{"id":218,"date":"2026-03-20T03:47:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/japanobserver.net\/?p=218"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:07:42","slug":"my-commodore-64-restoration-journey-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/20\/my-commodore-64-restoration-journey-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"My Commodore 64 restoration journey \u2013 Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Note: It&#8217;s been a year so I&#8217;m going from memory here)<\/p>\n<p>I got the C64 powered on and got the main screen that is so familiar to C64 users (sorry, I forgot to take a screenshot). YES!<\/p>\n<p>But I noticed a lot of problems when I typed on the keyboard. Some keys didn&#8217;t work at all, and some keys had to be pressed REALLY HARD to get any reaction. I couldn&#8217;t load anything from the diskette drives so this C64 is still pretty much unusable. But I didn&#8217;t give up. I figured it was worth taking it apart and cleaning the keys however I could.<\/p>\n<p>I looked for some YT videos, and I found this one:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"C64 Keyboard Repairs\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/welKDjWNma8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The one problem with this video is that there are 2 wires connected to the shift lock key that are soldered on and in this video they just remove them without saying anything about it. I had to find a second video to find out that clearly stated you have to either de-solder these wires or just cut them and live without a CAPS LOCK key.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, I don&#8217;t know how to solder, and I didn&#8217;t want to damage the CAPS LOCK key, so I opened the keyboard and left those wires in tact.\u00a0 I might not type a lot on this computer but I just can&#8217;t stomach the thought of damaging this. This gave me less room to clean the keys, but I figured it was worth trying.<\/p>\n<p>So first I turned the C64 on its front so I can open the back:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_228\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-228\" style=\"width: 1008px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-228\" src=\"http:\/\/japanobserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_7261-25percent.jpg\" alt=\"C64 on its back\" width=\"1008\" height=\"756\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-228\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Step 1: remove the back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Next I opened the C64. You can see the cable harness going under the foil-looking cover.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_221\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-221\" style=\"width: 1008px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-221\" src=\"http:\/\/japanobserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_7262-25percent.jpg\" alt=\"C64 with lid open\" width=\"1008\" height=\"756\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-221\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2. Open the lid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Now with the computer completely open, I removed the connector and started to remove the screws holding the keyboard to the frame.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_229\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-229\" style=\"width: 1008px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-229 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/japanobserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_7265-25percent.jpg\" alt=\"C64 Keyboard\" width=\"1008\" height=\"756\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-229\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">3. Remove the big screws attaching it to the bezel then the small ones in on the reddish-orange board.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Keyboard removed, now I&#8217;m ready to clean the keys and the board.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_231\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-231\" style=\"width: 1008px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-231 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/japanobserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_7266-25percent.jpg\" alt=\"C64 keyboard free from its bezel\" width=\"1008\" height=\"756\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-231\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">4. Time to get cleaning!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As mentioned, I couldn&#8217;t remove the circuit board completely, so I had to hold the left side at an angle so I could clean the keys around the CAPS LOCK key.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_226\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-226\" style=\"width: 1008px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-226\" src=\"http:\/\/japanobserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_7269-25percent.jpg\" alt=\"C64 keyboard circuit board\" width=\"1008\" height=\"756\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-226\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The KB circuit board at an angle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I managed to get it quite clean. I also thought it was cool to see that this was a MITSUMI board. The keyboards I used with the first PCs I sold back in 1995 were Mitsumi keyboards.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_225\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-225\" style=\"width: 1008px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-225\" src=\"http:\/\/japanobserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_7268-25percent.jpg\" alt=\"Mitsumi name printed on keyboard circuit board\" width=\"1008\" height=\"756\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ah, nostalgia&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After several wipes with Q-tips and lots of rubbing alcohol, I did my best to wipe off the board and as much dirt and grime in between keys. Many of these were jet black and I wish I had taken pics of those. Once this was over I put it back together and tested.<\/p>\n<p>Success!! Now most keys work. A few keys by the CAPS LOCK require a relatively strong push but they all worked.<\/p>\n<p>Now I&#8217;ll be able to type &#8220;Load &#8220;*&#8221;,8,1&#8243; and run games! My next chapter will show some real gems!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Note: It&#8217;s been a year so I&#8217;m going from memory here) I got the C64 powered on and got the main screen that is so familiar to C64 users (sorry, I forgot to take a screenshot). YES! But I noticed a lot of problems when I typed on the keyboard. Some keys didn&#8217;t work at &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/20\/my-commodore-64-restoration-journey-part-iii\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;My Commodore 64 restoration journey \u2013 Part III&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commodore","category-retro-computing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japanobserver.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}