Today I just received the new "working" Vic-20 I purchased on Ebay. My joy vanished after some minutes when I realized that the machine is fully working except for the keyboard: 4 non responding keys and the others needs a lot of pressure and patience to produce a character.
Since in my purchase there was also included a second "dead" Vic-20, I swapped their two keyboards: this second one has responsive and working keys except that is missing the upper left "<-" key. This is also unpleasant to see since the plastic base of that key is broken. I've understood that the seller has swapped on purpose the two keyboards to sell the unit (I can now see the different signs of the time on the two machines and I can recognize where the keyboards were originally).
What would you do in this case? I'm really angry with the seller but at the same time this unit is just missing a working keyboard (btw a working datassette too is included in this purchase).
Thanks for your thoughts!
Last edited by ldxstx on Fri Dec 14, 2012 8:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
A lot of old VIC-20s have keys that are hard to press. I'm not sure it's a fault of the seller (especially if he sold them "AS IS") - it's just the nature of old hardware.
There are a lot of threads here on denial about getting old unresponsive keyboards working. Mostly this involves disassembling the keyboard and either cleaning the contacts or applying some more of the conductive graphite material.
There are also many threads explaining how to do a key-swap to get a full keyboard from two broken ones.
If you do a forum search you will find lots of detailed repair information.
I can't advise on that particular problem, but I would like to encourage: find the relevant threads and websites and follow the instructions. Come back here to post your steps in the Hardware & Tech-subforum.
I found a lot of people here very helpful in diagnosing the problems my VIC came with earlier this year, and we managed to fix them all.
In my case, I had no power supply, but Lee gave instructions on how to use an old PC power supply. And the restore button and disk drive didn't work, which lead Mike to VIA#2. Which I replaced. After a few weeks of such tinkering, my VIC is working!
Thank you. Some more details are: he sold the machine as "WORKING" (with capital letters), without mentioning that he previously swapped the keyboard of the good/"working" unit with the one of the dead Vic which is really in awful conditions, e.g. the case is dark yellow-orange. Another detail: total amount = 70€.
In the meantime I'll do another search on the forum while deciding what to do.
Thanks again.
EDIT: @Witzo thank you too! I'll also follow that link
EDIT #2: I'm talking to the seller to better understand the context and then come to a solution.
Vic20-Ian wrote:for 70 euro you could expect a very nice boxed vic-20.
I think you may have a case to complain to the seller then take it up with ebay if not resolved.
@Vic20-Ian exactly: at that price that's another reason why I've been surprised after seeing the actual condition of the unit. Anyway I'll try to clean up the keys and I'm in contact with the seller too, so I'll post any updates hoping to write about the solution soon.
IMP IMP! there is one thing you need to try... big chance there is no problem but simply the contacts in the keyboard are dirty and in need of a cleanup.
I once aquired a vic-20 that was at first glance very bad and it now works like a charm. It too had keys that did not work well: some keys I could not get a caracter even if I pressed long and hard....
just dismantle the vic, unscrew and remove the keyboard, dismantle it, remove the little rubber cups, and clean the contacts on the keyboard's circuit board. Often just a light scrub with maybe a hard eraser will do... no water, no alcohool...
Then carefully reassemble and be carefull so that each little rubber cub it well placed and your keyboard, I bet, will work like new.
PS: be carefull with the screw, for some vic, the plastic case becomes crisp and the socket break uasily (but even that is repairable if it should occur).
Update: last night I cleaned the board and the keys, even if they were already clean. Moral of the story: the board was the responsible for the non responding keys and now I can type on the Vic-20 without being Hulk.
The seller wasn't aware of the situation since he didn't check them.
yess!!! until somebody can give us a 100% compatible clone or reproduction, it is always exciting when broken vic's come back on the roster. Next thing down the road you might want to eventually use a newer power supply to avoid having your VIC killed by a failing power brick.
See for example what Witzo is using to power his vic:
Note that for more modern computer power supplies, that don't have a hard switch, you can make a switch by connecting one of the wires in the motherboard plug with a ground (black) wire from the same plug.
I don't remember the wire number, but if I remember right, it is a purple or sometimes a green wire, so shorting it with a black ground wire will start the power supply unit.
If I understand that power supply hack correctly, you lose some of the voltages on the user port? I'm not sure if it affects that datasette port too...some of the sentences are worded strangely.
I have made the hack and everything seems to work fine (including datasette).
However, I have had no opportunity to use the user port yet. I have modems I could try to test this with, but have no vic-20 software with me here to try it.
).