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The Commodore PET
(Model : CBM 8096) |
Repairs - RAM
| When the machine was powered on, it started up with an encouraging CBM 8000
series "chirp" and the screen displayed the "basic 4.0"
welcome screen, but only reported "15359 bytes free".
A CBM 8096 should report "31743 bytes free", i.e.,
there appeared to be a RAM fault on the main board. (The
64K additional RAM is not reported at start-up.) |
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| This is the 32K main system board, with
the 64K mezzanine board removed. My 8032 uses
Hitachi HM4716AP-4 RAMs, these are 16K x 1 bit,
installed in two banks, identified as UA5 to UA19 on the
board - located below the heat sink for the voltage regulators. |
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The lower 16K is provided by the odd numbered chips,
UA5, UA7, . . . UA19 and the upper 16K is provided by
the even numbered chips, UA4, UA6, . . . UA18.
15359 bytes free equates to a missing 16K (31743-16384),
suggesting a fault in the upper bank of RAM. |
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| I wrote a simple BASIC test program to
poke values into a range of memory addresses, read them
back and compare them. When "0"
values were written, they were read back correctly. When
"255" was written, all addresses returned "253",
i.e., data bit 1 (2) was stuck low. The PET schematic on
zimmers.net show that bit 1 in the upper 16K block
is stored in UA16*.
With UA16 removed, you can see that the separation
between the solder pads and adjacent tracks on the
component side of the board is tight, but is adequate to
allow a socket to be fitted in place of UA18.
* Thanks to Dave Curran of
Tynemouth
Software for this tip, check out his
vintage
computer blog pages. |
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New socket installed in position UA16
and replacement 4116 RAM fitted - a Mostek MK4116N-3IRL |
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| With the RAM chip replaced, the upper
16K is now visible and the system correctly reports
"31743 bytes free" |
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| The output from my memory test program
running a test over the 16K boundary, i.e., 15700 to
16400. I now have a working PET 8096, or at least the
32K on the main board is good, the additional 64K on the
expansion board requires additional software to test it.
Update :
see here for
expansion board RAM testing |
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