Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Note: If you want the list of channels I shouted out during this stream, they are below the description.

I thought I was nearing completion of my restoration of COMPUTER, the name I have given to my Apple ][+ clone made by MCA of Japan... that is, if the silk screen on the motherboard can be trusted. And I'm going for a restoration here, with exceptions made for adding a Super Serial card and any expansion cards needed to make the ones that were included work.

Last week, we tried two replacement MC3242AP chips, which didn't resolve the bank addressing errors in RAMWerks (running on the Apple //e). Then someone in the chat asked if I had the RAM test program mentioned in the Saturn Systems 64K/128K RAM Board Operations Manual, and, after a bit of disk image shuffling, did manage to locate the RAMTEST128K program on one of them. And that program, on the Apple //e, seemed to switch banks as I expected - the on-screen indications matched the on-card LEDs.

There might be a marginal memory chip or two, or maybe some other component is marginal, but the card largely appears to be bank switching correctly.

Next, we tried this same program on COMPUTER, and the program immediately starts flagging errors during its initial bank switching testing. Yet the Garrett's Workshop clone card works fine... which leads to one conclusion: I think there's a bad or marginal chip on COMPUTER's motherboard that's OK with the modern clone card (being a buffered card with modern low-power chips), but starts to fold under the pressure of actual expansion cards.

Remember that trouble I had with the Apple ][ Disk Controller earlier on COMPUTER? That card that "magically" seemed to resolve itself when I pulled out the Apple //e? Yeah, I bet it works in COMPUTER as soon as we find the bad/marginal chip.

Will we find the bad logic chip? Will I find more bad 4164's along the way? Will that Disk ][ Controller Card start working in COMPUTER? You'll have to watch to find out!

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During this livestream, I did an impromptu shout-out of some other YouTube channels that I've learned from (plus one underrated non-repair channel) in response to a chat comment. here is a list of those channels in the order they were mentioned - go check them out!

Mac84 Steve: @Mac84
Bruce of Branchus Creations: @BranchusCreations
Adrian Black: @adriansdigitalbasement and @adriansdigitalbasement2
Jesse: @i80386sx
Joe!: jcm-1.com an @JoesComputerMuseum
Jason, the artist formerly known as GutBomb: @GutBombIndustries
Callan: @74XX_arcade
Matt: @MattLearnsThings
Joey: @JoeyDoesTech
My Mate Vince: @Mymatevince
Kip Hakes: @KipHakes
Mark: @MarkFixesStuff
More Fun Fixing It: @morefunretro2 and @MoreFunRetro

Honorable Mention: Not Quite Nick plays firsts of video games: @NotQuiteNickYT

And it would seem as if I missed the @BigBadBench (even if my repairs are decaf compared to his Janka)...

Sorry if I missed your channel, as I was trying to think of channels where I've seen component-level repairs of vintage computers, as the list was to address the comment in the channel. I subscribe to many other great channels where computers are also repaired and restored. And as I said in the livestream, I hate trying to name off channels from memory because I will inevitably forget someone's channel!

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