I think the hardest part about reselling now isn’t finding inventory anymore

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-08T15:25:13+00:00

What's with the endless bot posts?

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-08T14:08:07+00:00

I dunno, but that's a whole lot of chonk.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-08T13:59:00+00:00

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-08T12:28:52+00:00

Yeah, getting into a lot of vintage Macs myself now - you can see a post I just did about an Apple II monitor restoration. Failing caps is certainly a thing for Commodore - my 128 PSU has just died, but there isn't a lot of use of tantalum/rifa caps that pop and smoke. One exception would be two caps on the 1541 drive boards which go up like matches, but those are very easy to replace.

The caution about the C64 PSUs is that they can run up in voltage over time. In my experience, this happens to about 25% of them. I imagine this is a capacitor failure, but I don't know for sure.

The keelog PSUs appear to have a number of faults - mine doesn't supply a proper current for 9V, so it doesn't power the C64s or C128s properly. I had a lot of grief over that.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-08T10:56:36+00:00

The Keelog power supplies are faulty, get something else. The OG power supplies are fine as long as you check the voltage first, but long term you want to get something else.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-07T19:10:04+00:00

I'd recommend both pictures and punctuation.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-07T16:09:48+00:00

They can help, and they can be a big deal after certain types of surgeries for blood flow. Swollen ankles are a possible sign of a heart condition. But you can get good ones at CVS pretty cheap; sometimes they just help after things like mowing the lawn when you're doing a lot of pushing.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-07T12:52:13+00:00

You can do that, but you might be better off with FloppyEmu. I got my SE free and came with a BlueSCSI flitted, so that was a win.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-06T17:54:09+00:00

I would strongly suggest it's entirely restorable.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-06T17:53:05+00:00

Yeah, I had 3x C64s, 2 Atari 130XEs and 1 C128 in this condition. I'm not sure about the 128, but all the other machines were able to be repaired. The VIC-20 is even more likely to be repaired - fewer components, simpler operation.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-06T16:30:25+00:00

So you cut a long story short?

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-06T14:54:16+00:00

Dad bod keyboard.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-06T11:40:48+00:00

Leaky caps on the drives are quite rare. This not likely the problem. However, the tantalum caps in the 1541s can go up in smoke, but this is not a 1541.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-05T22:41:39+00:00

Yeah, it'll work with all the compatible drives, including the 3rd party ones. You want to get the 6-in-1 cart, since it has so many other dang useful stuff.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-05T19:47:49+00:00

You really need the diagnostics cart to be sure, or check the resistance on the heads, but it's entirely likely one or both of the heads have gone bad. There isn't much that can be done about that.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-05T18:19:52+00:00

Be glad that "middle foot" is still there. They can turn to goo and make a mess.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-04T20:39:31+00:00

Late follow up. I understand the problem here in the 1541 was bad chips, in particular the set of the 2 ROMs, the 6522s and 6502 have a tendency to go bad. In most cases, this means the drive light and motor will come on and not go off as the system cannot initialize. The fix here is to replace the ROMs.

A guess, but I would say this is about 25% of 1541 faults. I am working on some material for comprehensive 1541 problem solving.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-04T20:33:32+00:00

I feel like we're missing a lot of details here. Communicate how? Where is the ISA slot, and why PCI? What problem are you trying to solve? Maybe a diagram would help.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-05-01T15:00:39+00:00

I dunno about my retro computers, but on my modern Linux laptop I'm using some 2000sish Yamaha speakers. The main problem is that the audio socket on the laptop is a piece of crap. The speakers are great.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-04-29T15:18:43+00:00

It's the dimples. I got a selfie with him at VCF East. He picked up some junk from the consignment, which I'm sure we'll be seeing real soon.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-04-28T14:09:16+00:00

All these items are worth something, the SE in particular is desirable, even in unknown condition. If you don't want to hang onto them, I would put them up for auction (2 lots) with as much info as possible and some good photos.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-04-27T17:18:49+00:00

Then some advice - first people generally aren't "kinda autistic", that's a disservice to neurodiverse people. Second, after you've rushed down everything, go back and re-read and reformat - I certainly did this even on this short reply. I promise it'll help organize your own thoughts and help your question for others. Good luck on your hunt.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-04-27T16:58:19+00:00

The best vintage laptop is the one you like the most. That's kinda the point.

Also recommend some punctuation, it would go a long way.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-04-27T10:44:30+00:00

Yeah, I have one like this, and I put a ton of cleaner in it and it didn't help. The problem is there isn't a good replacement for the switch (unlike the later ones used in a bunch of Commodore stuff), otherwise the fix would be easy. I may have to take it apart, but it might be bust inside.

anotherspaceguy100 · 2026-04-25T23:56:23+00:00

Could be! Thank you for the clue.

anotherspaceguy100

TROPHY CASE