1541 problem: Not finding files, Killed a VIA on VIC-20?
Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:11 pm
So I just got an old Commodore 1541 (VIC-20 colors, longboard) from my local friendly e-recycler. I can't say that I'm shocked that it has issues (it's missing more than half its screws), but I wasn't expecting it to damage my VIC-20.
At first, it seemed to respond correctly. The red light lit up on power on, then turned off. So I connected it to one of my VIC-20s and the drive reset on power-up of the computer. However, when I tried to retrieve the catalog (LOAD"$",8) it hung up and on repeated attempts eventually gave me a "FILE NOT FOUND" error. Then things got weird. The drive began hanging up and giving a flashing light error, and then the cursor disappeared from my screen. I unplugged the drive from the VIC-20 and got a black screen! I then tried it on a second VIC-20 and got the same bad behavior, but my cursor was fine.
At first, I thought the black screen issue was the VIC chip but decided to test that with a different 1541 to see if the computer was executing code. However, when I powered it back on, the screen was back, but with no cursor. I tried disconnecting the drive and got a black screen again. At this point, I was pretty sure it was one of the VIAs, so I removed the first VIA from the board and got a normal boot screen minus the cursor. I took a spare VIA from another VIC-20 board, and now the computer is back to normal?
Needless to say, I'm a little hesitant to hook this drive up to another computer as I only have one spare VIA left. Likewise, I don't want to try this on any of my C64s as I don't have any spare CIAs. Still, I'd like to get it going if I can. If nothing else, it looks so much better with my VIC-20s and the newer C64-style ones. Any suggestions as to what happened? and what I can do to diagnose and fix this without risking damage to any of my other equipment?
At first, it seemed to respond correctly. The red light lit up on power on, then turned off. So I connected it to one of my VIC-20s and the drive reset on power-up of the computer. However, when I tried to retrieve the catalog (LOAD"$",8) it hung up and on repeated attempts eventually gave me a "FILE NOT FOUND" error. Then things got weird. The drive began hanging up and giving a flashing light error, and then the cursor disappeared from my screen. I unplugged the drive from the VIC-20 and got a black screen! I then tried it on a second VIC-20 and got the same bad behavior, but my cursor was fine.
At first, I thought the black screen issue was the VIC chip but decided to test that with a different 1541 to see if the computer was executing code. However, when I powered it back on, the screen was back, but with no cursor. I tried disconnecting the drive and got a black screen again. At this point, I was pretty sure it was one of the VIAs, so I removed the first VIA from the board and got a normal boot screen minus the cursor. I took a spare VIA from another VIC-20 board, and now the computer is back to normal?
Needless to say, I'm a little hesitant to hook this drive up to another computer as I only have one spare VIA left. Likewise, I don't want to try this on any of my C64s as I don't have any spare CIAs. Still, I'd like to get it going if I can. If nothing else, it looks so much better with my VIC-20s and the newer C64-style ones. Any suggestions as to what happened? and what I can do to diagnose and fix this without risking damage to any of my other equipment?