Hi
My partner has this computer. It was kept inside in a spare room for a long time. They used to use it when they were younger.
We got it out, set it up and it started up without any problems. Except they only had a few games on cassette and trying 2 of them threw up errors when trying to load.
Both start to load...
One then gives a 'read error A' (or B) .
The other says 'out of memory'.
Any ideas if these are fixable errors?
We also started trying to load 'outrun'. It seemed to get a lot further but we had to stop it as we had to move it off the dining table. We will be trying again tomorrow, hopefully.
Regan
Did you type LOAD or RUN? Load will usually not work unless it's a Basic program.
Rewind the type and then type RUN"
then press return to start a game.
This will unfortunately not help with the read errors. Read errors are pretty common after the years. Most likely the belt needs to be replaced.
I think we tried both. I'll be giving it another go tomorrow. At least with the 'outrun' tape we could see the flashing borders / loading thing going on.
I'd be kind of surprised if the internal cogs and wheels are still perfect after all this time. But it was neatly and securely packed away still in the original box, which will have helped a bit.
I would like to try the head alignment thing but I don't have the correct 'equipment' to do it. I might try manually by ear (which I believe is possible) but that's bound to be hit and miss.
Head alignment will probably not help if the belt is worn out. Almost all 464s I had here over the last years needed the belt to be replaced. After that most could read the tapes again. Only once I had to align the head.
You can find replacement belts on Ebay for a few bucks.
Sounds like belt replacement is a must. We'll have to give that a try.
Thanks.