X68K first time user and experiences

[16bitgium]

Hi Guys,
the x68K has been somewhat of a holy grail for me.
Since I was selling off some stuff I got some sweet cash in February and decided to take a punt on one on Auctions Yahoo. It was sold as working but only with one floppy drive. I also got some games and recently got a super cheap monitor (the power cord was completely destroyed) but after replacing the plug it works perfectly. It came with slow boat postage. So it took several months to get to Europe.

I got several games but most require 2 working floppy drives. However, my copy of Chelnov is on one disk and works perfectly.

So I set off to clean the drive 0. After much cleaning and sweat (I got that s-ram error a lot).
I got floppy drive zero working but immediately destroyed a disk after formatting and trying to copy my HUMAN disk.I wonder is this due to the disk or does the heads need more cleaning? To make it clear you can actually see trough the floppy disk now.
Destroyed disk


So after this I decided to remove the battery, this looks pretty alright I guess?
First picture is when I cut the battery off second picture is after cleanup. First with vinegar and then with isopropyl:
before and after
I bought a replacement battery holder from arananet, still need to install that. But it has 3 pins and the x68000 only has 2 . How do I install

The PSU runs incredibly hot. I guess I will have to go for a recap? I bought the original model on purpose because I read they have fewer caps issues. 
Can also anybody recommend a replacement fan? It is very noisy even after replacing the original.

Thanks in advance guys!

[HIggy]

Hi @16bitgium

You are running the PSU at 100v ?
I've got 3 X68k and the original PSU on all of them had leaky caps. I would stop using the X68k until you take it apart to check. Also you need to remove the motherboard from the other tower as there is a hidden screw for the PSU. Don't refit that hidden screw, it it is not needed.

I fit PicoPSU. Don't need a fan, well for UK weather I had a system on for over 6hrs straight and it was fine.

You probably need to go down Gotek route for Floppy drives. There are also 4 small capacitors that leak inside them.


The new battery holder has 2 earth pins or 2 positive pins, so you only need to connect 1 of them. Use a multimeter to find out which is which.

Can you take a picture further back from the battery. It is too close, I want to see if there is battery leakage on other components. Quite often the crystal oscillator which is next to the battery sucks up the leakage and gets damaged (there are solutions).

[16bitgium]

You are running the PSU at 100v ?

I use a stepdown converter might be 110v
I've got 3 X68k and the original PSU on all of them had leaky caps. I would stop using the X68k until you take it apart to check. Also you need to remove the motherboard from the other tower as there is a hidden screw for the PSU. Don't refit that hidden screw, it it is not needed.
crap I was hoping to avoid replacing the PSU I already got the ATX conversion kit from Arananet, so basically I4m good to go

I fit PicoPSU. Don't need a fan, well for UK weather I had a system on for over 6hrs straight and it was fine.

You probably need to go down Gotek route for Floppy drives. There are also 4 small capacitors that leak inside them.

currently still working...

The new battery holder has 2 earth pins or 2 positive pins, so you only need to connect 1 of them. Use a multimeter to find out which is which.

Can you take a picture further back from the battery. It is too close, I want to see if there is battery leakage on other components. Quite often the crystal oscillator which is next to the battery sucks up the leakage and gets damaged (there are solutions).
I will have to take it apart completely then no idea when that will happen

[16bitgium]

Update:
i've been burning a lot of games on disk.
And I also got my DRIVE:0 working however it is much noisier then the second drive. The actual spinning of the discs makes a  lot of noise. What do I need to clean to prevent that?

Now I can start burning 2 disc games (yay)

[16bitgium]

Seems like my 1MB ram expansion cz-6be1 is faulty. Even though I  can mention 2MB (or higher ) in SWITCH.X games doesn't seem to recognise it. I haven't installed a new battery. But if I only soft reset the system. It should still recognised the 2MB right? Or do I really need that battery?

I see the capacitor is also already replaced. What is the value of this cap maybe they made a mistake?


The Etarikashikoshi board works because I have MIDI sound naturally I don't get the 10MB because the cz-6be1 doesn't work.

[HIggy]

Hi,

Sorry what capacitor, in the PSU? 1mb memory expansion?

On the main motherboard the capacitors should not have leaked.

Yes after a soft reset (the button on top of X68k) even with bad battery it should remember the settings.
You could try setting the time/date and see if that is remembered.

[z964]

Seems like my 1MB ram expansion cz-6be1 is faulty. Even though I  can mention 2MB (or higher ) in SWITCH.X games doesn't seem to recognise it. I haven't installed a new battery. But if I only soft reset the system. It should still recognised the 2MB right? Or do I really need that battery?

I see the capacitor is also already replaced. What is the value of this cap maybe they made a mistake?


The Etarikashikoshi board works because I have MIDI sound naturally I don't get the 10MB because the cz-6be1 doesn't work.

Have you tried running memtest68k?  I'd use that before I wrote the memory expansion off as broken.