Request a refurbishment

Introduction

Have a broken Commodore 64? A noisy 1541 floppy drive in need of refurbish? A faulty Amiga 500?

From time to time I get requests for repair and/or refurbishment of Commodore equipment. I only do this as a hobby, but I try my best to help with these repairs and refurbishments.

Sounds interesting? Send me an e-mail at commodore.refurbished@gmail.com

NOTE: Below are general information on how this service works and the pricing model. At the moment only pricing for the Commodore 64 refurbishment is shown, but if this service is of any interest of other machines more information will come later.

The service include

  • Refurbishment of keyboard: The keyboard is completely disassembled. All keys are cleaned, the PCB is checked and cleaned and all plungers are revived. Springs are checked for corrosion and plastic chassis is cleaned thoroughly. In case of yellowing of keys they will be retrobrighted (note: for C64 breadbins this is not always done due to risk of damaging the front printing).

  • Refurbishment of exterior plastic chassis: All labels and stickers are removed and then the exterior is cleaned thoroughly. Marks will be removed if possible (gently sanding if required). In case of yellowing the chassis will be retrobrighted.

  • Refurbishment of main board: If main board is faulty (black screen/garbage screen etc.) then a fault finding is executed. This will often result in desoldering potential faulty chips, installing sockets and testing the main board with known good chips. Replacement of all electrolytic capacitors. Replacement of 5V and 12V voltage regulators where applicable. Adding heat sinks on customs chips such as SID, VIC-II, PLA and CPU. Please note that if a faulty chip or component is identified and needs replacement that an additional cost will be added to the price.

  • Refurbishment of RF-modulator: The RF-modulator is carefully desoldered and all electrolytic capacitors are replaced with new quality capacitors.

  • Testing and verification: The Commodore 64 is tested thoroughly - that is keyboard is tested, datasette- and floppy access is tested, audio/video is tested, cartridge port is tested etc. Testing is done to be sure that the machine works as expected before returned to you. 

How it works

  • This is not a regular repair workshop - but a refurbishment workshop. What does that mean? Well, it means that your machine/peripheral may be faulty and need repair, but I will both repair and refurbish your machine or peripheral. Also, that means the cost may appear higher than "only repair" services since it includes other operations such as retrobrighting.

  • You can follow the refurbishment process from this website. A dedicated webpage will be created for the refurbishment of your machine/peripheral.

  • I will try to refurbish your machine/peripheral as fast as possible. But I do this as a hobby in my spare time. This means that I can´t guarantee how fast I will refurbish your machine/equipment, but I will prioritize this as good as I can and provide frequently status updates.

  • Fault finding can be time consuming. Some faults are found and fixed in a few hours, but others can take weeks. Also, if I can´t manage to repair your machine/peripheral you can have it sent back at any time you want (I very seldom give up - but it can take a while). If I can´t fix it you will not be charged for repair cost - only shipping cost.

Pricing model

The pricing model consists of three parts; a baseline cost, a repair cost and shipping. The former is a fixed cost. The repair cost and shipping will be depending on the fault and your shipping location.

How to request a refurbishment

  • If you want to request a refurbishment, or want to contact me to learn more, please send an e-mail.

  • If we agree on ordering and executing a refurbishment payment will be done via PayPal - after the refurbishment is complete.

General

Commodore 64 refurbishment

Baseline price

Example

Case: Faulty Commodore 64 with black screen. Sent to refurbishment within Norway.

During refurbishment the fault is identified to be a broken PLA. A replacement chip (the PLAnkton is ordered from https://www.retroleum.co.uk/c64-chips) is ordered and installed. The price for this is £ 12.50 (NOK 146,-). After refurbishment the Commodore 64 is sent back to the customer.

The total price for this will be:

  • Baseline: NOK 1000,-

  • Repair: NOK 146,-

  • Shipping: NOK 258,-

  • TOTAL: NOK 1404,-

Picture credits: Retrokomp/Loaderror

© 2023-2024 Arne Harstad