pkhoury
Experienced Member
I'm trying to troubleshoot my early 5150 (serial 0100485) that I picked up at Computer Reset back in 2019. Several years ago, I got a copy of the Supersoft diagnostics with adapter from someone in our local retro computer club. One of the issues with the machine was bad tantalums. I took the liberty of replacing all those tonight with replacements sourced from Mouser, obviously noting polarity. Tried to boot up again, and nothing. Put in the Supersoft ROM, and I started getting results. I know modem7/minuszerodegrees says the results aren't that accurate on a 16-64KB motherboard. In particular, it reports errors for two of the four ROM BASIC chips, and lots of errors in the first bank. Would the next step to try Ruud's diags? I was thinking of bringing this with me to VCF Southwest next month.
On that note - does anyone have a good EPROM writer they can recommend? I was using a BK Electronics writer, that I've since misplaced, but it only worked under 2000 and XP (I got it super cheap, though). Also, is it okay, for the most part, if the problem is in fact in Bank 0, to desolder the chips and put in sockets? I picked up some NOS 4116 on ebay about a year or so ago. Thankfully, I have a pretty decent Hakko desoldering gun that's served me well. As you can also note, by how early this board is, the CPU isn't socketed, and a lot of the chips have 1981 date codes on them.
On that note - does anyone have a good EPROM writer they can recommend? I was using a BK Electronics writer, that I've since misplaced, but it only worked under 2000 and XP (I got it super cheap, though). Also, is it okay, for the most part, if the problem is in fact in Bank 0, to desolder the chips and put in sockets? I picked up some NOS 4116 on ebay about a year or so ago. Thankfully, I have a pretty decent Hakko desoldering gun that's served me well. As you can also note, by how early this board is, the CPU isn't socketed, and a lot of the chips have 1981 date codes on them.
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