Commodore 1540 plugged in after 35 years...

chrisw99

chrisw99

chrisw99

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14 Feb 2024
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Sk8 6pb
Hi all,
Got my c64 box from my mum's attic where I put it in storage 35ish years ago!

C64 works fine, tested PSU, over voltage protection and so on.

But when I came to the disk drive, connected power cable , plugged in and before I even switched the switch to on, there was a real acrid smell and smoke came out the back. Presumably the switch powers the output from the transformer not the input..

Unplugged it, blew out lots of dust in case that was burning, plugged it back in and no more burning so hesitantly turned the switch on. Lights came on, drive started spinning, but then tripped the entire house. Tried again a bit later and again tripped power.

Anyone got any ideas what's going on here?
 
I would suggest you disconnect it, leave it alone for 20 mins or so then carefully open the case and see if there's any evidence of heat damage on the pcb, cables etc. And any evidence of fried detritus/critters that need cleaning up before doing any other checks.

Tripping the breakers is symptomatic of current draw but it sounds like the fuse didn't get blown instantly so there's some hope still.

Attics aren't great places to store electronics as they can get a lot of dust/dettritus, condensation and unexpected animals in unexpected places (live or dead).
 
Really sounds like you blew a cap somewhere on the drive. Probably a motor smoothing cap I'd guess.
It's good that the C64 itself works, but at this point, I'd be unplugging it and not doing *anything* until all the caps have been checked and dodgy ones replaced- otherwise you risk a very good chance of killing it.

Bluntly, asking questions like this tells me that you're highly unlikely to be able to fix it yourself, and every time you do anything you're risking damage.
 
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