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Ru THE Absolute Beginners guide to the Commodore 64 WARNING Some items in this article involve opening up your machine & testing electrical continuity; while this should be a safe process ensure the machine is Powered off & unplugged, also earth yourself this can be done by connecting a cable to your wrist & to a radiator or through the purchase of a Commercial earthling kit, computers are susceptible to static electricity You follow the following article at your own risk & Commodore free & indeed I cant be held responsible for problems caused by following this Article as a result of damage to yourself others & any electrical equipment. My New Commodore 64 Computer Commodore 64 history in brief Introduced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1982 The machine is listed as the highest selling personal computer in the Gunniess book of records The machine was redesigned to make a reduced cost version this was the Commodore 64C system released around 1986 featuring a more streamline designed case & surface mounted chips to reduce costs The C64 uses a 8-bit MOS Technology 6510 microprocessor. The C64 had 64 kilobytes of RAM, only 38 KB is available for the Basic programmer to access The VIC-II, produced graphics & could display 16 colours, also eight hardware sprites The sound chip, SID, had 3 channels, each with its own ADSR envelope generator, & with several different waveforms, ring modulation & filter capabilities There are two versions of the SID chip. The first a 6581, which is to be found in all of the original "breadbox" C64s, & early versions of the C64C & the C128. It was later replaced with the MOS Technology 8580 in 1987 they both use different voltages & are not interchangeable Retro Classic So you obtained a C64 for whatever reason & the machine came with no instructions or manual just the C64 & hopefully a powerpack in the form of an external "brick" you may be new to the system or returning to the machine after years of inactivity. The C64 is a well loved machine, it does contain some faults but most enthusiast choose to ignore them or class them as quirks rather than hardware & software bugs. I still remember the day I received my C64, mainly because it was Christmas day, but also remembering going to a Computer exhibition with my father in London & seeing Geos operating system & purchasing Geos & a 1541 floppy disk drive, this could of course be remembering a great childhood, I prefer just to remember my C64 & me & dad wowing over Goes & thinking we must buy a printer for this system. Question What can I do with this machine how is it supposed to be used & is there still support Fear not! Applications, games & even new hardware is appearing all the time for one of the best systems ever created, but we dont want to dwell on that for now what we want is to know the system is working & then see what "bits" we have New starters Lay all the parts out in front of you lets see what you have hopefully you will have at least these items TV to connect the machine to otherwise you wont be able to view a picture C64 itself This may be a new designed C64c or the older more rounded shape Picture of original 64 Picture or the redesigned 64c Tv/Av lead Commodore power supply TV Connection While the C64 can connect to a domestic TV via the aerial socket the picture isnt as good as a dedicated Av connector, (more about this later) Plug in the power supply to the C64 the connector should only fit one way round & its location is on the right of the machine with the keyboard facing you, also here you will notice 2 joystick ports & a power switch (on/off) ensure the switch is off. Now connect the Tv/av cable to your C= machine, this will connect to the Commodores modulator located at the rear of the machine The modulator converts the digital signal produced by the machine to an analogue format for display on a standard domestic television via the Arial socket. One thing to be aware of is that different countries have different standards, for TV signals & for power, so if the C64 came to you from England & you are in the U.S. the TV signal isnt compatible & the power require- ments are different, England or the UK. Use a Pal tv signal & U.S. use NTSC so you would need a TV that can handle the different format. The other thing is that U.S use 110 volts of electricity from the wall socket usually on a 2 pin plug whereas the UK. use 240 volts on a 3 pin plug (live, neutral & earth) Now connect the other end of the Av cable to the tv & select an unused channel, tune on the C64 at the wall socket & at the machines switch (by the joystick port) now turn on the TV press the unused channel & follow the TV instructions to manually tune to a TV signal with luck you should find the commodore screen slowly fade into picture as you start to tune in. Nothing is working Ok dont panic if this isnt working 1st we need to check the C64 is receiving power, in the u.k. the plug that goes to the mains has a fuse this need checking to ensure its working, then look at the C64 there will be a POWER light this should be glowing red, if not then you could try a friend & swap power supplies but also be aware the C64 has a fuse inside this could be blown & I have been given 3 or 4 machines where this was the only fault, its a clear glass fuse similar to the picture below, test it with a multi- meter or take it to an electrical specialist for a replacement they should be only a few U.K. pence, I was charged 10 pence for a replacement, & the guy in the shop even kindly tested it for me. See the how to use a multi- meter for continuity testing section. Still dead? Depending on the model, the old brown Bread box machines used socket mounted chips, look for the SID chip it should be as shown in the picture below. This could have blown & while the machine will work without the SID chip albeit without sound it wont work with a blown one, so carefully remove it with a chip extractor or with 2 flat bladed screw- drivers remove the SID chip & then screw the case back together now try powering on & tuning the picture if you have a picture now you have a dead SID chip, try eBay for a replacement ensure its the exact same model of SID remember there are two versions 6581 & 6580 they are NOT interchangeable TV/Monitor As described at the start of this article, using the aerial socket on a TV isnt the best picture quality the Commodore can produce, on the rear of the machine is a AV??? Socket. Various cables have been made allowing the Commodore to connect to modern TV & Av equipment, for example your 32" plasma TV that may not have an internal tuner, only Scart & Composite connections try looking on Protovisions website as they sell various cables, also eBay sellers have C64 to scart cables as well as svideo & composite Picture of Commodore to Av cable Variants available for a few pounds, If soldering is a skill you possess you could even produce your own try looking here: http://pinouts.ru/Video/C128C64CV ideo_pinout.shtml and here http://pinouts.ru/VideoCables/C128 toScartSVideo_pinout.shtml for some ideas how to produce various cables. Picture of a Commodore to Scart cable As shown in older versions of Commodore free various boxes exist that will take a composite signal & create a picture viewable on a TFT PC screen or an old CRT screen, the CRT screens are the big TVs the TFT are the slim sexy models, looking on eBay. The Commodore 1084S monitors that were one favourite with Commodore users seem to be going for around 20 U.K. pounds really its better to use the money to purchase a cable, I purchased a cheap TV with Av sockets on the front & plug the Commodore into this, the picture is excellent the cable cost me 5 UK. from eBay & the TV cost me 89 new How to use a multimeter for continuity testing. A mulimeter can be obtained for a few pounds. The one I use cost me 3 U.K. pounds I am not an electrician so we are not going to be doing anything fancy like testing circuits for basic fault finding a continuity test can save time & money Set the multimeter to the Ohm setting. Now touch the two probes together & you should hear a noise & the display will change, this confirms that continuity or electrical current is flowing round the device, open the two probe contacts & the display will drop back to zero, showing us there is no continuity. This can now be used on fuses. Touch 1 probe to one end of the fuse & the other probe to the other end of the fuse if the multimeter makes a noise or the display changes we have continuity or current flowing through the fuse if the display doesnt change then the fuse is dead. You can use this to check the fuse in the plug of the C64 & the internal glass fuse (I am sure there is a technical name for this fuse but I dont know what it is) Opening up the C64 This depends on the model but the basics are really the same. Ensure nothing is plugged into the machine. Turn the machine over on your lap so the keys are facing down & the under- side is now facing up. You will need a small cross head screw- driver to remove the screws from the base of the machine, Locate the screws as shown they should come out quite easily. Turn the machine over carefully noting where the screws fall out Also worth checking is that all the chips are secure by gently pressing them into there sockets (if they are socketed)