Commodore 64 sadness :(
Posted: 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,
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.