C128 power switch problems, need some advice.

[John64]

Hi,

First of all please forgive me that I'm starting my first topic here with a problem that I have with my beloved C128.

To make a long story short, my C128 has glitches on screen and after trying a lot of things out and having consulted Ray Carlsens website it looks like the power switch causes the problems. If you touch the power switch (while the C128 is on) the problems get better or worse and also the screen gets a little lighter or darker upon pressing. I consulted some guys from a Dutch C= forum and at first instance they tought that the power switch needed some resoldering. Having posted some pictures over there they can't see anything special and now think it is the power switch itself that is bad. One of that guys is gonna send me another power switch from a dead C64.

But could you guys please look at this PICTURE of my power switch.
The switch has 6 pins that lead to the pcb. If you take a look at the top row you can see that the left and middle pins make contact. If you take a look at the bottom row however you can see that the left and middle pins don't make contact. I tried to look up some pictures of the C128 motherboard on the net to compare but cannot find a picture that is large/clear enough. My question is: do the left/middle pins of the top row have to make contact or is it a bad solder job? And the left/middle pins of the bottom row don't make contact but perhaps they have to? I found some pictures of a C64 motherboard and you can clearly see there that all 6 pins do not make any contact with each other.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Regards,
John

[XmikeX]

I had maybe three/four of these turn temporarily bad, as described in this thread earlier, due to a very simple problem : Gumming up of the On/Off Switch.

Temp Fix : disconnect power supply, toggle on/off switch rapidly 20-30 times, reconnect power supply - turn on c-128.

Perma Fixes : 1) clean the switch (disassemble switch, clean switch, reassemble switch) and/or 2) replace switch.

http://www.commodore128.org/index.php?topic=3604.msg18007#msg18007

XmX

[John64]

Thans for your reply  I will give that a try.

Regards,
John