RetroTechCollection

Commodore 64 Troubleshooting and Repair Guide

Revision as of 01:26, 25 September 2026 by Josh (talk | contribs) (P4 documentation drive: rewrite doc-holder as a real documentation page - the five Commodore books that do carry hardware or repair content, with what each actually contains and an explicit note that they are secondary to Commodore's own manuals)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

The Commodore 64 Troubleshooting & Repair Guide by Robert C. Brenner is a 183-page repair book published by Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., Indianapolis, first edition, first printing, 1985. ISBN 0-672-22363-5; Library of Congress catalogue card 84-51406; Sams catalogue number 22363.

It is one of two 1985 third-party Commodore 64 repair books hosted here, the other being Art Margolis's TAB book.

What it contains

edit

From the book's own contents:

  • Introduction — why a Commodore 64 repair guide, and how to use it.
  • Chapter 1 — The Commodore 64 described, including the power supply at page 33.
  • Later chapters cover testing capacitors (page 147) and the individual subsystems.
  • The text discusses the instruments involved — tracers, oscilloscopes, logic analysers and signature analysis — and identifies the components on the board: chips, resistors, capacitors, transistors and diodes, including the voltage regulator, variable resistor, inductor (L5) and electrolytic capacitors.
  • Brenner notes that many computer faults trace to the power supply, and names the Singapore-built power supply specifically. He advises leaving power supply problems alone unless you know what you are doing, and points to the schematic of the power supply supplied with the power cord package.

Why it is worth having

edit

It is a structured, symptom-first diagnostic method written by a qualified engineer, with a chapter on capacitor testing that is still sound practice. Its treatment of the external power supply is unusually direct for a period book.

How to use this book on this wiki

edit

It is a third-party book, not manufacturer documentation, and this wiki treats it as a secondary source. Where it disagrees with Commodore's own service manual or technical manual, those are primary and this is not. No component value on this wiki has been taken from it, and none should be without checking the figure against a Commodore parts list first.

The Commodore 64 Power-Supply Protector (C64 Saver) page covers what is now known about the failure mode of that supply, which this 1985 book could not.

edit

Download Commodore 64 Troubleshooting and Repair Guide here: Sams Commodore 64 Troubleshooting and Repair Guide.pdf

Retrieved from "https://wiki.retrotechcollection.com/index.php?title=Commodore_64_Troubleshooting_and_Repair_Guide&oldid=13415"