The death of another VIC

[Jeff-20]

I haven't had a chance to turn on the VIC much since ECCC. Tonight one died on me. It was a sad but interesting event.

First, the sound started to "double." Every sound repeated itself immediately after completing its duration! Like a two second beep would stutter as two small beeps, yet a long, cascading explosion sound would repeat from the very beginning as the same long explosion sound!

Then (after doing this for about 30 minutes), the visual went out. Flickered on and off before giving out completely. What a mystery. I swear I did not imagine this.

[orion70]

R.I.P.
I only have three VICs (only one PAL), so my fear is to loose them all in a short time. I power up the PAL VIC once in a month, just to keep it running, but the other two are in the garage and I never ever use them, so I'm unhopeful about their life span.

You have my solidarity. At least this one died in a spectacular way, just like a cowboy in a western movie.

[Mayhem]

Just got the one PAL Vic here, still going strong...

[ral-clan]

Is there a likelihood that replacement VIC chips can be manufactured using FPGA or something?

Rather than creating the whole VIC on FPGA as some have done, just re-create the custom chip(s) and put each on some sort of riser that can be inserted as replacement chips in the VIC-20 (I guess the VIC chip itself is the only really hard to get chip that would need this treatment).

[adric22]

Is there a likelihood that replacement VIC chips can be manufactured using FPGA or something?

I've no doubt it could be done, since the whole VIC-20 has been designed in an FPGA. If someone were ever to do this, I would hope they would also create some kind of special high-res or high-color mode too!

[Jeff-20]

a moment of silence...

I don't know if I have enough working VICs to put together parts and make a fully working one.

[gklinger]

What parts do you need? Want a spare (working ) VIC-20 board? I'd be glad to send you whatever you need.

[carlsson]

the whole VIC-20 has been designed in an FPGA

I strongly doubt the whole VIC-20 has been implemented in FPGA. The CPU, probably VIAs and the documented behavior of the VIC chip possibly has.

If any of these graphic and sound anomalies recently discovered by automagic works on a FPGA VIC, I'm willing to reconsider. A friend of mine has a C=1 with the VIC-20 FPGA core. We should try load some of the newest PAL demos and compare with a real VIC.

That said, if the VIC chip hardware emulation only emulates the documented function of a VIC, any replacement chips would also have this limitation. It would be good for playing a lot of the older and basic software but when it comes to those few titles stretching the limits, you may find that your VIC-20 is no better than VICE emulation - or perhaps even worse, given that some of these FPGA cores were conceived a couple of years ago, while software emulation has the chance to improve over time.

By the way, new graphic/colour modes? That's like creating a new computer. While it would be cool and useful, the target group would be smaller than the C64DTV community, until enough VIC-20 owners had "upgraded" their computers with new custom chips. It is a novel idea though, perhaps combined with the 40/80 column output on a custom cartridge.

[Bacon]

My sympathies, Jeff. Both my VICs (one old PAL model with PET-style keyboard and one PAL CR) are packed away in the attic until we get a bigger place. I only have room for one vintage computer and when it comes down to it the C64 is closest to my heart (boo! hiss!) so it's one of those I have unpacked and ready to use, but I dread unpacking my VICs and discovering that one of them has died.

[ral-clan]

Happened to me with my Amiga 2000 this year after about 10 years of service.

The great thing about the VIC, is that it is much simpler than an Amiga in terms of design & number of components....therefore more repairable. Also it's waaaay cheaper than an Amiga to get replacement parts for.

[eslapion]

I haven't had a chance to turn on the VIC much since ECCC. Tonight one died on me. It was a sad but interesting event.

First, the sound started to "double." Every sound repeated itself immediately after completing its duration! Like a two second beep would stutter as two small beeps, yet a long, cascading explosion sound would repeat from the very beginning as the same long explosion sound!

Then (after doing this for about 30 minutes), the visual went out. Flickered on and off before giving out completely. What a mystery. I swear I did not imagine this.

6560 overheated and died... as usual.

Just a small little heat sink would have saved it. I sell them for the outrageous price of 1$ each... you can probably use the small ones made for PC video card RAM chips that usually sell for less than 50 cents at your local computer store.

[ral-clan]

Eslapion, do the heat sinks you sell come with some sort of adhesive tape or paste? How could one attach it to the chip....i.e. what adhesive can stand the heat?

[Jeff-20]

6560 overheated and died... as usual.

Just a small little heat sink would have saved it. I sell them for the outrageous price of 1$ each... you can probably use the small ones made for PC video card RAM chips that usually sell for less than 50 cents at your local computer store.

Thanks for the answer. A detailed FAQ or guide to making this modification would be a great benefit to the community!

[orion70]

I thought the main problem was turning on the VIC after a long time of inactivity, but now I read it's a chip overheating issue.
So, it's not true that I prevent the two Commodores I have at home from dying (forget the ones left in the garage ) if I let them on for 6-8 hours per month? Am I taking needless risks?

If it's the heat, please Eslapion, explain how to cool down the chip.

[PaulQ]

Eslapion, do the heat sinks you sell come with some sort of adhesive tape or paste? How could one attach it to the chip....i.e. what adhesive can stand the heat?

The heat syncs he sells clip on, but you could probably use a thermal paste.