Commodore 64 sadness :(

grimm · Post by **grimm** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:50 am

I purchased two commodore 64's but they are both DOA. One I knew was iffy and I had planned on using it for parts. The other was supposed to be my good system. The seller even had pictures of it running programs ect. I was thinking that the only thing that could have killed it between there and here would either be static electricity or shipping opened up a cold solder joint. Both systems have the same symptoms, black screen and blind disk commands do not work. I have reset the chips on the board and even purchase an extra VIC chip to see if swapping it out would do something but no luck. Before I start poking at them some more I would like to get everyone's opinion on what I should do next. Or if someone has an extra breadbox 64 or motherboard they would be willing to sell me. I just don't have the tools or the chips to do in-depth chip replacements. Both systems only have two socketed chips, the sid and the vic. I did the usual checks for hot chips ect. but none of them appeared to be abnormally hot. If there is nothing I can do I will start melting the existing solder with an iron and see if it helps. Thanks,

AmiDog · Post by **AmiDog** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:45 am

Have you checked Ray Carlsen's page?

grimm · Post by **grimm** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:58 am

Yep, thanks. But I just don't have the tools or the chips to do a full hunt of the bad chips as he describes.

I'm thinking on going ahead and touch up all the chip leads with my soldering iron and see if it's a cold solder joint. That is the only thing I can think of that would cause my good system to die just by shipping it.

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Wed Jan 12, 2011 8:34 pm

You could always send the C64 motherboards to Ray Carlsen for repair.

FCUG celebrating 30 years,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug

grimm · Post by **grimm** » Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:05 pm

Thanks Robert, I will give that a try.