading noises but I'm presuming that there could be a sound issue. Does the C64 give you a noise everytime you type a key? Could someone give me a few pointers on where to start troubleshooting this? Thanks in advance Edited March 3, 2021 by svenski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 Update to this: The monitor OUT issue seems to have fixed itself, I'm guessing contacts weren't clean so I now get an even sharper image. I found this: 0 POKE54296,15:POKE54296,0:GOTO 0 as an example for a quick test, I get a continuous tone so I'm presuming sound is OK? I'm not getting any noise as I type - but not even sure if the C64 does that, and no sound when attempting to load the one tape - which I presume is faulty. I've cleaned the heads on the C2N. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 No. The C64 doesn't have any key click nor any sound when you load from tape. If you get decent video and audio, it probably is mostly fine. The fact that the tape recorder never finds anything on the tape might be because the azimuth angle on the R/W head is misaligned. It is common, and for that reason there is a small screw hole on the C2N. There were specific prerecorded tapes used for aligning it. You could try using a small screwdriver and make very small motions, perhaps 1/8 of a turn at a time, generally never more than one full turn in either direction. You could also use a blank tape, write a very short test program like the one above or a HELLO WORLD one, save it to tape, power cycle and see if you can load it back. If that works, it most definitely is a matter about the azimuth angle not matching the recorded data. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluejay Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 There are programs that help you align the azimuth on your C2N; you can use an SD2IEC or similar device to load the program to your 64C. Speaking of which, no matter what you think at this point in time, you will need an SD2IEC at some point if you want to get into using that 64C. Get one now or suffer for a while until you get one later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted March 4, 2021 Author Share Posted March 4, 2021 Thank you very much guys, lm certainly going to invest in an SD device, now l know that this 64 is reasonably OK. I will have a play with the C2N as well but lm guessing from the state that everything was in that it has been in an attic or similar for years. I will try a blank tape etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Yep, you need an external SD loading device, but there are now many options other than SD2IEC. I have one, but if I was buying it now I'd probably go for Pi1541 - biggest compatibility. There are also cartridges such as BackBit or Kungfu Flash. https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=77170&highlight=kung++flash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted March 8, 2021 Author Share Posted March 8, 2021 I’ve ordered a Kung fu flash cart as a starting point. l replaced the main belt in the 1530 and tried another couple of tapes but it never finds anything and the tapes just play to the end. l did try a quick type in alignment program but that never did anything either- just the screen blanking when pressing play. I’m going to consider this 1530 as duff for now, and get a spare. Apart from that l’ve managed to restore most of the case color on the 64C and given it a good clean so it is looking a lot better. l’ve found a 1530 cheap that is supposedly tested but missing a lid. I will try that and then just swap the casing, but next stop an SD2lEC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Imo, if you have already ordered Kung Fu, buying SD2IEC is redundant. It's not compatible with certain subset of games (I think those using fast loaders), similar to KungFu. It's better to get Pi1541 which I think is 100% compatible with disk images, so this way you can actually cover the entire library (apart from cassette files). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 Thanks for the heads up. The Kung Fu arrived today and had a quick go with a couple of demos that came on the supplied card, so confirmed the C64C is working fine. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 The 1530 that I ordered that was supposedly tested was an improvement on the one that came with the C64C in that it found "Hero Quest". I got very excited but then nothing would load. A quick drive belt change and it is working fine now. Off to play ACE.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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