Commodore 64 and datasette hellp!

[shaune71]

Hi all

This is my first post............ I have recently acquired a C64 with a datasette player. I have it all connected the C64 loads up fine and when you type load and press play on the tape it will start to load and when it gets to the game it just goes fuzzy. i have tried different tapes and it seems to be doing it with all of them. Does this mean that the datasette would be faulty? or is there a quickfix to say the least?

i await your replys

Regards

Shaun

 

[retrobits]

Hi Shaun,

If you have a spare blank cassette tape, try typing in a simple BASIC program:

10 PRINT "HELLO"

Then typing "SAVE". Save the program to the tape by pressing REC and PLAY on the datasette. Once the program is saved, rewind the tape, then type "LOAD". See if the program you saved comes back. If it does, your issue may be with the game cassettes you have. If not, there might a problem with the datasette or the C64.

- Earl

 

[shaune71]

i have tried that and all is ok. i got two commodores with all the bits that i bought and both seem to be doing the same thing however i bought a new tape and tried loading that but it will load then a counter will just come up in the left hand corner

regards

Shaun

 

[carlsson]

It sounds like someone has twisted the azimuth angle on the R/W head. If you look closely above the FWD or REW keys, there is a small drilled hole in the plastic. This is aligned on top of a screw that holds the R/W head in place. By making small adjustments to this screw, you can change the angle. Commercial tapes were recorded at factory setting, while some home users for whatever reason changed it. There could be an issue about the screw untightening itself over time too. If you like, you can carefully adjust the screw perhaps 1/4 of a turn and see if it makes any difference.

There even were some special software packages to obtain the correct azimuth angle, by loading perfectly aligned test data and illustrate with blinking border when you got the right setting. While these programs are mostly available for download, the result might not be so good unless you are certain the tape you record the adjustment program on is at 100% correct angle.