Thanks for watching me try to save this beautiful vintage computer! For the best tool to save _your_ computer, try Recoverit: bit.ly/3qRl9hY Want more restorations like this? Please consider supporting : perifractic.com/support 🙏
Is that blue multimeter reliable?? I have bought two of those, one for home jobs and one for work at the shop but both died really fast. Contact problems, and powering off often when trying to measure anything.
Always nice seeing a 128 being rescued. Just as a minor nitpick the RP6 resistor pack is pull-ups for the DRAM address lines, not limiting current in any form. So no matter how broken it can't really harm any chips.
Yeah you’re right. And the only person to notice! It did seem strange that the corrosion was at its base and what looked like the associated RAM line had faulty chips. But, that could be a red herring.
Hey! C128 (with a cassette player) was my first personal 8-bit computer back in 1986 when I first start to use computers in my life! I was 14 years old that year! So many memories! My first game was a copy of "Comic Bakery"! Wow!
@@RetroRecipes Would be glad to do it again for other projects. If you ever 'clean up' a C16, I'd be glad to send you a Saruman-TED and the new PLAnkton for TED computers.
This was my first computer EVER from the year 1988! It was an unexplored adventure in which I'll never forget. The manual was large and you actually had to read it to do anything. I didn't have a computer enthusiast as a friend, so I had to figure out everything myself. Best of times!
Such tinkering skills, and the mindset that comes with it can be literally life-saving. My friend - also a retro enthusiast - once repaired his cat. No, that's not a joke. The poor thing was very sick, on the verge of a kidney failure. Veterinarians told him that the cat was beyond saving, and dialisis for cats simply isn't a thing. My friend took the cat home, started researching the problem, and learned how to dialise. He operated the cat himself. It took about a month of homebrew dialisis, and the cat was as good as new. This was more than 10 years ago, he's still happily purring, and very much aware that this human saved his life. My friend probably broke every single rule of ethics, but neither him, nor the cat cares. Cheers to them!
Awesome restoration!! Thank you for another great recipode 🙂 My good friend owned a C128, was such an impressive machine! Also good to hear Ray Carlsen was mentioned a few times in this video, he actually repaired 2 C64's I had, and installed Jiffy DOS on them, Ray is an honorable guy and a wealth of knowledge on C64's, so a big shout out to Ray!
I personally repaired several VIC20s, C64s, and C128, I upgraded the VDC ram on my own C128, I don't have a clue what the upgrade did. I will say I have never seen the wire swap of the resistors changing the memory banks, I doubt I will ever need it, but you never know. Thanks for the links, I may order some of the ram replacements, I could see them being handy. Thanks Lee
I bought one of these on craigslist cheap long time a ago. Took it home and thought it was dead cause had nothing but black screen. 8 years later realize the 40/80 button was down and it worked! Now its spare to an ebay purchased C128 machine with jiffydos
Back when the C64 came out, there was an CARDBOARD rf shield and we found that it held the heat in too. So it was first thing to go when started having over heat problem. I am amazed how many people think removing the metal shield is a good idea. When removed the computer no longer has the structural integrity it once had. Putting a floppy drive on the top sideways and a monitor on top of that couldn't be done. Ray Carlson, one of the greatest repair people, even said "Don't remove the metal shield". I loved your video and think it is the greatest you have done yet except for the metal shield part. I have seen mods where they just cut out sections for their heat sinks or modifications.
As Adrian Black (Adrian's Digital Basement) found to his dismay, Apple's dirty little secret is that in a lot of early Macs, they used the RF shield as the ground plane (especially to the input/output jacks).
Great to see an old C128 getting resurrected. I'm going to have to get my 128D going again. All this retro stuff has me pining for the old 8 bit days...
+1. This is same technique I've seen Adrian Black use, and he's rarely, if ever lifted a trace from the board. So I'd say this is the standard technique today.
If it hasn't been mentioned before. When I get really hard to desolder chips I know are bad, I take a snipper and cut the chip loose on the top. This let's you remove each leg individually It's a LOT safer and a LOT easier. Sometimes I even do this on chips that are common and easily available as a default.
You might want to turn the heat up on your Hakko. I stopped tearing traces once I did this. I also count "one mississippi two mississippi" in my head while pushing the pin around in a circular motion with the nozzle and depressing the suction button. If for any reason I need to hold the Hakko to a pin longer than about 3 seconds, I remove the Hakko, let things cool back off, and try something else (more flux and/or more solder).
I use a Hakko 880 desoldering gun, and while not foolproof I've found while desoldering if you move the pin around in a circle with the tip while vacuuming out the solder it's more likely to free the leg, as it gives it a chance to pull the solder from all around it.
Before you write off the old VDC chip as being bad, consider replacing the sockets on the motherboard and trying it out again. I have several 128s that I've repaired and every single one of them I ended up replacing the sockets on. Especially that socket the VDC sits in, I had nothing but trouble trying to get those solderless 64K VDC upgrade boards to work (and I tried about four of them). It's not a fault of the upgrade boards though. Only way that I can put it is that Commodore used the cheapest sockets they could get their hands on and after all this time they're not holding up. The pins on the boards (and the VDC) wouldn't sit right in the old socket and would cause intermittent video errors (or it wouldn't work at all). Replacing the VDC socket (might as well socket the VDC memory chips while you're in there too) fixes the problem permanently. Heck I just assume all the sockets on these old systems are bad and replace them while I'm in there. I've had issues with the ROM sockets being bad too. ...oh and yeah accidentally lifted a few traces. :( Just use a hot air station to get those parts out and you should be fine. Thankfully you can buy new replacement 128 PCBs now though (NEO128 & Open128).
Perifractic installed a Saruman VDC under his 8563 chip and it has slightly thicker pins than a normal DIP chip so there is much less chance of a bad contact. Yes, Commodore did use very cheap (single leaf) sockets. With my product Saruman-TED (64k for C16 computers), I had to use special thin pins because the 48 pin socket for the TED chip (MOS 8360) is especially low quality and only allows flat pins in. To anyone replacing sockets in Commodore computers I recommend avoiding those with machined pins. Use double leaf sockets. They are inexpensive, provide the best contact quality and are incredibly durable. My favorites are the DIPlomate DL.
So satisfying to see this C128 brought back to a working state. It certainly gave you the runaround but hats off to you for persevering and ultimately succeeding with it.
Hi Mr. Fractic -- I've pulled up my share of traces while removing bad chips. Over the years, I've decided that, when removing a chip that I *know* is already bad, it's safest to Cut the pins on the chip, and then desolder and pull out each remaining pin leg one at a time. The method you were using is one I only apply when attempting to remove a chip that might be good.
If you put heat sinks in, don't forget to label it as it is very hard to figure out which chip it is with the heat sink glued to the top. (Found out the hard way} C128 Diagnostic Rev. 785260 does a great job of Diagnosing/checking the C128 two ram banks, Z80, 80 column video chip and the rest but you have to have a 40 col screen working to use it!
That felt like a very retro-Retro Recipes episode (not to say I don't like the other newer stuff you do - I love all of it). But I just love it when you repair stuff. Satisfying all the way through. The only thing it was missing was an Ashley clip at Walmart. Lol. Great job as usual Christian! (Don't forget to replace LF's toothbrush.) 🤣
Wonderful vid! I wish I were half this talented with repairs... or video production... or humor!! Those are among the secret ingredients that make this channel exceptionally great!
Excellent job, as always. I'm envious of people like you who have the patience with the soldering and such. I could repair a TON of my stuff if I had your patience and skill set, and trust me, I have a TON of stuff. I have an original Macintosh Portable I am DYING to get running one of these days.
Ladyfractic: "This toothpaste says it is a fresh minty flavour, but I'm getting notes of 80's computer corrosion, and isopropyl alcohol". Perifractic: "Really honey? Can't imagine why...."
Awesome work, and, the 128 is looking as great as it runs now. That was also very kind of you to retrobright Ladyfractic and Puppyfractic while working your magic on your 128.
Back in my board repair days, if I had to put in a new chip for a suspected faulty one the board safer method was: Use a set of flat cutters to snip leads very close to the chip body. Remove leads with tweezers and soldering iron. Use a #70 or smaller drill in a pin vise to clean the holes. Solder new chip or socket in. Less chance of damaging traces.
"proud battle scars" Yes! I have left those numerous times before. We don't have to try to take away all of the character of machines that have been around for decades. My most recent was an Atari 65XE with marker all over and scratches. I took away all of the marker, but it has all its original parts and not painted or sanded and it looks great.
It must be so satisfying being able to fix a computer like this, pretty envious of your skills! I'm a software guy, so have to do this sort of stuff with software libraries and other people's systems, and I know how good it feels when you crack the problems.
17:00 - I once heard someone in a position to know say that Commodores were ideal for use in SCIFs (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities) back in the 80's, because they were small enough that they could be covered with a grounded Faraday cage inside the room and comply with RF emission security standards.
Just seen this video Feb 2023, But i must say your dedication and determination to get the 128 going is fantastic. Well done and is it still running today ??
Another brilliant episode, so interesting all your fault finding and making it all shiny and new. Highlight for me was your cheer of 'Engerland' when it booted, I nearly stood up and sung the National Anthem! Well done for bringing dead history back to life. ⌨
Oooh! You're using some axial leaded MLCCs to replace that ceramic disc cap! I just discovered them and have used them in areas where space was an issue. They're pretty expensive though...
The 128, that brings back memories of playing buggy boy and gauntlet at my friend Ryan's house, he had the 5.25 floppy drive so had bring my c64 tapedeck
I left school at 16 and went on a YTS scheme and with all that disposable income (£25 a week and my mum took £10 for digs) I treated myself to a C128. If I'm honest I think I used the c64 part 99.9% of the time, I honestly can't remember a single c128 program. Loved the video, brought back a lot of great memories, also your videos are just so well produced & watchable, long may it continue 👍
Awesome work, it looks lovely and the battle scars give it character! Ah, how fondly I remember the days when I joined the discussion about the original sunbrighting video on Ms Mad Lemon's twitter and was rudely insulted by her for being on the "it may be viable" side of things. I haven't watched a single video of hers again. On the other hand, I have been watching and enjoying Retro Recipes since the early days, and will continue to do so. Looking forward to many awesome retro videos.
I have to admit that when I watched this channel’s video on sunbrighting, I did check if the release date was April 1st, but when I thought about it, it made sense that it could work. Now it looks like it’s quite a lot slower than peroxide retrobrighting, but at lot easier and more environmentally friendly if you live somewhere hot and sunny. I have a stack of stuff to try it out on, but still haven’t got round to it yet.
If you want to avoid lifted traces due to prolonged thermal transfer when desoldiering… You can try this method. This is a bit long, but I think a lot of folks will find it useful. Took me years to come up with this method. Instead of using vacuum, use compressed air. After years of experimenting, doing full-time component level board repair… mostly for industrial clients…This is what I finally settled on. I use an air compressor set between 30 and 50 psi. And a “pistol grip“ blowgun, because it allows more comfortable wrist angle. I attach a needle to the end of the blow gun. (Commonly used for airing up basketballs.) I don’t use a regular heavy duty air hose Because it becomes uncomfortable on my wrists when unsoldering dozens of chips. I use an extremely lightweight air hose made for airbrushes. It’s extremely flexible and light weight. The lightweight hose coupled with the pistol grip angled blow gun, and needle tip.... it’s almost weightless in your hands. This allows you to quickly heat the pins with a soldering iron, preferably a decently powerful iron with well-designed tip. So that the tip maintains good thermal mass. I can unsolder a 16 pin dip chip in less than 10 seconds. And it falls out cleanly with no further trouble. Even in the thickest multi layer boards. Of course now you have tiny solder splatter, so you have to watch out for that. I use a few stiff paintbrushes and my air hose to be sure the solder splatter is clear from the board so it doesn’t cause any shorts. I can desolder dozens and dozens of the biggest chips in the thickest multi layer circuit boards in just a few minutes. And they all fall out cleanly, with no thermal stress to the traces. I made a simple tray to sit the board down in. I used a cardboard box and cut it so that only the bottom and 2 inches of the sides remained. This way solder splatter doesn’t get all over your bench and all over your shop, it stays within that cardboard box “tray”. The solder is instantly solidified when blown out of the traces, so it doesn’t stick to the board or remelt on any surrounding surfaces. But you still have to watch out and be sure to clear all of the little bits out, so not to cause any short circuits. It’s way easier than it sounds! This is the only way to ensure the least amount of thermal transfer into the traces and the components. I regularly work on boards for industrial clients… These boards are completely unobtainable… Absolutely no replacements… And sometimes come out of a million dollar piece of equipment. So I can’t be blowing traces off the board or stress them with too much heat. Considering I already have to inspect these boards under a microscope before applying power… it’s no big deal to check and ensure there are no small solder blobs stuck on other components. Which rarely happens anyway. Almost never. I have a full-size stereo microscope with digital display… But honestly 90% of the time I use one of those cheap $40 handheld digital microscope‘s, synced to my iPad or iPhone wirelessly. You can find them on Amazon. Some of them even come with a stand included for a few dollars more. And for about $60 you can get one that has the screen built-in. I highly suggest anyone that doesn’t have one… Pick one up. Even if it’s one of the $20 cheapo‘s that has to be directly plugged into a laptop. They are priceless when doing work like this! I hardly ever need my full-size stereo microscope unless I’m inspecting boards with the thermal camera looking for hotspots. Or doing really fine detailed SMD rework stuff. These cheap microscope’s can also be used as a designated inspection camera under chips when re-balling. To inspect the solder balls, and see when they melt. They even have “endoscope“ versions small enough to fit in the human ear. For about $20. With extremely high definition, and a series of tiny LEDs at the end to illuminate the area… For all of your ear cleaning needs 😂 these really come in handy when getting into tight spots on circuit boards. When you don’t need extreme magnification. You can just get in real close. I should also add… The needle tip allows you to get in the smallest areas and control the blast of air. And you only need about 30 psi, because it’s necked down into such a small stream of air. Any more than about 50 psi and you risk blowing the solder mask or traces off the board. 30 psi out of a small needle like that.... feels more like 200 psi against your skin. Because the air stream is so small. Hope this helps someone.
I remember being told I was red/green colour blind. I was at 8 and informed "you won't be able to be an electrician". At the time I wasnted to be Batman so I was completely unfazed.😆 Really appreciate your commitment to this restoration. I would have in no way completed it.
Great job bringing the machine back to life and looking as good as new! Not easy with a C128. I'm currently working on an Amiga 500, so I'm going to try the sunbrighting technique too. We don't have the California sun around here, but hopefully it'll work, even if it takes a few more days. Cheers!
Hey, does the dog like to be in the pool too?! That's why I really like this friendly dog, he knows how to enjoy the good things in life. Congratulations to everyone on the team (including the dog) for this video. I remembered my A500 that I still have and would need to be recovered.
There are actually RAM chips which are designed to be stacked. If I remember right they are 4-bit chips and you would put another on top to make it 8-bit.
@Retro Recipes I have to say, that thing is just sexy after you got it all finished. The board is just pretty after all the cleaning and repair. Fantastic work on this video too. ~Doctor Skodt
Just got yellowed and dirty c128 so this is very handy. You should try heating those ram a little before removing. Also 18% peroxide hair cream speeds up the process greatly. Than back to dishwasher
I remember liking my old C128 but felt like if I waited a few more months I could have got the much more powerful Amiga 500. Still it was very cool to have a 128 and built-in C64. I never used the 3rd mode (CPM?), I believe it was for business software which I didn't own (as a kid) so the 3rd part was superfluous to me as a high school student.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for watching me try to save this beautiful vintage computer! For the best tool to save _your_ computer, try Recoverit: bit.ly/3qRl9hY Want more restorations like this? Please consider supporting : perifractic.com/support 🙏
Is that blue multimeter reliable?? I have bought two of those, one for home jobs and one for work at the shop but both died really fast. Contact problems, and powering off often when trying to measure anything.
Great work! I know first hand how irritating it can be tracking down these problems, especially when there are multiple problems on the same board!
Thanks! It was frustrating at times but oh so rewarding. Glad you liked it. Great machine isn’t it!
2 of my favorite creators in one comment thread 😁
Wow the 8-bit guy commented ! Jealous !
A Collab video of the two of you would be so cool! Please consider it 😊
@@RetroRecipes Great job resurrecting and repairing that C128. Try also Adrian's Digital Basement as he does know Commodore troubleshooting very well!
Always nice seeing a 128 being rescued.
Just as a minor nitpick the RP6 resistor pack is pull-ups for the DRAM address lines, not limiting current in any form. So no matter how broken it can't really harm any chips.
Yeah you’re right. And the only person to notice! It did seem strange that the corrosion was at its base and what looked like the associated RAM line had faulty chips. But, that could be a red herring.
Hey! C128 (with a cassette player) was my first personal 8-bit computer back in 1986 when I first start to use computers in my life! I was 14 years old that year! So many memories! My first game was a copy of "Comic Bakery"! Wow!
I love watching these Retro Restomods. Something I lack the patience and technical knowledge to attempt, but find incredibly fascinating.
I never had a 128, but was jealous of a friend that had one. I was still quite happy with my breadbin 64.
It’s amazing how you bring things back to life. Fascinating to watch and hugely topical with the Right To Repair movement gaining traction.
Strangely satisfying watching someone that knows what they’re doing bring a classic back to life.
I'm a tech guy, ok. But... the dogs _do_ make everything better automatically... :D
The whole swimming pool gag - proper laugh at that.
Great gag.
I knew it was coming, and it was still funny.
X2
Agreed lol
Great job! I'm glad you like my RAM and clock generator replacements. You certainly did put them to good use! Love to see the VDC 64k demo.
Thanks for such great contributions! 👍🕹️
@@RetroRecipes Would be glad to do it again for other projects.
If you ever 'clean up' a C16, I'd be glad to send you a Saruman-TED and the new PLAnkton for TED computers.
This was my first computer EVER from the year 1988! It was an unexplored adventure in which I'll never forget. The manual was large and you actually had to read it to do anything. I didn't have a computer enthusiast as a friend, so I had to figure out everything myself. Best of times!
When you said "this alcohol bath is going to feel so good" It genuinely made me smile. C3p0 for the win!
Great video, the Ladyfractic and Puppyfractic switch was very funny. Also thanks for the extra tip of not drying the items in the dishwasher.
The glue/sticker on the lower right corner was from likely from a Suncom Icontroller mini joystick that used two sided tape to attach to the unit.
i dont know how did i get here, but your channel and this video are incredible!!! I love it, congrats!!
Welcome to the channel!
Such tinkering skills, and the mindset that comes with it can be literally life-saving. My friend - also a retro enthusiast - once repaired his cat. No, that's not a joke. The poor thing was very sick, on the verge of a kidney failure. Veterinarians told him that the cat was beyond saving, and dialisis for cats simply isn't a thing. My friend took the cat home, started researching the problem, and learned how to dialise. He operated the cat himself. It took about a month of homebrew dialisis, and the cat was as good as new. This was more than 10 years ago, he's still happily purring, and very much aware that this human saved his life. My friend probably broke every single rule of ethics, but neither him, nor the cat cares. Cheers to them!
Me-wow!
Awesome restoration!! Thank you for another great recipode 🙂 My good friend owned a C128, was such an impressive machine!
Also good to hear Ray Carlsen was mentioned a few times in this video, he actually repaired 2 C64's I had, and installed Jiffy DOS on them, Ray is an honorable guy and a wealth of knowledge on C64's, so a big shout out to Ray!
I personally repaired several VIC20s, C64s, and C128, I upgraded the VDC ram on my own C128, I don't have a clue what the upgrade did.
I will say I have never seen the wire swap of the resistors changing the memory banks, I doubt I will ever need it, but you never know. Thanks for the links, I may order some of the ram replacements, I could see them being handy.
Thanks
Lee
It's alive... IT'S ALIVE! :) Lightning strikes+80ies debris+heart beating! :) Serious: Always impress with your skills!
I bought one of these on craigslist cheap long time a ago. Took it home and thought it was dead cause had nothing but black screen. 8 years later realize the 40/80 button was down and it worked! Now its spare to an ebay purchased C128 machine with jiffydos
Back when the C64 came out, there was an CARDBOARD rf shield and we found that it held the heat in too. So it was first thing to go when started having over heat problem. I am amazed how many people think removing the metal shield is a good idea. When removed the computer no longer has the structural integrity it once had. Putting a floppy drive on the top sideways and a monitor on top of that couldn't be done. Ray Carlson, one of the greatest repair people, even said "Don't remove the metal shield". I loved your video and think it is the greatest you have done yet except for the metal shield part. I have seen mods where they just cut out sections for their heat sinks or modifications.
Thanks for sharing the info. As you’ll know there are differing opinions on that. We’ll see how this one ends up! 🤷🏻♂️
As Adrian Black (Adrian's Digital Basement) found to his dismay, Apple's dirty little secret is that in a lot of early Macs, they used the RF shield as the ground plane (especially to the input/output jacks).
I didn’t think you would get it looking that good. Brilliant work, Great to see old classics brought back to life.
Great to see an old C128 getting resurrected. I'm going to have to get my 128D going again. All this retro stuff has me pining for the old 8 bit days...
Restoring my childhood Amiga 500 was incredibly satisfying. This kind of video is now my favorite.
i used desolder gun on bottom and hot air gun on top to remove chips from my c64 - so difficult to avoid lifting a trace otherwise
+1. This is same technique I've seen Adrian Black use, and he's rarely, if ever lifted a trace from the board. So I'd say this is the standard technique today.
If it hasn't been mentioned before.
When I get really hard to desolder chips I know are bad, I take a snipper and cut the chip loose on the top. This let's you remove each leg individually
It's a LOT safer and a LOT easier.
Sometimes I even do this on chips that are common and easily available as a default.
You might want to turn the heat up on your Hakko. I stopped tearing traces once I did this. I also count "one mississippi two mississippi" in my head while pushing the pin around in a circular motion with the nozzle and depressing the suction button. If for any reason I need to hold the Hakko to a pin longer than about 3 seconds, I remove the Hakko, let things cool back off, and try something else (more flux and/or more solder).
I use a Hakko 880 desoldering gun, and while not foolproof I've found while desoldering if you move the pin around in a circle with the tip while vacuuming out the solder it's more likely to free the leg, as it gives it a chance to pull the solder from all around it.
I have the older 808 and I do the same thing. Works great.
The C128 is probably my favorite 8-bit machine, exactly because it's 3 machines in one!
Before you write off the old VDC chip as being bad, consider replacing the sockets on the motherboard and trying it out again. I have several 128s that I've repaired and every single one of them I ended up replacing the sockets on. Especially that socket the VDC sits in, I had nothing but trouble trying to get those solderless 64K VDC upgrade boards to work (and I tried about four of them). It's not a fault of the upgrade boards though. Only way that I can put it is that Commodore used the cheapest sockets they could get their hands on and after all this time they're not holding up. The pins on the boards (and the VDC) wouldn't sit right in the old socket and would cause intermittent video errors (or it wouldn't work at all). Replacing the VDC socket (might as well socket the VDC memory chips while you're in there too) fixes the problem permanently. Heck I just assume all the sockets on these old systems are bad and replace them while I'm in there. I've had issues with the ROM sockets being bad too.
...oh and yeah accidentally lifted a few traces. :( Just use a hot air station to get those parts out and you should be fine. Thankfully you can buy new replacement 128 PCBs now though (NEO128 & Open128).
Perifractic installed a Saruman VDC under his 8563 chip and it has slightly thicker pins than a normal DIP chip so there is much less chance of a bad contact. Yes, Commodore did use very cheap (single leaf) sockets. With my product Saruman-TED (64k for C16 computers), I had to use special thin pins because the 48 pin socket for the TED chip (MOS 8360) is especially low quality and only allows flat pins in.
To anyone replacing sockets in Commodore computers I recommend avoiding those with machined pins. Use double leaf sockets. They are inexpensive, provide the best contact quality and are incredibly durable. My favorites are the DIPlomate DL.
Restoration videos like this make me happy. So satisfying to save vintage 8-bit computers. ❤️
So satisfying to see this C128 brought back to a working state. It certainly gave you the runaround but hats off to you for persevering and ultimately succeeding with it.
Yeah this was frustrating at times but so satisfying each time I got some progress!
Hi Mr. Fractic -- I've pulled up my share of traces while removing bad chips. Over the years, I've decided that, when removing a chip that I *know* is already bad, it's safest to Cut the pins on the chip, and then desolder and pull out each remaining pin leg one at a time.
The method you were using is one I only apply when attempting to remove a chip that might be good.
Congrats on the compy restore and congrats on the over 100k chip dipping army! ♥
Thanks!
If you put heat sinks in, don't forget to label it as it is very hard to figure out which chip it is with the heat sink glued to the top. (Found out the hard way}
C128 Diagnostic Rev. 785260 does a great job of Diagnosing/checking the C128 two ram banks, Z80, 80 column video chip and the rest but you have to have a 40 col screen working to use it!
That felt like a very retro-Retro Recipes episode (not to say I don't like the other newer stuff you do - I love all of it). But I just love it when you repair stuff. Satisfying all the way through. The only thing it was missing was an Ashley clip at Walmart. Lol. Great job as usual Christian! (Don't forget to replace LF's toothbrush.) 🤣
Thanks! Yeah I went back to the roots a bit here. I missed this kind of recipode ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Great job! Great bit of detective work diagnosing all those issues. switching the banks was an inspired move!
Wonderful vid! I wish I were half this talented with repairs... or video production... or humor!! Those are among the secret ingredients that make this channel exceptionally great!
Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️
Success! Glad she's alright again now. This was both therapeutic and satisfying to watch.
Glad you liked it!
Excellent job, as always. I'm envious of people like you who have the patience with the soldering and such. I could repair a TON of my stuff if I had your patience and skill set, and trust me, I have a TON of stuff. I have an original Macintosh Portable I am DYING to get running one of these days.
Ladyfractic: "This toothpaste says it is a fresh minty flavour, but I'm getting notes of 80's computer corrosion, and isopropyl alcohol".
Perifractic: "Really honey? Can't imagine why...."
Awesome work, and, the 128 is looking as great as it runs now. That was also very kind of you to retrobright Ladyfractic and Puppyfractic while working your magic on your 128.
Back in my board repair days, if I had to put in a new chip for a suspected faulty one the board safer method was:
Use a set of flat cutters to snip leads very close to the chip body.
Remove leads with tweezers and soldering iron.
Use a #70 or smaller drill in a pin vise to clean the holes.
Solder new chip or socket in.
Less chance of damaging traces.
Thanks to the *8-bit Guy* i'm now fully interested in every Commodore piece. Nice restoration btw, especially troubleshooting, hello from tech guy
You have a fanfractic sense of humor. The pool shots were great!
Another lovely job! This C128 couldn't find a better home. ;)
"proud battle scars" Yes! I have left those numerous times before. We don't have to try to take away all of the character of machines that have been around for decades.
My most recent was an Atari 65XE with marker all over and scratches. I took away all of the marker, but it has all its original parts and not painted or sanded and it looks great.
It must be so satisfying being able to fix a computer like this, pretty envious of your skills! I'm a software guy, so have to do this sort of stuff with software libraries and other people's systems, and I know how good it feels when you crack the problems.
Thanks. It took a few years and I had some luck with this one. Never too late to start 😊
Stunning job. You took dedication to another level.
Level 42?
@@RetroRecipes Now I have Kansas City Milkman stuck in my head. :) I think I just dated myself with that reference though. LOL
@@RetroRecipes as MTV once said: UB40 + B52 + U2 = BUBU94
17:00 - I once heard someone in a position to know say that Commodores were ideal for use in SCIFs (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities) back in the 80's, because they were small enough that they could be covered with a grounded Faraday cage inside the room and comply with RF emission security standards.
C128 fantastico,hai fatto un lavoro ECCELLENTE !!
Nice bit of troubleshooting all the chips. And more credit needs to go to Ladyfractic supervising the sunbrightening for 5 days. :)
And another Commodore saved !!! :) Good job! :)
Just seen this video Feb 2023, But i must say your dedication and determination to get the 128 going is fantastic. Well done and is it still running today ??
It sure is!
I had a Commodore 128. Got it back in 1985, one of the first ones. Yep, I mostly used it in 64 mode.
Great video) thank you for saving this old C128)))
Never owned one, but it always looked like a sports car to me (compared to C64).
Another brilliant episode, so interesting all your fault finding and making it all shiny and new. Highlight for me was your cheer of 'Engerland' when it booted, I nearly stood up and sung the National Anthem!
Well done for bringing dead history back to life. ⌨
To be fair I recorded that bit when we were still in the World Cup but I decided to keep it in as a tribute!
Nice job... I had many hundreds (thousands?) of hours of entertainment from my 128. Glad to see these machines restored and given new life.
awesome work, great to see a old computer come back to life.
Oooh! You're using some axial leaded MLCCs to replace that ceramic disc cap! I just discovered them and have used them in areas where space was an issue. They're pretty expensive though...
The 128, that brings back memories of playing buggy boy and gauntlet at my friend Ryan's house, he had the 5.25 floppy drive so had bring my c64 tapedeck
Great video! I always love watching these restorations and the detective work in it!
I left school at 16 and went on a YTS scheme and with all that disposable income (£25 a week and my mum took £10 for digs) I treated myself to a C128. If I'm honest I think I used the c64 part 99.9% of the time, I honestly can't remember a single c128 program. Loved the video, brought back a lot of great memories, also your videos are just so well produced & watchable, long may it continue 👍
PuppyFractic ruling the pool at 18:04 .Summer Vibes
Wow, Awesome repair. Another 128 saved from oblivion...
Yay!
Oblivion, huh? I see what you did there! ;-D
Awesome work, it looks lovely and the battle scars give it character!
Ah, how fondly I remember the days when I joined the discussion about the original sunbrighting video on Ms Mad Lemon's twitter and was rudely insulted by her for being on the "it may be viable" side of things. I haven't watched a single video of hers again. On the other hand, I have been watching and enjoying Retro Recipes since the early days, and will continue to do so. Looking forward to many awesome retro videos.
I have to admit that when I watched this channel’s video on sunbrighting, I did check if the release date was April 1st, but when I thought about it, it made sense that it could work. Now it looks like it’s quite a lot slower than peroxide retrobrighting, but at lot easier and more environmentally friendly if you live somewhere hot and sunny. I have a stack of stuff to try it out on, but still haven’t got round to it yet.
@@Doug_in_NC It's cheaper too. 😁
@@gmirwin That’s always a plus 😀
Another great trash to treasure Commodore... Well Done M8..
If you want to avoid lifted traces due to prolonged thermal transfer when desoldiering… You can try this method. This is a bit long, but I think a lot of folks will find it useful. Took me years to come up with this method.
Instead of using vacuum, use compressed air. After years of experimenting, doing full-time component level board repair… mostly for industrial clients…This is what I finally settled on.
I use an air compressor set between 30 and 50 psi. And a “pistol grip“ blowgun, because it allows more comfortable wrist angle. I attach a needle to the end of the blow gun. (Commonly used for airing up basketballs.) I don’t use a regular heavy duty air hose Because it becomes uncomfortable on my wrists when unsoldering dozens of chips. I use an extremely lightweight air hose made for airbrushes. It’s extremely flexible and light weight. The lightweight hose coupled with the pistol grip angled blow gun, and needle tip.... it’s almost weightless in your hands.
This allows you to quickly heat the pins with a soldering iron, preferably a decently powerful iron with well-designed tip. So that the tip maintains good thermal mass. I can unsolder a 16 pin dip chip in less than 10 seconds. And it falls out cleanly with no further trouble. Even in the thickest multi layer boards. Of course now you have tiny solder splatter, so you have to watch out for that. I use a few stiff paintbrushes and my air hose to be sure the solder splatter is clear from the board so it doesn’t cause any shorts. I can desolder dozens and dozens of the biggest chips in the thickest multi layer circuit boards in just a few minutes. And they all fall out cleanly, with no thermal stress to the traces.
I made a simple tray to sit the board down in. I used a cardboard box and cut it so that only the bottom and 2 inches of the sides remained. This way solder splatter doesn’t get all over your bench and all over your shop, it stays within that cardboard box “tray”. The solder is instantly solidified when blown out of the traces, so it doesn’t stick to the board or remelt on any surrounding surfaces. But you still have to watch out and be sure to clear all of the little bits out, so not to cause any short circuits. It’s way easier than it sounds!
This is the only way to ensure the least amount of thermal transfer into the traces and the components. I regularly work on boards for industrial clients… These boards are completely unobtainable… Absolutely no replacements… And sometimes come out of a million dollar piece of equipment. So I can’t be blowing traces off the board or stress them with too much heat.
Considering I already have to inspect these boards under a microscope before applying power… it’s no big deal to check and ensure there are no small solder blobs stuck on other components. Which rarely happens anyway. Almost never. I have a full-size stereo microscope with digital display… But honestly 90% of the time I use one of those cheap $40 handheld digital microscope‘s, synced to my iPad or iPhone wirelessly. You can find them on Amazon. Some of them even come with a stand included for a few dollars more. And for about $60 you can get one that has the screen built-in.
I highly suggest anyone that doesn’t have one… Pick one up. Even if it’s one of the $20 cheapo‘s that has to be directly plugged into a laptop. They are priceless when doing work like this! I hardly ever need my full-size stereo microscope unless I’m inspecting boards with the thermal camera looking for hotspots. Or doing really fine detailed SMD rework stuff.
These cheap microscope’s can also be used as a designated inspection camera under chips when re-balling. To inspect the solder balls, and see when they melt. They even have “endoscope“ versions small enough to fit in the human ear. For about $20. With extremely high definition, and a series of tiny LEDs at the end to illuminate the area… For all of your ear cleaning needs 😂 these really come in handy when getting into tight spots on circuit boards. When you don’t need extreme magnification. You can just get in real close.
I should also add… The needle tip allows you to get in the smallest areas and control the blast of air. And you only need about 30 psi, because it’s necked down into such a small stream of air. Any more than about 50 psi and you risk blowing the solder mask or traces off the board. 30 psi out of a small needle like that.... feels more like 200 psi against your skin. Because the air stream is so small.
Hope this helps someone.
Love the results. Thanks for bringing such a great computer back to life.
I remember being told I was red/green colour blind. I was at 8 and informed "you won't be able to be an electrician". At the time I wasnted to be Batman so I was completely unfazed.😆
Really appreciate your commitment to this restoration. I would have in no way completed it.
Really enjoy your restorations, always very informative. And for tomorrow night, “C’mon ENGLAND!!!!”
LOL att swimming pool gag
The swimming pool gag made me do a double take :)
Excellent!! Well done, Sir!
Magnifique travail, bravo et merci de redonner une seconde vie à ces machines qui nous ont tellement apportés. 😊
Merci beaucoup!
Great job bringing the machine back to life and looking as good as new! Not easy with a C128. I'm currently working on an Amiga 500, so I'm going to try the sunbrighting technique too. We don't have the California sun around here, but hopefully it'll work, even if it takes a few more days. Cheers!
Cheers Noel!
Hey, does the dog like to be in the pool too?! That's why I really like this friendly dog, he knows how to enjoy the good things in life. Congratulations to everyone on the team (including the dog) for this video. I remembered my A500 that I still have and would need to be recovered.
Your videos just get better and better over time. Retro Recipes is the best part of my Saturday morning.
Thank you so much. That’s really nice to hear!
@11:24 😫😿 Nice save in the end. This was a fun video to watch and I learned quite a bit, thank you.
There are actually RAM chips which are designed to be stacked. If I remember right they are 4-bit chips and you would put another on top to make it 8-bit.
The "P" in Peri must stand for Patience. Amazing machine save.
@Retro Recipes I have to say, that thing is just sexy after you got it all finished. The board is just pretty after all the cleaning and repair. Fantastic work on this video too. ~Doctor Skodt
I missed that "Ee-oo" sound effect. Another great video from the greatest retro computing channel on TH-cam. Thank you, The Fractics
Wow thank you!!
Great video. I currently have a c128 that has power light and black screen. The 1084s monitor does react to the computer turning on.
Loved the rolling brush after the “joke” And in the distance a dog barked 😂 or was that just Puppy-fractic?
**¡¡spoiler warning!!**
Hey the color blind joke was actually really good 😂
😆
Oooo, no spoilers!
@@erikolsen148 added a warning for those who look before finishing the video
This came out way better than I expected.
I didn't know there was a modern replacement for C64/C128 RAM. Thanks for showing it!
your videos are absolutely amazing
Just got yellowed and dirty c128 so this is very handy. You should try heating those ram a little before removing. Also 18% peroxide hair cream speeds up the process greatly. Than back to dishwasher
Beautiful restoration!!!! Makes me want to give it a shot!!!
That UB40 chip will need some Red Wine to work.
Haha!
Fantastic transformation 👍🏴
Congrats on another job so well done!
I'm not from that era but I love this technology. I wish to have a commodore 64 & want to use the floppy disk.
Love this video Peri! Great job!
ah. the good ol days when i used my Commodore computer to get dates.
Day 1 of my weekend and I get to wake up to a refurb video from one of my favourite channels. Nice. 😁
I remember liking my old C128 but felt like if I waited a few more months I could have got the much more powerful Amiga 500. Still it was very cool to have a 128 and built-in C64. I never used the 3rd mode (CPM?), I believe it was for business software which I didn't own (as a kid) so the 3rd part was superfluous to me as a high school student.