Another white keyboard VIC-20

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:16 pm

I recently had a water leak and had to evacuate the whole apartment. I took the opportunity to "box up" my VIC, 64:s and Amigas as far as I had the original boxes. Now they're all stored away in a closet. I have another loose VIC that I'm intending to use.

Now, I recently went away to pick some stuff, and brought with me a box of five C64 motherboards, all partially broken. I thought maybe I can switch some chips to get at least one working, but so far I haven't had any success. All just display a black screen, which could be due to a number of reasons. Perhaps if I go wild with a multimeter and soldering iron, I could spot respective board's failure.

At the same time, I picked up an empty C64C shell w/ keyboard in very good condition. My idea was to place a working motherboard inside the case, and get an instant 64. Since none of the boards is working, that is currently not possible.

Tonight I realized that the spare, loose VIC has one of those spring free keyboards, a bit stuffy and one key broken. I might be able to make a replacement pin to fix it, but since I had a C64C keyboard in perfectly working order, why not just swap it? Many of us have those white keyboards in our VICs...

Maybe I'll unbox one of the C64:s, just to have one available. I think I'll go with my old breadbox that I recently brought to life, as it takes less space in the drawer and perhaps is more functional than my C64C...

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 5:36 pm

The only trouble with that keyboard is it brings out the yellow in the Vic's case; and it's not really that yellow. I wonder if you could paint the Vic the same colour as the keyboard; that might look real neat.

damnstraight · Post by **damnstraight** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 5:40 pm

As far as the dead 64, I would check your voltages, then take a logic probe and make sure the clock is ticking. If thats the case toggle the power on and off quick and see if anything displays on the screen. Sometimes a broken pal will display blank screen, but when power is toggled you get garbage. At any rate I would bet its the pal. I purchased about 50 back when I repaired commodores, and that was the most often to fail. I think I only have about 6 left.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:32 am

I think you mean PLA? Out of the four boards with chips, one displays garbage, and the other three a blank (black) screen. The PLA is soldered to the board on all motherboards, and I yet didn't have time or interest to get into trying to repair it. Maybe later.

By the way, I brought out my C64C anyway.