I can't speak about C64 OS as I haven't tried it but with your C64 I would
not recommed recapping unless you know for a fact that there are bad caps on it.
I'm not a proponent of replacing caps "just in case", caps aren't the
ticking timebombs that CMOS batteries are unless you can see it leaking and spreading down the traces of the board.
Also modern caps are not necessarily better than the ones already in your
C64. Yes they can go bad and you may end up having to replace one or two at some point but they're not likely to destroy your C64, more likely it will
just start acting a little flakey.
However I have multiple commodore 8 bit machines all with original caps and never had any capacitor problems in them. In-fact just this week I was
working on an early VIC-20 and suspected a cap, desoldered it and tested it
and it had a better capacitance and resistance rating than the modern replacement I was considering putting in its place so I ended up just
putting the original cap back in. My issue turned out to be just an
improper power supply.
I think the whole "recap everything" idea stems from the late 90's PCs due
to the capacitor plague but the C64 and C128 did not use those capacitors.
What is likely to destroy it is the original power supply as those tend to
fail in such as way as to start pumping 12 volts (or more) on the 5 volt
line. I would either build or buy a modern power supply or at the very
least invest in a "c64 saver" which is basically an in-line fuse to protect your c64 when the power supply dies.
If you are considering also getting a C128 then make sure to get a power
supply with enough amperage for the C128 as well. There are adapters you
can get to use your c64 power supply on the 128 but the 128 requires a
higher amp rating than the 64 does.
Daniel wrote:
Hi folks -
I've been really tempted to jump back into the CBM world after watching
a few demo vids of the c64 OS. Heard an interview on a podcast the other night and... Well, impressed the guy got a wikipedia app running on the
OS. I actually reached out to the developer asking why he stood up a
propxy to scrape wikipedia vs pulling the data with existing API's. He
simply didn't know about it.
Anyway, tangents aside, I'm considering a purchase of a C128 and would
like to know if the C64 OS supports 80 column mode or does the user have
to switch to C64 mode to make it work?
RIght now, my only access to CBM is on a Mini i purchased at gamestop
some time ago but it's finicky about the sort of image it'll load from a flash drive.
I bought an actual C64 off ebay a few years ago but haven't had a chance
to recap it. There's alot of residue and cleaning to do yet, and figure
out what else if wrong before I can plug it in.
Thanks.
Daniel
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