How to Repair my Osborne 1

I have recovered a Osborn 1 in pretty nice cosmetic conditions but broken ;-(

List of broken stuff:

  • Startup Garbage screen.
  • Long startup beep.
  • Reset works 1 times out of 20.
  • Modem port desoldered.
  • Powersupply ripple.
  • Some screws missing.

Solutions & Fixes:

  • Powersupply Ripples: Replaced some capacitors.
  • Modem Port de-soldered: Fixed the cold solder.
  • Startup garbage screen/long beep/reset: I have replaced a broken 4116 RAM.
  • Screws missing: Replaced with a new one.

I have to thank Terry ‘Tezza’ of Classic Computers Blog for the piggyback ram guide.

I used an oscilloscope to find the faulty ram cause all ram in my motherboard seemed to work well. In the photo #9 you can see the signal of the pin 2 (data in) of a faulty ram, while in the photo #8 the same signal of a working a ram.

  1. October 30th, 2011 at 18:01 | #1

    Grande!

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