So now I can type, it’s time to load some games!
This system came with 2 floppy drives; the original 1541 drive that I had back in 1983, and the newer, sleeker 1541-II drive which came later in the 80s.
So first I tried the flashy, sweet 1541-II drive. I never could afford one of these in the 80s, so I was dying to try it. I put in a floppy, typed “Load “$”, 8″ and waited for the glory!
TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT
(If you ever used a C64, you know exactly what this sound is)
Nothing worked. Tried disk after disk after disk, no change. So I tried the original 1541. It worked with a few disks but most of them still didn’t work.
In the 1980s it was common that C64 drives would get their drive heads out of alignment. Your software wouldn’t load and you had to pay to have it re-aligned. But this is the Internet age, I looked up how to do it. I kinda sorta figured it out, but at the very least, I needed to clean the drive heads. Time to take apart the drives!
Before I took it apart, I noticed a label in the upper left corner.
I looked up “Action Computer” and found dozens of entries but nothing matching this store. The date is 1/20/1989 so I’m not surprised, my guess is this place probably went under well before 1994.
Now I’m gonna have to break that seal…
Now I have to remove the top panel to get to the guts.
I never did this in the 80s but I have nothing to lose this time. The disk reader is on the bottom and all of the circuitry appeared on a second level above it. To truly align the heads I would have to remove this board as well which I didn’t do.
Ah, the MOS 6502!! What was cool to me about this was I remember reading in the 80s that the Commodore peripherals had their own “brains” and complete circuitry. Here you can see the MOS 6502 and many derivatives. The 6502 is what the C64’s actual CPU is based on.
I took some Q-tips, doused them with rubbing alcohol, and got to work. These were dirty as it looked like they hadn’t been touched in over 30 years.
Now to do the same with the 1541-II drive. This drive reacted differently so I don’t know if a cleaning will do it, but I thought I’d try anyway.
Just like the first drive, I cleaned the heads.
I cleaned the heads and anything else I could find. The problem is that despite the cleaning, the drive still seems to make noise like the heads just don’t engage the disk. But now that the 1541 is clean, time to test it out!
Coming up next, what did I find on these disks?