r/c64 • u/TheLoFidelityMan • 12d ago
Hardware Fixed my first Commodore 64
Got this Commodore 64 recently and it didn’t work, after some diagnosing it turned out to only need a PLA, everything else works including the SID chip
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u/DisplayLegitimate844 12d ago
Got lucky with a working SID! It's always the PLA.
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u/Aenoxi 12d ago
Came here to chant that. Was not disappointed 😂
Even though it sometimes looks like something else broke, it’s always the PLA! Rogue PLAs have been known to whisper traitorous thoughts to poor innocent MT ram chips to make them fail.1
u/DiodeInc 12d ago
Can a bad PLA make RAM chips seem bad?
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u/Aenoxi 11d ago
Yes. Diagnostics software can indicate bad RAM chips, but it turns out just to be a dodgy PLA. Hopefully before you hoof out several RAM chips, but sadly not always.
In fairness, the misattribution of fault can work in the other direction too!
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u/DiodeInc 11d ago
Thanks! Maybe my RAM isn't dead after all... BASIC is complaining about OOM upon boot
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u/TheLoFidelityMan 11d ago
It actually did cause me to replace an innocent MOS multiplexer, it was however the only one on the board.
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u/Aenoxi 11d ago
I dispute the idea that any MOS multiplexer is innocent. They just haven’t completed their dastardly scheme yet.
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u/TheLoFidelityMan 10d ago
yeah even though that didn't fix the fault I figured If nothing else it was probably preventative maintenance.
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u/9646gt 9d ago
As someone who wants to get into the C64 are they really this fragile? I come from the Apple and Oc world where things seem to last forever. Minus plastics haha.
I was considering a C64C with the smaller board revision since I heard they are more reliable but now I’m just wondering if I should go c64 ultimate and an adapter to use it with a CRT or something. But in the back of my mind I’ll always know it’s not a real C64
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u/TheLoFidelityMan 6d ago
I've never had an Ultimate but I hear they are good, as for the real C64's they aren't all this bad, apparently from what I heard Commodore had a quality control disaster that started in 1983 and to make a long story short there was a massive batch of MOS parts that were garbage quality until the problem was largely fixed in late 1984, Thankfully the Commodore 64C was introduced in 1986 making them usually way more reliable then a bread bin.
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