jerryd@brl-smoke.ARPA (Jerry Digennaro ) (09/05/86)
I am posting this for a friend who does not have net access, so please
respond directly to me.
My friend has a C-64 with 1541 diskdrive and 1702 monitor. All pieces
are less than 2 years old. Today, when he turned on the power to the
C-64 and then the monitor everything worked okay for a while then the
monitor blacked out. After turning the C-64 off, waiting 10 minutes
or so, the everything worked fine for 30 minutes or so. Then things
got worse. Recycling power did not cause the monitor to come up. It
took many continuous flicks of the C-64 power switch to get the
monitor to come alive. Now all that happens is that one can see a
momentary power line travel down the screen when the initial power is
applied. After that nothing happens. The screen remains blank.
My guess is that the monitor is bad. Is it fatal? Can it be fixed?
At home? At the shop? Which shop(s)? Is it cheaper to by a new
monitor? Is it the C-64? What might have caused this problem and
what can be done to prevent future occurrences?
I know I'm asking alot, but please help.
Thanks a lot in advance.
--
Jerry DiGennaro
ARPA/BITNET: jerryd@brl.arpa AT&T: (301) 278-2703/5759
UUCP: ...{seismo,unc,decvax,cbosgd}!brl-smoke!jerrydbub@rlgvax.UUCP ( Mongo Mauler) (09/05/86)
I would guess that your problem is NOT related to the monitor, since the symptomatology is similar to what happened to me. I would guess that your power supply is either hopelessly dirty and unable to cool itself down, or it's just plain fried. Those things are somewhat notorious for overheating and need to be pampered (no setting them on the floor in a pile rug, for instance). Another possibility is the video chip inside the C64. All this doesn't mean that the monitor isn't frazzled, but mine has not failed at all in 3 years, while I have had a problem similar to yours with 2 separate 64's in that time.
elg@usl.UUCP (Eric Lee Green) (09/11/86)
In article <3569@brl-smoke.ARPA> jerryd@brl-smoke.UUCP writes: >I am posting this for a friend who does not have net access, so please >respond directly to me. > >My friend has a C-64 with 1541 diskdrive and 1702 monitor. All pieces >are less than 2 years old. Today, when he turned on the power to the >C-64 and then the monitor everything worked okay for a while then the >monitor blacked out. After turning the C-64 off, waiting 10 minutes >or so, the everything worked fine for 30 minutes or so. Then things >got worse. Recycling power did not cause the monitor to come up. It >took many continuous flicks of the C-64 power switch to get the >monitor to come alive. Now all that happens is that one can see a >momentary power line travel down the screen when the initial power is >applied. After that nothing happens. The screen remains blank. > >My guess is that the monitor is bad. Is it fatal? Can it be fixed? Why do you guess THAT? Why not just take that long TV cable that comes with the C-64, connect it to the back of his television, and SEE? Geez, elementary problem-solving... if you think a component is bad, replace it with another serviceable component to SEE if it's bad (in this case, connecting it to a TV). Actually, I think it's probably the power supply. Sounds like what happened when the power supply on my 64 went out. Whatever you do, DON'T run the computer when it's doing stunts like that. I blew 5 RAM chips, the color RAM, one of the Kernel ROMs, and the SID chip. For a competent repair person near you, a) look in the yellow pages, b) if nobody there, call Commodore tech support (don't have the number handy) for a repairperson near you, c) look on Quantum Link, they have a list of repairpeople in there, d) scream, yell, and shout, and mail it off to one of those places in Compute! or RUN. -- Eric Green {akgua,ut-sally}!usl!elg (Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509) " In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."