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sx64 repairs around SF
- Thread starter mycall
- Start date
Druid6900
Veteran Member
People that can competently repair this old stuff are not a common commodity.
In fact, the only one I know that does it on a regular basis lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
In fact, the only one I know that does it on a regular basis lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
A bit closer to you than Ontario, Canada, is Ray Carlsen. He lives in Washington State, so you'll have to ship the SX-64 to him to get it fixed, but he's the best Commodore repairman that still does Commodore repairs. Check out his homepage at http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/. His e-mail address is on the main page.
Terry Yager
Veteran Member
People that can competently repair this old stuff are not a common commodity.
In fact, the only one I know that does it on a regular basis lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
The only other one I know lives in Davison, MI, USA.
--T
carlsson
Veteran Member
Out of curiosity, I wonder if the PLA is the most common fault in the SX-64 just as it is in a regular breadbox C64? Of course it depends on the kind of symptoms. Diagnosing the fault probably is harder than repairing it.
tezza
Veteran Member
What are the Symptoms?
Tez
Tez
channelmaniac
Veteran Member
+1 on the symptoms.
The PLA can cause many different problems as it's the glue making it all work together but other chips can also cause issues. It's important to list the symptoms.
RJ
thanks
thanks
Thanks for all the replies!
One of them, the drive spins once then a few seconds later, the screen has blue lines on the screen (see attachment)
The other one boots into BASIC but the keyboard doesn't work (I've tried using both keyboards/cables combinations).
Thanks for the tip about Ray.
mycall
thanks
Thanks for all the replies!
One of them, the drive spins once then a few seconds later, the screen has blue lines on the screen (see attachment)
The other one boots into BASIC but the keyboard doesn't work (I've tried using both keyboards/cables combinations).
Thanks for the tip about Ray.
mycall
Attachments
tezza
Veteran Member
I used this article on Ray's website to help me to repair my own SX-64. It was very helpful. I had a different probem than you though. Mine was faulty RAM which was easy to diagnose and (relatively) easy to fix.
Tez
Tez
Sharkonwheels
Veteran Member
Ray seems to have one heckuva rep...
You guys think he could resurrect my old Altos 580?
Does nada - I swapped the mainboard into my otherwise-working Series 5 (same exact mainboard) and still nada.
I'd invest in shipping UPS ground there and back....I paid nothing for the machine.
incidentally, my Series 5 mainboard works in the 580, so the PSU, etc.. is all fine.
The 580 chassis is toast, at least to ship, so I'd send it in the series 5 chassis.
T
You guys think he could resurrect my old Altos 580?
Does nada - I swapped the mainboard into my otherwise-working Series 5 (same exact mainboard) and still nada.
I'd invest in shipping UPS ground there and back....I paid nothing for the machine.
incidentally, my Series 5 mainboard works in the 580, so the PSU, etc.. is all fine.
The 580 chassis is toast, at least to ship, so I'd send it in the series 5 chassis.
T
channelmaniac
Veteran Member
I've never seen the screen do that on a 64... I'd tackle it by checking the PLA first, kernal ROM second.
Druid6900
Veteran Member
I'd take you up on this, but, the shipping may be a little pricey.
What does it weigh compared to, say, a two drive Model 4? I recently shipped one back to a company in Wisconsin after repairing it and it cost about 70 bucks CAD (extremely well packed)
Sharkonwheels
Veteran Member
Well, it's not as large as an M4 - it's about the size of Tandy 1000SX or so, but a bit more metal - I'd say at least 10-12kg. it's not physically as large
as PC's and AT's, but a bit "denser."
PM me your postal code, and lemme see if it's worth it..
T
Druid6900
Veteran Member
Ok, well, the M4, packed to survive 2 post offices, weighted a little over 20 kilos and was 61cm x 61cm x 47cm.
If the numbers look good, PLEASE don't send it by UPS. The company sent me two machines, a 4D which survived and a regular 4 which ended up with the CRT ripped out the mountings, the neck snapped off and the video board snapped off 1/3 of the way up.
It wasn't catastrohic as the regular 4 was just a dead parts machine. They didn't know it, but, the only parts that would have been compatible were the power supply and the keyboard and the CRT if it had survived. Now I'm the proud ower of a piece of junk.
Even worse, since almost all couriers have their own customs brokerage, they charged me (and hence the customer as part of the repair costs) 51.77 CAD just to let me know there was no duty payable on the shipment.
If the numbers look good, PLEASE don't send it by UPS. The company sent me two machines, a 4D which survived and a regular 4 which ended up with the CRT ripped out the mountings, the neck snapped off and the video board snapped off 1/3 of the way up.
It wasn't catastrohic as the regular 4 was just a dead parts machine. They didn't know it, but, the only parts that would have been compatible were the power supply and the keyboard and the CRT if it had survived. Now I'm the proud ower of a piece of junk.
Even worse, since almost all couriers have their own customs brokerage, they charged me (and hence the customer as part of the repair costs) 51.77 CAD just to let me know there was no duty payable on the shipment.
This is what happened to my two SX-64 machines. I got both of them on ebay and neither showed up in working order (as I described). In fact, one shipping box had a huge dent on one side and now the keyboard is broken on it (cracked and missing a key or two). Fun.
tezza
Veteran Member
Hmm..yes price is a factor but it's stories like these that have stopped me importing a TRS-80 III/IV or Kaypro from the US.
In saying that the IBM PC that Eric (frozenfire75i) sent me was fine. Mind you he packed it incredibly well, with double boxes and tons of bubble wrap. I told him it had to be packed so well, it could survive falling from the open cargo door of a 747 onto tarmac. He did a great job.
Tez
In saying that the IBM PC that Eric (frozenfire75i) sent me was fine. Mind you he packed it incredibly well, with double boxes and tons of bubble wrap. I told him it had to be packed so well, it could survive falling from the open cargo door of a 747 onto tarmac. He did a great job.
Tez
Druid6900
Veteran Member
The worse thing about the second unit getting trashed was that both of the computers were packed by a UPS store.
In the hundreds of shipments I have made, all over the world, not a single item was damaged upon receipt. I use Canada Post exclusively and, although one package went missing after it crossed the border into the US, USPS found it within an hour and delivered it.
Another package, from the days that I used to sell on Flea-Bay, disappeared after exiting Canada for France (I recall that it was a Kensington side-mount cooling system/power "bar" for the Apple II series). The recipient said it was common for postal employees there to steal things and that he had a working Apple /// he had won disappear off the face of the Earth once.
I have so many claims with UPS (both coming and going) that I just stopped using them at all.
In the hundreds of shipments I have made, all over the world, not a single item was damaged upon receipt. I use Canada Post exclusively and, although one package went missing after it crossed the border into the US, USPS found it within an hour and delivered it.
Another package, from the days that I used to sell on Flea-Bay, disappeared after exiting Canada for France (I recall that it was a Kensington side-mount cooling system/power "bar" for the Apple II series). The recipient said it was common for postal employees there to steal things and that he had a working Apple /// he had won disappear off the face of the Earth once.
I have so many claims with UPS (both coming and going) that I just stopped using them at all.
Sharkonwheels
Veteran Member
Besides the fact that Unreliable Parcel Service apparently hasn't learned the difference between CT and ST here, they just suck.
On the UPS store thing, remember that Rainbow I got was absolutely positively obliterated because the idiots in the Woodbridge, VA store decided 20 pieces of popcorn was enough to pack a monitor (literally - I kid you NOT! They were COUNTABLE), as well as only 1/3 peanuts in the box for the Rainbow.
Shame, too, as the machine was perfect before it left, and came with all original docs+software. Now it's a battered shell of it's former self. Won't start up first try - you have to go into <Settings> and then "exit with restart" and then it fires up. On powerup, gives a system board error.
Anyways, no matter - the Series 5 is not THAT fragile. It's a metal box, basically, although i will pack it well
Anything I can send ya as a thank you? Whatcha need?
Was it you looking for a Tandy 1000 kbd?
T
Tinkerer
Experienced Member
The UPS shipping policy: If'n it ain't broke, we's ain't tryin' hard'nuff!
I try to use USPS whenever I can, but on the very few occasions I've had to use UPS it was disaterous about 50% of the time. I lost a real nice vintage Gateway Crystal Scan monitor because of them. It looked like it was dropped and they managed to actually break the circuitboard.
The very few times I've recieved damaged goods from USPS was due to very poor packing. And USPS is almost always less expensive.
I try to use USPS whenever I can, but on the very few occasions I've had to use UPS it was disaterous about 50% of the time. I lost a real nice vintage Gateway Crystal Scan monitor because of them. It looked like it was dropped and they managed to actually break the circuitboard.
The very few times I've recieved damaged goods from USPS was due to very poor packing. And USPS is almost always less expensive.