Whomever was responsible for that bit of code was used to using Commodores, if I had to hazard a guess.
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IBM 5155 gone to "dollar sign hell" - help!
- Thread starter themaritimegirl
- Start date
Whomever was responsible for that bit of code was used to using Commodores, if I had to hazard a guess.
Retrom
Experienced Member
I'm the guy who's card TheMaritimeMan was talking about, the cap that was dodgy was C19 (it's top had cracked open), I swapped it with C8 which was the same type and looked ok visually (So now C8 was in C19's position and C19 in C8's), the moment I powered on the computer, the suspected bad cap that I'd put in C8's place exploded instantly (I've never turned a computer off faster than when that happened. lol). So I knew for sure now that that cap was bad, so I replaced it with a junkbox spare and hoped for the best. When I powered up the computer again, the card was working pefectly, and I did leave the system running for quite awhile, to see if the intermittent character fault would return, it did not, and what's more, is that CGA graphics mode was now working perfect as well (Before replacing the cap, if I put the card into 320x200 graphics mode, the screen would flicker and go blank at random). So all in all, I'd say capacitors can definitely cause this problem.
Retrom
Experienced Member
BTW, of the 30 caps, I think only 7 of them are tantalum capacitors (Unless I counted wrong) they are the following:
C8
C6
C4
C15
C24
C29
C19
They are a weird type I haven't seen before (they have three legs), however, from what I can tell, the center pin is positive, and the pins on either side are both negative, so you can replace them with regular tantalum caps.
C8
C6
C4
C15
C24
C29
C19
They are a weird type I haven't seen before (they have three legs), however, from what I can tell, the center pin is positive, and the pins on either side are both negative, so you can replace them with regular tantalum caps.
themaritimegirl
Experienced Member
Just to kind of update/close this thread, I received the replacement card from Retrom, and the computer is working perfectly once again. 