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vic-20

D

dongfeng

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2003
Messages
1,348
Location
London, England
Hello ,

I have the Commodore VIC-20 computer, I have it since it is new, but now it does not work.

when I turn it on, the screen is all gone white, everything! every thing else works fine (I can load the tape, and they will run, play music etc), I just cannot see anything on the screen.

would it be TV modulator that causes such a problem?
I have just bought the SCART lead to replace this, but I cannot test it for 2 more week......

Any idea would be very kind... :)
 
Hi;

I am no technical expert on the vic, but I can give you my two cents worth.

It could be the RF modulator or your game switch box or the cable, and I hope that this is what is causing you not to see anything on the screen. If it is any of those components then it is cheap and easy to go and get replacements.

But I am assuming that if it is the modulator or the switch box, you can determine if there is a signal reaching the TV or not, just by watching the TV screen when you turn your vic on. Even if it is a poor signal, I would assume that you should see at least a flicker or something on the screen when your turned the vic on, or when you fiddle with the switch box.

But you did mention that you get sounds, so you know you are getting a signal to the TV from the vic, so I don't think it is the RF modulator.

It could perhaps be your VIC chip. This is the chip you probably can't see when you take off the lid of your vic 20, since it has a metal RF shield on it (just in front of the serial and video DIN connections on the back of the vic).

I think this is what happened to one of my vic's. I was getting what I thought was a poor signal to my TV, as I would have to wait a while (like 20 seconds), for the screen to clear up upon powering up the vic. It got worse over time, and it seemed it was taking longer and longer for the screen to be readable. Now, I just get a dark screen, yet I can perfrom disk operations, etc..

Here is a link to Ray Carlsen's Commodore vic 20 computer - diagnostics and repair page:

http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/vic20.txt

It may help you out.

Good luck.

Chris

p.s. Anders Carlssen (hope I spelled your name right), is a poster to this forum, and is extremely knowledgeable about the vic 20. He is also very helpful, and hopefully will see your post and be able to give you more info than I can.
 
Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply! :D

I'm hoping that the problem is with RF modulator. The screen I have is white. Imagine if you use the POKE command to make the screen, text, and border white. That is how my VIC looks... I can see the border seam. But I can't change to any other colour but white...

Anyway, I have bought a new SCART socket from eBay which replaces the RF-Modulator completely! New technology is good for some things ;)

46_1.JPG


It could perhaps be your VIC chip. This is the chip you probably can't see when you take off the lid of your vic 20, since it has a metal RF shield on it (just in front of the serial and video DIN connections on the back of the vic).
Click to expand...

I guess that's what the problem could be :( I hope it isn't! I think it's probabally cheaper and easier to buy a new computer :lol:

I will let you know in a couple of weeks when I try it out (the VIC is at home, I am at University...)

Thank you for posting the link, I will have a loonnnggggggg read 8)
 
By the way, how do I tell whick "mark" my Vic-20 is? When reading the website's I often see "MK1 and MK2" VIC-20's mentioned.

IIRC, my computer actually is labeled as a "VC-20" :?:
 
Hi;

Based on Ray Carlsen's page, you can tell which model your vic 20 is, by looking at the socket for the power.

If it is a two pronged one, then it is the older model of vic 20, which runs warmer than the newer model.

The newer model uses the same DIN socket as the Commodore 64, and supposedly runs cooler than the older model.

I used to think that you could tell what type of vic 20 you were looking at based on the type of logo found on the top left of the vic 20. I have seen two different logos, the "brassy" one that has vic 20 written in it, and the spectrum rainbow thing beside 'vic 20'. I used to think that only the newer (DIN power socket) vic 20's had the rainbow thing at the top left, but recently I picked up another vic 20 with the rainbow thing, and it has the old two prong socket.

I sure hope you get your vic 20 working!

Chris
 
Hi,

I can't really remember which power socket I have, but the power pack is a big brown/beige one with the Commodore C= logo on it...

The thing that I find unusual though is the badge as it says "VC20" rather than VIC 20. I found a picture of a similar one on eBay:
vic2.jpg


All the other ones (including UK machines on eBay) say VIC20:
commodore-vic20-large.jpg


I'm looking foward to getting it working again. One thing I remember is it always smell strange when you turned it on!! :lol:

I used to have a Chinese version, my Auntie had it in Hong Kong, but that went years ago :x It had a different brand name...
 
I wonder if your vic 20 is a German one then?

I remember reading that Commodore changed the name of vic 20 in Germany, because I think 'vic' is a swear word or something in German. It's all pretty vague to me, so maybe someone else knows more about it.

Yes, get that vic running!

Chris
 
vic user said:
I wonder if your vic 20 is a German one then?

I remember reading that Commodore changed the name of vic 20 in Germany, because I think 'vic' is a swear word or something in German. It's all pretty vague to me, so maybe someone else knows more about it.

Yes, get that vic running!

Chris
Click to expand...

Well, "Vic" sounds like the word "Fick" in German.
I think you can guess what it means.
 
Jorg wrote:
Well, "Vic" sounds like the word "Fick" in German.
I think you can guess what it means.
-------------------------------------------

I could see where that would be a probelm ')

I just went on a search, and found this little blurb about the vc-20:

According to legend. The VIC-20 was released in Germany as the VC-20 for two reasons. One, because of the popularity of Volkswagon, Commodore could market the VIC is the "VolksComputer" (People Computer). Second, because the "V" in "VIC" is pronounced as an "F" in Germany, meaning that "VIC" is pronounced as a vulgarity there...

Here us the link where I got it from:
http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cvc.html

Chris



[/quote]
 
lol, amusing story!

The strange thing is, my grandfather bought the VIC-20 in England in the early '80s... and it is a UK-spec machine with the UK Keyboard :?:

I guess they just had a lot of German cases or logos left.

Interesting all the same :)
 
vic user said:
p.s. Anders Carlssen (hope I spelled your name right), is a poster to this forum, and is extremely knowledgeable about the vic 20. He is also very helpful, and hopefully will see your post and be able to give you more info than I can.
Click to expand...
I'm more a software than a hardware guy, and it seems Dongfeng still haven't got anywhere with his VIC-20. Was that SCART cable properly done?

Since the VIC-I (6560/61) chip inside the VIC does both graphics and sound in one, it can't be totally fried as you can get sound. Did you yet open your computer to determine if the chips are removable or not? An old trick when it cames to Commodore PET (and maybe other computers too) is to lift the chips and then reseat them back into the socket. Often it seems one can get a malfunctioning machine back to life by doing that.
 
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