I went after a free Craigslist Commodore haul and came home with quite a pile: a boxed VIC-20, three Commodore 1541 drives plus a VIC-1541, a breadbin Commodore 64, a C64C, three C64 power bricks, a VIC-20 power supply, manuals, dust covers, floppy disks, a head cleaning disk, and an Atari 600XL that got added in while I was talking with the seller. The equipment looked a lot better than I expected for something picked up near the coast, and most of it just needed cleaning rather than obvious cosmetic rescue.
Back in the garage, I unpacked everything and took a closer look. The VIC-20 was especially clean and still had its box. The C64C was a nice bonus for me since I didn’t already have one, and the original dust cover for a 1541 drive was something I hadn’t run across before. There were also C64C manuals and some boxed high-density floppy disks, along with an OkiData printer that I set aside for later.
Before powering anything up, I checked the VIC-20 supply with a meter and got about 11.6 volts AC with no load, which was fine for a quick test. I used a 1084S monitor and a modified VIC RF modulator that I had previously converted to provide composite output. The VIC-20 powered on and the screen flickered, and I could hear activity on the audio side, but it never produced a usable picture. I noted that one as a no-video machine for a future repair.
The breadbin C64 didn’t fare much better. I verified my video cable first with a known-good Commodore 64, then hooked up the haul machine and tried it. I got startup sound, but no video and no power light, so that one also went on the list for later troubleshooting. The C64C did much better: it came up to the BASIC screen, the keyboard responded, and a SID test passed. I loaded up a game from the BackBit cartridge and confirmed that the machine was working.
With one good C64 on the bench, I went ahead and checked the drives. I cleaned each one first using the head cleaning disk and a little IPA, with a homemade insert added so the cleaner would play nicer with these single-sided drives. The VIC-1541 spun up properly, read a directory, and loaded a game from disk. One of the standard 1541 drives didn’t spin the disk correctly and didn’t read, and another behaved the same way. The last drive spun, read the disk, and loaded the game without trouble.
The Atari 600XL also turned out well. I didn’t use its original power supply because something was loose inside, so I powered it from a separate 5V source with the proper pinout. Over RF to a TV on channel 3, it booted right up. I ran the built-in self-test, checked ROM and memory, verified the audio voices, tested the keyboard, and then loaded Star Raiders from cartridge. After reseating the cartridge a few times to clean up the connection, the game came up and the joystick worked.
By the end of it, the C64C, the Atari 600XL, the VIC-1541, and one standard 1541 were working. The VIC-20 and breadbin C64 had no video, and two of the other 1541 drives still needed repair.
— Aaron
Links
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
00:46 – The Journey
02:32 – First Look
13:30 – Penny Cam
13:54 – Testing
37:50 – Wrap Up
39:37 – Supporter Commentary
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