Some of you may have noticed I’m on the list of TRS-80 repairers on Ira’s www.trs-80.com web site and I’ve had a good response from people who have sent me their machines. Of the 3 people who have contacted me and sent 4 systems (as at 11th Feb, 2011) only one system (a Model 1 keyboard unit) was too far gone and needed a motherboard replacement. This is a pretty good hit/miss ratio considering the age and history of the equipment in question. Some people have asked me what’s actually involved.
- First you email me and tell me what’s wrong, I may request a screen photo before taking a look so I have some idea of the complexity of the problem.
- You send me the computer and I set it up on my workbench and check it for obvious problems like corroded wires, moisture damage, physical damage etc. I power the machine up and spend up to an hour with a logic probe, CRO, and multi-meter to try to determine why the machine doesn’t work. I don’t charge for this service, its part of the quoting process. (If I quote on repair and you think its to high/not worthwhile, then I’ll just send your computer back for the cost of postage.)
- I quote you for the repair and state how long I think it will take and which parts and how much those parts will be. The quote is not fixed, I may find other parts needs replacing once I get to work on the machine proper, or find it takes longer (or sometimes shorter) amount of time to complete the job. On occasion I find a machine that even if I think I can fix it, in might find later that its just too far gone and can’t fix it. In this instance I just tell you No Charge, can’t fix it. Due to the age of the systems this does happen from time to time.
- The computer is repaired, set on a 24-hour burn in on my workbench then advised the total cost with itemization of parts replaced. Your computer is sent back in the same packaging you sent it to me in.
- I warranty all my work for 90 days but in reality it only covers the parts I replaced, so lets say I replaced a 74LS00, 74LS367, 4116 and a 2102 in a Model 1, if those parts fail then I’ll replace them. The age of TRS-80 systems means it possible that other original components could fail but in reality old TRS-80s are very robust machines and often my repaired machines hang in their for many, many years. (My own personal Model III, for example, needed a chip replaced in 1990, and the computer is still in use, virtually every week, and not had a problem in the past 22 years.)