C64 Repair - Busted Case and Black screen, C64 Back From Black

Description
In this episode we look at a bread bin C64 that got pretty beaten up in transit. It was not packaged well for shipping the case was smashed and it had a black screen. I bought it knowing it was not functional, however.
In this episode we tackle fixing the non-functional PCB. We do some basic tests before powering it on and then check for proper voltages. A dual diagnostic cartridge is used to aid the diagnoses and the culprit, a bad Kernal ROM is identified and a replacement borrowed for testing.
In Part 2 we will over the repair of the physical damage to the case and make our old bread bin a whole computer once again.
Links
iCORE64 Dual Diagnostic cartridge: corei64.com/sh...
Shadow Switcher: shadow.drwuro.com/
Credits
Shadow Switch theme song: shadow.drwuro.com/
Chiptune Thing No. 3 "Victory" by Steven O’Brien / stevenobrien
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported- CC BY 3.0
creativecommons....
Music provided by Music for Creators • Chiptune Thing No .3 V...

[@stephaniebirt9451]

Well done Brother! Daddy would be so proud.....Mama too!

[@MindFlareRetro]

A great fix, Jeff. I'm looking forward to another video on the ARMSID, as well. 👍

[@HeyBirt]

Thanks! I'm going to try and come up with a few of the SID tunes that are harder for emulators to reproduce and compare the ARMSID and FPGASID. I may have to get my daughter's help with this one as she is much more musically inclined than I.

[@MindFlareRetro]

@@HeyBirt That sounds (and will sound) interesting. Looking forward to it.

[@srenhaandbk7904]

I had this video recommended to me on lemon64 when asking how to remove the grounded tabs on the c64 board, and i just don't believe that this guy does not have any more subs! This guy is amazing, and it really helped me with both troubleshooting and backshield removal. Nice job dude!

[@HeyBirt]

Thanks Soren! I think KZbin is mostly about 'word of mouth' advertising, i.e. getting recommended by others. My little channels grows slowly but steadily. Please let your friends and fellow C64 enthusiasts know and ask them to subscribe. The more subscriptions the more the channel pops up when someone searches for C64 related videos.

[@MarkTheMorose]

GadgetUK bought me here. Thanks for the showing the game intermission, it looks fun.

[@HeyBirt]

Hi, welcome aboard! I found Shadows Switcher to be very fun, those lightning bolts get me every time though :)

[@10MARC]

Good info on proper desolder g and soldering - I learned quite a bit! Thanks, Jeff.

[@HeyBirt]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad some of my ramblings are helpful :)

[@3dtexan890]

Shadow Switcher looks a lot like Lode Runner. Looks fun. Will need to buy this game. Great video.

[@HeyBirt]

I do think I read somewhere that they did it as an homage to Lode Runner. It is very fun, that lightning always gets me though :(

[@franciscomeza8905]

Thanks Jeff, I appreciate these repair videos as they come in handy for such references.

[@HeyBirt]

I did some research after the fact and did find some mention of the Kernal causing a black screen though it seems the PLA and RAM are the most likely candidates. The diagnostic cartridge was really helpful in this case.

[@deborahberi3249]

Definitely enjoyed this video...always nice to see various solutions to that dreaded 'Black' Screen of Death. -Mark.

[@HeyBirt]

The black screen is defiantly a more difficult repair to tackle as it can be so many different thing. The different ways the two images on the dual diagnostic cartridge worked really helped out in this case.

[@zxkim8136]

I've subscribed on recommendation of gadgetuk164. Thoroughly enjoyed the vlog 😁😁😁 Kim 😁😁😁

[@HeyBirt]

Thanks Kim! I'll try to have Part 2 of this one edited by this weekend. Figuring out how to do the case repair was fun :)

[@GadgetUK164]

Great job =D That ARMSID looks nice! Where can I buy one of those?

[@HeyBirt]

I was sad that eh ISD on this board was bad but it was a good excuse to try and ARMSID (I have had a few for many weeks and not got around to trying them yet.) The website is: dzi.n.cz/8bit/armsid/index_en.php , I have not done a good test yet but want to do a comparison against the FPGA_SID and real SIDs. The ARMSID is less expensive than other options as well.

[@RacerX-]

Excellent video, thanks! If one does not have a scope could a logic probe be used instead? I usually do chip swapping but that is a pain sometimes if you can narrow it down more with a probe. I like the repair series that you do so keep up the good work.

[@HeyBirt]

Hi, in this case a logic probe would work just as well. I was just checking that there was a changing signal at various pins which a logic probe is perfect for. The one thing it might not catch is when the voltage level is too low. Sometimes, when a chip goes bad it can cause its input or outputs to be at a too low a voltage level. It might be low enough where the circuit would never work or it could be right on the edge where it might work sometimes. A scope will let you see these types of problems too. I found my old logic probe I bought 30+ years ago. I'll try to remember to use it in the next repair video. A multi-meter and logic probe can diagnose a lot of problems.

[@RacerX-]

Cool. Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I have a logic probe but I have never used it yet. One of those things I still need to get around to doing. Thanks!

[@JoeMcLutz]

Nice job! thanks! :)

[@lfo57]

Interesting !!! I have a C64 (whit a black screen) with a dead test that does not start: can we force the start of the cartridge? Thank you ...

[@HeyBirt]

If you get nothing with the dead test cartridge in (not even a flashing screen) you have a more fundamental problem. Check that you have the proper voltages everywhere.

[@markchow5559]

Dead sid?

[@HeyBirt]

Yes, the 6581 SID chip that was in it was faulty. It made some 'sound' but it certainly was not correct. The ARMSID replacement worked fine though.

[@powrslave]

just spent about 30min trying to remove shield with wick :|

[@HeyBirt]

Why? It is easy to heat each tab and pry it up. Then after shield is off use briar to clean up solder locations.

[@powrslave]

@@HeyBirt before I saw your video I wasted a lot of time :)

[@HeyBirt]

​@@powrslave Ah, OK. I understand now. I was worried I somehow led you down the wrong path that caused you all the extra work :) Sometimes when trying to explain something in a video it is easy to say something rather ambiguous that seems to make perfect sense to me at the time :)