My 'new' personal computer

kamilb1998 · 04, February, 2012 - 17:42:15

Have just won an online auction for a ZX Spectrum 48K

Should be collecting it this evening.

Karl · 04, February, 2012 - 17:45:32

good result...I see the Sinclair bug has started spreading

Lancealot · 04, February, 2012 - 19:09:11

As per other retro pc's on the forum it had to be Commadore. I had the Vic 20 but now have an emulator for all types with all the old games for Vic 20, 64, 128 & Amiga.

Lance

techytype · 04, February, 2012 - 20:26:13

memory lane strikes lol!

In my 20's my 1st 'computer' was an LED display calculator, you have to undestand i'm lousy at anything to do with maths. the (now defunct) Scientific & General') advertsed this on a special sale where i que'd up for the only time i have ever done this, for an unobtainably high cost unit - £20.

ZX81,
tbf Sinclair basic taught me an awful lot about logical thinking, typing in many pages of listings then busting it down to a ':' insted of an ';' was very time consumming but also a dicsipline inspired by the need to breal errant programs into sections in order to find erors and correct them.

Commador 64.
Many went the Sinclair 48/128 route, but i took a badge swerve, mainly because i was offered the C64 from a very dubious source. while not as user freindly for programming in Sinclair Basic, the music and graphics quality was simply brilliant by comparrison. Ghost Busters was the 1st game we had, followed 'summer olympics'.

C128
Really an improved C64 it sported a 5.25 floppy drive. I actually started my busines using 'superscript 128' which was a programmable word processor, tbh i have never found anything so inovative.

Amiga.
i loved that machine, why is it seemingly the best software appears as the machine is made obsolete?

Amstrad PC.via self bfor business use i bought an Amsltrad 'clam' luggable that 2 x 3.5 disk drives - was i a big boy lol! tbh It was extremely well built but soon outmoded. So i bought their 386sx smaller lugable with all of a 'massive' 40 megs hard drive (if only i knew now .....lol!).

progressed via self built PC's onto laptops, fialy so far to iPad 2.

i ponder if later generations will enjoy the pains of those eventual 'progress days'?

vanpeebles · 04, February, 2012 - 23:24:03

A pretty good buy, does the keyboard still work? If not you will need a new membrane as they go brittle with age.

If anyone fancies a Sinclair computer with a difference please check out the QL awesome machine and the scene needs new users

kamilb1998 · 05, February, 2012 - 07:49:00

Quote from: vanpeebles on 04, February, 2012 - 23:24:03
A pretty good buy, does the keyboard still work?

I don't know should be collecting it later tomorrow if we can get out the close (3 inches of snow). One thing I do know is wrong with it is that it displays a load of coloured blocks when plugged into a telly, CPU or lower memory thingy failed?

MikeDX · 05, February, 2012 - 10:16:11

ULA and or possibly ram failure.

Not cpu

Both easy to fix, although i dont know the availability of parts...

Robosoft · 08, February, 2012 - 23:55:02

RAM fault

It will cost less to buy another, but not as fun to repair.

http://www.robosoft.co.uk/zx

the above link should give you all the info you need.

kamilb1998 · 09, February, 2012 - 07:58:29

I have already bought a new keyboard membrane and lower memory (4116) chips for it. I got a low voltage reading at Pin 8 of IC6 and will be investigating further this weekend to find out whether it's a faulty chip or voltage regualtor circuit.

MikeDX · 14, February, 2012 - 19:50:25

4116s are between 60p and £1 each, not expensive, and as you rightly say, loads of fun fixing it yourself!

Keep us posted

kamilb1998 · 14, February, 2012 - 20:08:11

Certainly is fun until you realised you've *pardon my French*ed it up

My old man was helping me and ended up accidentally wripping off a large part of one of the tracks. Because the chip swap was a whole load more difficult than I thought it would be I bought a replacement working Issue 2 motherboard off eBay and will fit that and swap the 32K RAM expansion from my current motherboard to the new one.

kamilb1998 · 17, February, 2012 - 21:06:33

The replacement motherboard arrived today and all is working well. Spent ages going through the Basic programming book - loads of fun! It also looks as if all the electrolytic capacitors had been replaced at some point recently.

The only problem is the cassette recorder I have is broken and doesn't load tapes.

Lancealot · 18, February, 2012 - 08:05:03

Kamilb199,

Looks like you got sold a bit of a lemon with all the faults you have had. I am sure you will get sorted as there is ebay or a number of computer fairs that will be taking place soon.

Lance

kamilb1998 · 18, February, 2012 - 10:27:52

Quote from: Lancealot on 18, February, 2012 - 08:05:03
Kamilb199,

Looks like you got sold a bit of a lemon with all the faults you have had. I am sure you will get sorted as there is ebay or a number of computer fairs that will be taking place soon.

Lance

I think it is partly my fault to be honest. I rushed the buying stage because this one was local and I wanted one quick. But it was honestly described and it was a risk buying something that had stood for 25 years and expecting it to work.

kamilb1998 · 18, February, 2012 - 23:45:34

I have just realised that I have a cassette player in my MP3 hi-fi thingy on my desk. I plugged it into the Spectrum and loaded a game and it worked!

Now I have found an app for my iPhone so I can just download the tape image files and play them from that.

News:

My 'new' personal computer

Karl