Grundy Newbrain Repair (1 of 2)

The first thing to do with this home computer before turning it on after many years that it was off is replacing all capacitors, which i did (some capacitors with acid leaks) and the computer worked well for about 15 minutes.
After the first 15 minutes while running a “for next” cycle, the computer started to show signs of slowing down and then freezed.
The problem was a RAM (4116) on BANK 2 [POSITION 416] (see photo), replaced the RAM the computer has started working again for another 15 minutes then it was freezed again.
I turned it off and on again and in this time a single line was repeated for X times, only with the composite video output, the VFD Display worked well (see photo)
Looking at the wiring diagram i found the area that manages the composite video output and i started to making measurements with the oscilloscope and after quite some time i have found the IC 74LS157 [POSITION 449] with a strange measurements that did not convince me for example the output pin 7 (OUTPUT Y2), in fact was broken, replaced the component the computer has started to work again.
Hopefully nothing will happen again: D
Gallery of the repair:
Useful link to visit: 8bit-homecomputermuseum.at
Recent Comments