Dragon 64 repair - a little help?

A place to discuss everything Dragon related that doesn't fall into the other categories.
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Rolo
Posts: 228
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:36 pm

Re: Dragon 64 repair - a little help?

Post by Rolo »

I once had something like that on a Commodore 128. Strange characters on the screen. Turned out to be bad DRAM-chips. Some of the bad memory cells were mapped into videoram. I read somewhere that it is quite common, since the old chips had some corrosion problems inside, they said.
If the voltages are ok, I would have a look at those chips. They are cheap and common.
If your Dragon can run large programs, just with a display problem, then DRAM probably is ok. But if it's behaving strangely and programs don't run, then your memory could be not completely right.
gareth
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:55 pm

Re: Dragon 64 repair - a little help?

Post by gareth »

Dear all,

Thanks for advice.

I tried swapping chips a couple of years ago, but no success I'm afraid. I've kept looking for a decent 64 at a reasonable price on E bay, but no success.

Is there anyone that would be prepared to take a look at it and repair it for me? Obviously, I would pay postage or deliver to within 50 miles of London, plus costs incurred for repair. I would love to get it going again, but just don't have the knowledge to repair it.
sardine
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:30 pm

Re: Dragon 64 repair - a little help?

Post by sardine »

Im a mod at Amibay and "thecorfiot" is the last Tandy authorised repair specialist. ( I think its tandy, he will put me right if not, but he repairs everything.)

he's made his own mods, Draco64 (Converted Dragon 32 to 64kb with both Coco2 and Dragon roms with keyboard matrix fix)

currently working on RGB for Dragon...

hes called BetaGama on Facebook. he will repair you Dragon without any issues.
gareth
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:55 pm

Re: Dragon 64 repair - a little help?

Post by gareth »

Thanks for this Sardine. I have registered with the other site, but it won't let me post or even PM 'the corfiot'.

Would you be able to PM me his details please?
sardine
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:30 pm

Re: Dragon 64 repair - a little help?

Post by sardine »

ive PM'd you.


just make a post in the "introduce yourself" forum

then in the "services" section create a wanted thread asking for the repair

then pm "thecorfiot" and ask your questions.

hes a dragon wizz, ive met both him and Prime ( Phill) (Dragon MMC), thecorfiot (Bas) hes a good friend and will repair your dragon,

whats your name on amibay ??
gareth
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:55 pm

Re: Dragon 64 repair - a little help?

Post by gareth »

Big thanks to Sardine for recommending someone to fix my 64. It came back packaged today. There were 3 or 4 faults (including the VDU chip had gone), which I couldn't have done. A great fix and it's all working beautifully again. If anyone is interested, here's a link to the repairs that were undertaken:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?96 ... post875866
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