Cartridges Do Not Work

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Just acquired a couple Vic-20's(early versions) and got them both to boot up with correct ram showing but that's about it. One of them you can type in commands and they seem to work but the other ones keyboard is locked up with the #8 showing. On both machines however, neither one will run a cartridge and I've tried about 8 of them. So from reading I am thinking it might be the UE12 901486-06 ROM, would this be a good place to star or does anyone have any other suggestions?

[prowlr]

Just acquired a couple Vic-20's(early versions) and got them both to boot up with correct ram showing but that's about it. One of them you can type in commands and they seem to work but the other ones keyboard is locked up with the #8 showing. On both machines however, neither one will run a cartridge and I've tried about 8 of them. So from reading I am thinking it might be the UE12 901486-06 ROM, would this be a good place to star or does anyone have any other suggestions?

When I blew the dust off my Vic20 recently it had troubles reading cartridges as well. I cleaned the cartridge edges as well as the cartridge port with isopropyl and also used an eraser on the cartridge edges and that got them working again.

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That was actually my next thing to try, I'll see if it works.

[norm8332]

I use a thin paint scraper (spackle applier) with thin bed sheet thickness fabric over it to clean the cart port. Place a piece of the fabric over the end of the scraper and apply at least 91% isopropyl alcohol (too much water in 70%) and insert and remove repetitively making sure to get all the contacts clean.

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I've got some 99% isopropyl alcohol which should do the job nicely. Right now I'm working on a couple 1541 drives that are having problems reading and writing to disks. As soon as I get done with those I'll get back to the vic-20's and clean them up.

[TheMightyMadman]

A rubber usually works for ports that are just mucky, but for surface corrosion I use a fibreglass pen:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-Fibre-Gl ... Sw5FZZzRCr

It's also easier to clean up after than a rubber, and doesn't leave any residue.

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A rubber usually works for ports that are just mucky, but for surface corrosion I use a fibreglass pen:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-Fibre-Gl ... Sw5FZZzRCr

It's also easier to clean up after than a rubber, and doesn't leave any residue.

I've got a few of those laying around and they do work good.