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Philips VG-8235 (MSX2) Upgrading & Restoration

Philips VG-8235 (MSX2) Upgrading & Fixing

This poor computer was given to me in year 2015 but unfortunately it arrived at destination destroyed.

In these days i have decided to fix it and make some upgrades to make it more usable.

Upgrading & Restoration:

  • General cleaning of external case and motherboards.
  • Fixed the ventilation grid as the best i could do.
  • Glued the pins where the screws lock the keyboard.
  • Cleaning and Belt replacement of the 360k Floppy Drive.
  • Replaced MASKROM MSX VG-8235 (U7) with an EPROM 27C512 with the firmware of the MSX VG-8245 to use 720k floppy disk on the internal drive.
  • Replaced the original Floppy Drive with the GOTEK (HXC).
  • Removed the battery for the system clock.
  • Bypassed the impedance L1 on the power supply stage (solves video noise if the original Floppy Drive is not used)
  • Rerouted Floppy Drive cable to make it compatible with a standard Floppy Drives.
  • Fix for the missing signals of the Internal Floppy Drive but present on the external Floppy Drive (you need to solder 2 wires)

Gallery of the work done:

Download: MSX 8245 50hz Rom [27512] (950)

  1. Alberto
    March 2nd, 2022 at 17:13 | #1

    Ciao nIGHTFALL,

    grazie di tutte queste belle informazioni.
    Sei un grande!!!!

    Volevo sapere se sai a cosa serva il piccolo switch posto sulla mainboard dello VG8235, proprio accanto all’apertura della seconda porta cartridge.
    Ha accanto la sigla SWI.

    Grazie mille
    Ciao
    Alberto

  2. March 2nd, 2022 at 23:34 | #2

    @Alberto

    Ciao Alberto, e’ un service Jumper che in alcuni MSX non e’ presente in quel posto e cambia pure label con ST1 , penso venga utilizzato con la Philips Test Cartridge , ho trovato qualcosa qui:

    https://hansotten.file-hunter.com/special-msx-hardware/philips-test-cartridges/

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