Recent content by Wobblestone

Great stuff! Thank you! Where did you find these details?

I'm by far not an expert. But it seems to check that the clock chip is there at post, since it stops without that chip. Empty battery is not an issue. It is just annoying, since it always forgets the settings for harddiscs and so on. Oh cool, that's the answer. Thank you very much! (y)

As I had disassembled the machine, I used it to test some floppy drives - 3.5" and 5.25" (360k and 1.2M) - and they worked fine. But I only used the controller, which came with the machine. Also I did no extensive testing, just read, write and format. I have absolutely no experience with sound...

Thank you for these helpful facts (y) It is not so easy to buy this device here in Austria. There are a few online shops, which I don't know. Well, so far my cheap ZD-552 works fine. I just need to be patient, until I find a good offer for the Hakko.

Hi, I had to post this. Although for the experienced guys here, this might not even be worth posting. Surprisingly I did not find much about this, so maybe it might help others to do a very easy fix on a retro mainboard. What was the problem? The other day I pulled out my trusty working...

I think I want that Hakko-Thing too.......... :love: although it's quite expensive. But since my next birthday will be soon (in November), I should make myself a gift :p

Hi Rodney, the Commodore Thread exists already: https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/commodore-pc40-40-repair-mainboard-is-a-pc-900-2-pb85065-i-2f.1247658/ For diagnosing XTs and ATs I learned, that you need an EGA/MDA/CGA graphics card. Therefor I keep one on hand, which works very well...

I also think, that this board is not a development of Commodore. The graphics card, which is in my machine, is certainly also not the one, with which the machine came back in the day. It is an interesting little... ok - very big - machine.

That confirms, what my many google searches revealed: There is almost nothing to find about this machine. Hopefully this thread will be used in future to collect information about it.

I forgot to mention, that I replaced the original clock chip HD146818P on position U120 by a replacement from Necroware. It's a nwX287, which I bought from eBay. But you can't use that out of the box. As Necroware mentions on his Github page, you either need to put a pullup or pulldown on pin 1...

Unfortunately I forgot to make photos. It is now already inside of the case and I do not want to remove it again, since I hate these tabs, which hold it in place. The photos which I just made are already in the case. But you should see, that this is a completely different board than the one of...

Hi, this is not a request for help; I just want to document my repair of a Commodore PC40-40. It seems that the mainboard is quite rare and maybe this thread helps somebody else to repair his machine. I did not find much information about that machine and board. There are no videos on Youtube...

Hi Rodney, what do you mean with 9 pin connector? Do you mean that CGA/EGA/MDA connector? If yes, I agree, that these are quite rare already. But I mostly use a RGBTOHDMI. If this does not work, then I use my Eizo. If the computer and graphics card works, then the Eizo shows something. I don't...

WOW! I am just a beginner and I need lots of external knowledge (like this forum) to repair such computers. On this mainboard 3 tantalums were broken: One had exploded already and I just found the lower part. Two others (on +12V and -12V) looked fine, but were shorted. It's a pity... I liked...

Hi Rodney, that's a pity, that your machine makes so much troubles. Mine seems to be "Made in Germany". The soldering is perfect (except of the parts, which I had to solder.... :cool:). The machine works now fine. Even the 5.25" disc drive works fine. The hard drive is one of the most...