Commodore 1541 disk drive repair - the lights are on but nobody's home

[@8BitNaptime]

Just as a side note, the 1541-II has two mechanisms that use the rotating lever to close the mechanism. One is a Newtronics that fails just as much as a 1541, the other is a Chinon which is more reliable. The only way to tell from the outside AFAIK is a subtle difference in the front bezel.

[@jamesdecross1035]

I bought two of those desoldering iron guns. I found the hole get bigger after a time. I'm now using my spare on the station.

[@AusSonic]

I had the same problem with a 1541 drive. I don't have a cro but i got my trusty dusty logic probe that is used back in "Timezone" era and yes it was a dos rom, i sourced one from the UK which cost me including postage $25 aud.. BTw great video...

[@EPtechser]

Hi, I repaired a desoldering station like that that had the same issue. There should be some kind of rubber gasket on the metal tube that goes into the glas tube. That easily gets lost while cleaning. I happened to have a high temp cable sleeve, the rubber kind you find in coffee machines or irons. I put that over the metal tube and that fixed the issue. Hope it helps.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Thanks. I pulled it apart a while ago and found a crack around the heating element. Looks like they used a cement like substance to attach and seal the element to the hollow nozzle, and I guess it had taken one too many knocks. I've since moved on to a Hakko FR-301 and it's fantastic

[@GianmarioScotti]

I usually replace tantalum caps with electrolitics - this has worked for me in 100% of cases.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Yeah, I think in most cases it will be fine. Especially with modern brand name electrolytics, I don't think you can go wrong. But it does pose the question of why they would spend the extra few cents (or fractions of a cent) to put a tant there in the first place, perhaps they already had thousands on hand, or maybe a suitable electrolytic was the same or higher cost. Nobody (especially Commodore) would spend extra money if not required 😉

[@GianmarioScotti]

@@TheRetroChannel I was asking this myself initially, when I was replacing tantalums on various vintage PC components. I think your hypotheses have merit, plus something to do with convenient size for the motherboard? Either way, I had the good fortune to be able to test conclusively every time whether the replacement worked or not - and it always did.

[@GianmarioScotti]

@@TheRetroChannel it has gotten to the point whereI I haven't bothered to purchase a single tantalum capacitor in many years.

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Lovely stuff! Always learn heaps from your videos, and then pretend to know what I'm talking about on my own 🤣

[@TheRetroChannel]

Shhh, that's what we all do 😉

[@robbyxp1]

Excellent video. Your one of my Favs. Just good old computer fixing.

[@ownpj]

4:28 - It's power filtering, yes. BUT it's power filtering the analogue Read/Write amplifiers. You should replace it.

[@Colin_Ames]

This was decidedly less painful than the C64 from hell!

[@geehaf]

Again, great work and result!

[@PerBengtsson]

I don't know if you already did and I just missed it but you should always clean and lube the rails. The noise you mentioned didn't come through in the video so it's not clear where it comes from but the most common source is rattle from the top half of the spindle. It can usually be eliminated or at least reduced by taking it apart for cleaning/lubrication. I've also heard spindle motors in other drive mechanisms make weird noises due to bad electrolytic caps in the drive but I don't think this drive mechanism include any caps so if it was caps it should have gone away when you swapped the controller board.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Yeah the mic does a good job of keeping noise out, but sometimes that works to a disadvantage. It was most likely the top spindle/clamp. I'm yet to do a full clean and lube so that will probably sort it out. I also plan to go back and check the alignment of my drives using the oscilloscope method

[@eugenekiselev]

Thanks a lot for the video! Exactly what I needed :) Still haven't fixed mine 1541 with the same symptoms, have just got CPU and ROMs from ebay (hopefully working), (in meantime I fixed the Timex Sinclair 16k ROM by just re-caping it which came to my surprise really, I didn't think fixing it is gonna be that simple)

[@dragdusan86]

Great video as always👍😊

[@CheshireNoir]

I found that after a few years I needed to buy a new handpiece for my desoldering gun. It made it "good as new". Of course next time I might buy a better desoldering gun :-D

[@TheRetroChannel]

Hah, yeah I also bought a spare gun a while back after I broke the glass tube. The gun wasn't that much more than the glass and a few tips. I'll have a proper look at it soon, but I think I'm going for the Hakko next

[@PerBengtsson]

@@TheRetroChannel The glass is available as a spare. I have bought a couple of extras because I know that stuff that can roll off the bench and shatter will do so and do it at the worst possible time. The kit with the glass that I got also contains the spring and the metal backplate.

[@NumosG]

Nice fix! Regarding the soldering gun, I assume you have checked/replaced both filters (it has one in the headset and on where the line goes into the case), those were gummed up on mine once and it was just not working any more.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Thanks, yeah I replaced both filters but still no luck. I do have a spare gun somewhere so might try that (if I can find it)

[@atamiga2491]

Great vid, thanks

[@icedearth2013]

great stuff

[@herbertwongsanimations6266]

I'm not ocd but I that upside down rainbow badge was setting me off. 😄 Very interesting vid. I picked up a bulk lot a few years ago with a red light/constant spinning 1541. Online I was told it was most likely a ROM, so I basically just mixed and matched components from two non-working drives to make one working one. I don't know a whole lot about programming my own ROMs but this definitely gave me something to think about. 🤔

[@TheRetroChannel]

It's definitely worth a go if you can do it. Then you'll be able to do things like make your own JiffyDOS ROM, even just being able to read back ROMs and test logic ICs can come in really handy Oh yeah, the original badge from that 64 was missing iirc. And all I had was a broken one, it's upsidedown to make it easier for me to tell which one has the zif sockets

[@Jimblefy]

Another great video. Thanks. What's the lCD screen you are using? My 1084 takes up a bit too much room.

[@TheRetroChannel]

It's a combination of AliExpress bits. I only use it for testing, it's only 8 inches and laggy as hell. So I wouldn't recommend it over a 1084

[@shangrilai1990]

My duties as the resident video liker have been completed. Bloody great work as always! Was this comment copy pasted? I guess non-patreons will never know 😉

[@ownpj]

1:10 - Calling it. Shorted 12v tantalum in the corner of board causing inductor coil to heat up.

[@haddaphone7266]

Hi. Thanks for the video. What is the little LCD screen you use?

[@TheRetroChannel]

It's a combination of many AliExpress parts, there's a V56 LCD driver board + clear case, an LCD display (I think it's called HJ080), and an LVDS converter board to go between the driver board connector and the panel connector. I will do a video on how it all works soon

[@Treppiede]

Hi Mark, very interesting video, thank you for sharing your process. What is the contact cleaner with needle applicator that you're using @ 8:50 ?

[@TheRetroChannel]

It's "Chemtools contact cleaner lubricant". It comes in a spray can but it goes everywhere, so I spray it into a little needle tip bottle first

[@Treppiede]

@@TheRetroChannel Great, thanks man!

[@DrDavesDiversions]

22:40 Hi Mark! Did you remove the socket using *only* hot air? At what temperature do you recommend, e.g., for factory solder like this? Is it because it's a socket that this works without desoldering first? I'm planning to work on a friend's 64 soon, and don't plan to buy a desoldering iron (yet, but I have a hot air rework station and Kapton tape), so figured I would desolder the through-hole DIP ICs by adding fresh solder and using a solder sucker first, then hot air @ ~360C (per Adrian's video "How to remove chips without damaging the circuit board" on removing ICs), but am interested to hear your suggestions on this!

[@TheRetroChannel]

Hey Dave. It was mostly done with hot air, although I did manage to get some of the solder up with the desoldering gun. You can do it with just hot air for sure, but adding a bit of fresh solder first will help. And yes around 360C is about right, that video from Adrian is spot on. Just put kapton tape on the nearby components, and apply hot air in a circular motion until the solder liquifies, and gently lift the IC Good luck with the repair

[@DrDavesDiversions]

@@TheRetroChannel Thanks for the tips! Gonna be fun! :)

[@triplefreedom]

We have the same problem

[@retro_noix]

Nice repair! Question: Where did you get the small LCD screen?

[@TheRetroChannel]

It's bits from AliExpress. Somebody else asked the same question on this video so please have a look. I'll do a full video on what's involved and how it all works in the near future

[@retro_noix]

@@TheRetroChannel it would be nice to see a video how you put it togeather!

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Is there an Instruction that might be causing a problem.

[@retrokelpie7606]

I got a one of those from a well known ebay dealer in Australia last year listed as ''untested''. I changed just about every chip. They where almost all bad. Faulty ROM's, 6502, 6522's (BOTH), the onboard RAM and several logic chips, stepper motor ($60 from Germany, mostly shipping) and multiple damaged tracks. The head was bad as well. I feel its too much of a co-incidents that so much was broken or damaged. Ive fixed dozens of 1541's, its almost always the roms or the 6522's or the 74ls08. Great to see you got it working.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Hmm, that does sound a bit suss. Yeah I try and avoid the eBay sellers that "specialise" in this stuff. They know what they're doing, and it's way too easy to swap out socketed ICs and sell it as untested.

[@diwest1737]

“Tower of power” SEGA 😂

[@raypalmer7733]

Why is the Commodore 64 badge upside down??

[@TheRetroChannel]

Australia

[@eugenekiselev]

@@TheRetroChannel :))))

[@watchmakerful]

Why did you take a v. 5 ROM if the native chip had v. 6?

[@TheRetroChannel]

?? 15:01 The ROM that I removed was a V5

[@jamesdecross1035]

Q: why have you got an upside-down badge on your C64?

[@TheRetroChannel]

That's my ZIF socketed 64, just makes it easier to tell it apart from the other breadbins

[@drkamilz]

Somebody must have a clue about what is wrong with Wonderland 13.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Perhaps, I've seen it happen with my pi1541zero as well. Turns out the pi zero needs to be overclocked pretty hard to handle that part of the demo. So I suspect the drive needs to move to a certain track and sector within a set time, and if it fails to do so, it breaks the demo

[@drkamilz]

@@TheRetroChannel Today I tried this demo with my real C64C + 1541. It worked. But some demos and programs react AR6.0 (used on Kung Fu) and don't work if I use its FASTLOAD mode.