Thanks for that, I may look into it with the old power supply. The VIC I bought did turn up and the graphics do work, but it seems to have memory issues instead, however I think a bit of chip swapping in the near future may cure that, so its all looking good so far.
| VCF Latam | Apr 24 - 26, 2026, | Bahía Blanca, Argentina |
| VCF Pac. NW | May 02 - 03, 2026, | Tukwila, WA |
| VCF Southwest | May 29 - 31, 2026, | Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport |
| VCF Southeast | Aug 01 - 02, 2026, | Atlanta, GA |
| VCF West | Aug 01 - 02, 2026, | Mountain View, CA |
| VCF Midwest | Sep 12 - 13, 2026, | Schaumburg Convention Center, IL |
| VCF Montreal V2.0 | Nov 07 - 08, 2026, | Saint-Lambert, Montreal, Canada |
| VCF SoCal | See you in 2027, | Southern CA |
| VCF East | Apr TBD, 2027, | InfoAge, Wall, NJ |
-
Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
VIC 20 - white screen - help!
- Thread starter herena
- Start date
giobbi
Veteran Member
what kind of memory issues? ram? video ram?
Not sure yet. At the moment whenever I try to load anything from the cassette player it runs but then gives up when it's almost complete and tells me it's 'out of memory'.
It will play from cartridge without a problem.
I haven't had time to open it up yet, maybe the chips are a bit shook up from transport, they might just need reseating. but if not obviously I have all the chips out of "my" VIC to play with.
Unless you can think of another reason why the cassette loading is failing? I have two data-sette players, the one that came with mine and the one that I just bought, and both don't quite manage to load. from what I can tell the data-settes are doing what they should but it's the VIC that isn't coping... it gives up literally just before completion each time.
When I load from cassette for my Dragon 32 I know I need to set the "tone" and the "volume" correctly on the cassette player to get stuff to load, but the VIC data-settes don't have any options to play with, just the clock counter. The two data-settes I have are slightly different models, but other than the 'record' led being in a different place there's no major differences. Either way I don't think its the data-settes that are at fault.
Ho hum something else to play with.... ;-)
It will play from cartridge without a problem.
I haven't had time to open it up yet, maybe the chips are a bit shook up from transport, they might just need reseating. but if not obviously I have all the chips out of "my" VIC to play with.
Unless you can think of another reason why the cassette loading is failing? I have two data-sette players, the one that came with mine and the one that I just bought, and both don't quite manage to load. from what I can tell the data-settes are doing what they should but it's the VIC that isn't coping... it gives up literally just before completion each time.
When I load from cassette for my Dragon 32 I know I need to set the "tone" and the "volume" correctly on the cassette player to get stuff to load, but the VIC data-settes don't have any options to play with, just the clock counter. The two data-settes I have are slightly different models, but other than the 'record' led being in a different place there's no major differences. Either way I don't think its the data-settes that are at fault.
Ho hum something else to play with.... ;-)
giobbi
Veteran Member
A datassette problem ("out of memory") doesn't always mean a ream RAM problem, AFAIK; usually it's a simple loading problem due to bad tape, misalignment, problem, wrong program, etc.
The C2N has a small screw accessible while the head is out (play or rec mode); this screw is used to set the head azimuth (alignment). This is the most common problem with tapes and C2N. A dirty head is common too, expecially using old tapes (they tend to leave a residue on the heads). Clean the head with some alcool.
Can you load a program from your PC to C2N ? You can make a simple cable using this guide: http://www.verrua.org/pc_to_pet/index.html
the guide is intended for PET but since it uses VIC20 settings it should work fine for VIC too.
IMO you should be sure it's a real ram problem before to start unsoldering chip.
how much memory is displayed on the boot screen? the usual 3583 bytes free or less?
ram video usually returns video problem: strange colors, bad chars, no chars at all, etc, so an "out of memory" shouldn't be a video ram problem.
-- Giovi
The C2N has a small screw accessible while the head is out (play or rec mode); this screw is used to set the head azimuth (alignment). This is the most common problem with tapes and C2N. A dirty head is common too, expecially using old tapes (they tend to leave a residue on the heads). Clean the head with some alcool.
Can you load a program from your PC to C2N ? You can make a simple cable using this guide: http://www.verrua.org/pc_to_pet/index.html
the guide is intended for PET but since it uses VIC20 settings it should work fine for VIC too.
IMO you should be sure it's a real ram problem before to start unsoldering chip.
how much memory is displayed on the boot screen? the usual 3583 bytes free or less?
ram video usually returns video problem: strange colors, bad chars, no chars at all, etc, so an "out of memory" shouldn't be a video ram problem.
-- Giovi
Okay thanks for that, very very informative!
I think my RAM chips are all socketed not soldered (but I don't know about the insides of the "new to me" VIC yet.) obviously if I have to start un/soldering then that's a bigger job and one I would be less inclined to do early on in my fault-finding. (although I am an electrician so it's not something that terrifies me - just something I'm aware of how much damage I can inadvertently do!)
I tried both data-settes with different tapes, some from my "new" batch and some of my own, and got the same result every time. very consistent. Some were pre-recorded tapes and some home copies, but still very consistent fails.
It's because of the consistency of the results, even with 2 different machines and numerous different tapes that makes me think the problem is with the VIC rather than the tape machines. But I haven't entirely exhausted my arsenal of tests yet, so I'll let you know if I end up planning anything drastic!
Cheers for the help and support, it's very much appreciated
I think my RAM chips are all socketed not soldered (but I don't know about the insides of the "new to me" VIC yet.) obviously if I have to start un/soldering then that's a bigger job and one I would be less inclined to do early on in my fault-finding. (although I am an electrician so it's not something that terrifies me - just something I'm aware of how much damage I can inadvertently do!)
I tried both data-settes with different tapes, some from my "new" batch and some of my own, and got the same result every time. very consistent. Some were pre-recorded tapes and some home copies, but still very consistent fails.
It's because of the consistency of the results, even with 2 different machines and numerous different tapes that makes me think the problem is with the VIC rather than the tape machines. But I haven't entirely exhausted my arsenal of tests yet, so I'll let you know if I end up planning anything drastic!
Cheers for the help and support, it's very much appreciated
giobbi
Veteran Member
You missed my question: how much memory is displayed on the boot screen? the usual 3583 bytes free, or less? If you read less than 3583 bytes free, than you probably have a ram issue.
Are your two VIC the same revision? If yes, you could plan to swap ram chips.
There are two kind of VIC; an early revision with lots of ram chip (2114 if I'm right) and a later, most common revision with just two 6116 ram chip at UI4 and UI5 (two 24 pins ICs at the bottom left corner, under the two 6522 via chips.
In this latest revision there are also three 2114 ram chips, UD2, UE2, UE1 (at the right of the 6116 ram chip) used as video ram, but they should be the culprits.
However, before warming you iron solder ;-), we can write a very little program to check your memory. I'm sure there is a better and more elegant test based on poke and peek, but since I don't remember almost anything about 1980s and VIC (too much beer and whiskey and hot girls in those years ;-) ), try to type this little program. It makes an incremental use of variables, consuming all the free ram (that's very easy with VIC
)
10 N=0
RINT"{clr}" << instead of {clr} you should type shift + clr/home, it will appear a negative heart.
15 DIM A$(100)
20 FOR I=1 TO 100
30 A$(I)=""
40 NEXT I
45 N=N+1
50 FOR I=1 TO 100
60 A$(I)=A$(I)+"X"
70 PRINT "{home}";N;" ";I;" " << instead of {home} simply press the clr/home key, it will appears a negative "S"
80 NEXT I
90 PRINT "{cursor down}";A$(1)
95 GOTO 45
This program declare a 100 alphanumeric cells array, and then makes an incremental declaration for every cell. I used array because I don't remember the size limit for a single variable.
then type RUN and see what happens. You will see some numbers running in the first line of the screen and some "X" in the next line.
At the beginning program will run fast, but it will slow down as the A$ array getting bigger.
The Xs represent the length of every A$ array cell.
If you typed this program exactly as I did, you should get an out of memory when the numbers in the first line are: 31 61; this is what I get on my working VIC. If you get an out of memory with lower values, than you have a ram problem. At least I believe that!
-- Giovi
Are your two VIC the same revision? If yes, you could plan to swap ram chips.
There are two kind of VIC; an early revision with lots of ram chip (2114 if I'm right) and a later, most common revision with just two 6116 ram chip at UI4 and UI5 (two 24 pins ICs at the bottom left corner, under the two 6522 via chips.
In this latest revision there are also three 2114 ram chips, UD2, UE2, UE1 (at the right of the 6116 ram chip) used as video ram, but they should be the culprits.
However, before warming you iron solder ;-), we can write a very little program to check your memory. I'm sure there is a better and more elegant test based on poke and peek, but since I don't remember almost anything about 1980s and VIC (too much beer and whiskey and hot girls in those years ;-) ), try to type this little program. It makes an incremental use of variables, consuming all the free ram (that's very easy with VIC
)10 N=0
RINT"{clr}" << instead of {clr} you should type shift + clr/home, it will appear a negative heart.15 DIM A$(100)
20 FOR I=1 TO 100
30 A$(I)=""
40 NEXT I
45 N=N+1
50 FOR I=1 TO 100
60 A$(I)=A$(I)+"X"
70 PRINT "{home}";N;" ";I;" " << instead of {home} simply press the clr/home key, it will appears a negative "S"
80 NEXT I
90 PRINT "{cursor down}";A$(1)
95 GOTO 45
This program declare a 100 alphanumeric cells array, and then makes an incremental declaration for every cell. I used array because I don't remember the size limit for a single variable.
then type RUN and see what happens. You will see some numbers running in the first line of the screen and some "X" in the next line.
At the beginning program will run fast, but it will slow down as the A$ array getting bigger.
The Xs represent the length of every A$ array cell.
If you typed this program exactly as I did, you should get an out of memory when the numbers in the first line are: 31 61; this is what I get on my working VIC. If you get an out of memory with lower values, than you have a ram problem. At least I believe that!
-- Giovi
uditdevsen
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2025
- Messages
- 1
That’s pretty interesting! I’ve heard the PSU issue can be a real risk for C64/VIC-20 chips did you try that mod yourself, and does it really make the setup more reliable long-term?