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Scored an SX-64 on eBay, yesterday... Noticed sudden craze on remaining ones...

I'm back in business again; the drive needed a re-initialize (see Demon Possessed 1541 thread) to get the heads back in line. Cool, now back to getting IDE64 configured and running....
 
AngryWhiteGuy said:
I'm back in business again; the drive needed a re-initialize (see Demon Possessed 1541 thread) to get the heads back in line. Cool, now back to getting IDE64 configured and running....
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Glad you're back in business!

And, to add to the good news, I received the SX-64 and it is in great shape and works like a charm! :-D

EDIT: Well... I may have jumped to conclusions too quickly... I can't seem to be getting sound. :(

If I crank the volume all the way up, there's a lot of noise coming out of the speaker (whlie the machine is idling at the main BASIC screen)... I loaded the SX-64 "ORGAN" demo program, and no sound comes out... Could it be a busted SID chip?
 
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Ahh, crap... I think there's something wrong with the SX-64... I thought it was fine because I was able to load a few of the graphic demos, but I have been unable to successfully run any games.

They'll load up and then display garbage on the screen and there's no sound except for noise. Beginning to lose hope.
 
What kind of garbage? Are those original games or copies? Many cracked games come with a decrunching routine that will execute for a number of seconds. During that period of time, a number of apparently random characters may appear on screen, the border might flash, strange noises could be heard etc. Eventually the program would run a cracker intro screen or similar. Some of the freezer cartridges also temporarily corrupt the screen while restoring the dump.

I'd recommend you to hold your breath and wait for 10-15 seconds of garbage and noise before giving up. On the other hand, perhaps you have already waited for so long but with no improvement. It could be bad RAM that makes the program failing to decrunch?
 
carlsson said:
What kind of garbage? Are those original games or copies? Many cracked games come with a decrunching routine that will execute for a number of seconds. During that period of time, a number of apparently random characters may appear on screen, the border might flash, strange noises could be heard etc. Eventually the program would run a cracker intro screen or similar. Some of the freezer cartridges also temporarily corrupt the screen while restoring the dump.

I'd recommend you to hold your breath and wait for 10-15 seconds of garbage and noise before giving up. On the other hand, perhaps you have already waited for so long but with no improvement. It could be bad RAM that makes the program failing to decrunch?
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These are copies, not originals... One of the games I tried to run was F-15 Strike Fighter, and I believe it is cracked, but I had waited something like 10 minutes (no joke) before calling it quits.. It loads up an intro that mentions the cracking/hacking team if I remember correctly (this was a little while ago, but my short term memory sucks).

I also have a Lode Runner disk (copy as well) and I loaded that up and the game runs... But no sound. I wonder if the SID went bad, or the speaker's blown.

If the volume is up higher than about 60 ~ 70%, there's an audible white noise that sounds like interference. It varies with screen/program loading, etc... (e.g. if I type LIST and hit RETURN, while the machine is scrolling the program listing the "white noise" changes pattern, and when it's finished it goes back to it's "idle pattern").

I get no music or sound other than what I just described.
 
I had an original sealed copy of A Nightmare on Elm Street (the one by Monarch Software), so I opened it up and loaded it... It starts loading then it goes into a blank screen and that's about it.

I think this machine has bad memory, a busted SID, and who knows what else.
 
So based on the symptoms, I'm fairly convinced it's the 6581... I opened up the top shell of the machine and did a quick visual scan of the chips and nearby caps/resistors, and visually it all looks OK... The 6581 does not look like it has overheated or anything and it was seated properly.

I can load any program that's graphical in nature with no problems, but the moment that there's supposed to be music it crashes or displays garbage. I was going to remove the SID to confirm this, but I don't have the appropriate tool and it's difficult to pry it off the socket in its location on the main board using a flathead screw driver. When I have more time I am going to disassemble the machine and do more indepth troubleshooting.

The rest of the machine seems fine. I now believe the memory chips to be okay since I've narrowed down the crashes and garbage displays to music being loaded.

Physically the machine looks in great shape. it has minor scratches here and there ,but the case is very clean and shiny and not yellowed (the keyboard looks near brand new).

It looks like it's been promoted to a project now, but at least I already have a prime suspect and it's a somewhat easily replaceable part.
 
And the computer should run fairly well without a SID chip too, so it will be easy to determine once you have pulled it if that is your only problem.
 
carlsson said:
And the computer should run fairly well without a SID chip too, so it will be easy to determine once you have pulled it if that is your only problem.
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I'm going to work on it this weekend. While the SID is out,iwill think of the machine as a soulless shell...what's a commodore 64 series machine without the music? ;)
 
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