Fantastic short but very informative video. I just repaired my first ZX Spectrum yesterday. It belongs to my friend, and the last time it worked was in the 80's. He was convinced that it couldn't be repaired, as he had sent it for repair many times back in the day, but had no luck. Truth be told, I wouldn't have been able to do it, were it not for people like you sharing experiences of fixing ZX Spectrums, and other retro machines. Thanks for you help with the repair. And in case you're curious, there was a problem with the upper ram. Whoever repaired it last left a TI chip in place among 7 OKI chips. I was genuinely chuffed when I got it working, so thanks again for doing what you do.
If you need to wipe those EPROMs and don't already have a UV eraser, you'll probably find the cheapest solution is a UVC Toothbrush Steriliser. It was really interesting zeroing the chip then subjecting it to 30 seconds blasts and rereading the contents, then mapping the binary data to a bitmap image. You could actually see the layout of the chips where the ridges between them didn't get as much exposure and took longer to wipe.
Goodo, glad you got it working in the end - and multiple diagnostics is exactly why I thought it, and the RAM, would be useful to you. Did you give the socket a go with Deoxit in the end? -Dx
No I haven't tried yet, it behaves if you don't poke it. This will be useful for diagnostics, with that, the EPROMS and my shiny new Dandanator I am invincible!
I used to repair spectrums as a job when I was young and I remember that there was an inbuilt system test menu on the Spectrum + which could be accessed by certain keypresses but I can't remember which and I can't find the info anywhere for some reason. Perhaps I'm going mad in my old age.
www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Extractor-WTS-610-Spring-Assisted/dp/B007Q8J2HG it works but has a habit of contorting and firing the chip across the room
@@HappyLittleDiodes Yeah, that's the one I have, it's rubbish. You get a grip pull the chip out, then the thing twists and throws the chip away. there are others, but this one for instance is £60, not worth it. smile.amazon.co.uk/Jonard-Tools-EX-2-Extraction-24-40/dp/B006C3Y8IY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Jonard+Tools+EX-2+IC+Extractor*%3A&qid=1613402004&sr=8-1 I'll stick with my thin flat bladed screwdriver.
Fantastic short but very informative video. I just repaired my first ZX Spectrum yesterday. It belongs to my friend, and the last time it worked was in the 80's. He was convinced that it couldn't be repaired, as he had sent it for repair many times back in the day, but had no luck. Truth be told, I wouldn't have been able to do it, were it not for people like you sharing experiences of fixing ZX Spectrums, and other retro machines. Thanks for you help with the repair. And in case you're curious, there was a problem with the upper ram. Whoever repaired it last left a TI chip in place among 7 OKI chips. I was genuinely chuffed when I got it working, so thanks again for doing what you do.
You need to cover the UV window once the eprom is erased. If you don't then ambient UV light will start to degrade the cells leading to slow bit rot.
Good advice!
Good to see the XGecu doing its job, thank you for the interesting videos.
Concise and informative as always,really well explained!
Cheers bro!
If you need to wipe those EPROMs and don't already have a UV eraser, you'll probably find the cheapest solution is a UVC Toothbrush Steriliser.
It was really interesting zeroing the chip then subjecting it to 30 seconds blasts and rereading the contents, then mapping the binary data to a bitmap image. You could actually see the layout of the chips where the ridges between them didn't get as much exposure and took longer to wipe.
I might try that out! I was looking at UV erasers but for now I just don't have the need for one other than getting one out of interest
Goodo, glad you got it working in the end - and multiple diagnostics is exactly why I thought it, and the RAM, would be useful to you.
Did you give the socket a go with Deoxit in the end?
-Dx
No I haven't tried yet, it behaves if you don't poke it. This will be useful for diagnostics, with that, the EPROMS and my shiny new Dandanator I am invincible!
I used to repair spectrums as a job when I was young and I remember that there was an inbuilt system test menu on the Spectrum + which could be accessed by certain keypresses but I can't remember which and I can't find the info anywhere for some reason. Perhaps I'm going mad in my old age.
I think you're right on this one but it was the later 128Ks that had such a feature
Isn't it possible to add another jumper for A14 selecting it high or low to add an extra 16 rom images to your eprom?
Where can the programmable rims be purchased from?
The EEPROMs can be bought on ebay
Great video, got me wondering if I can replace the Eprom (flashed Fatware) in my Div IDE 57 with one flashed with ESXDOS?
ESXDOS appears to be aimed at DivIDE, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to try! I don't have one so I'm not very knowledgeable on DivIDE
Does anyone know the start address for each 16kb bank?
I would think the 1st bank starts at address 0, the 2nd at 32768. 3rd at 65536 and so on to the 16th at 491,520
Which extractor tool did you get, specifically? I've had a few and they are all useless. Thanks
www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Extractor-WTS-610-Spring-Assisted/dp/B007Q8J2HG it works but has a habit of contorting and firing the chip across the room
@@HappyLittleDiodes Yeah, that's the one I have, it's rubbish. You get a grip pull the chip out, then the thing twists and throws the chip away.
there are others, but this one for instance is £60, not worth it. smile.amazon.co.uk/Jonard-Tools-EX-2-Extraction-24-40/dp/B006C3Y8IY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Jonard+Tools+EX-2+IC+Extractor*%3A&qid=1613402004&sr=8-1
I'll stick with my thin flat bladed screwdriver.