I-LITES contains articles of general interest from the September, 1993 issue of 
The Commodore MaiLink, newsletter of 
   "Meeting 64/128 Users Through the Mail", 
    1576B, County Road 2350 E, St. Joseph, IL 61873. 
In addition, each copy of The Commodore MaiLink contains group business, 
information on new members, a "Buy/sell/trade" column, and a "Questions" 
column. Permission is given to reprint this material if credit is given to 
"Meeting 64/128 Users Through the Mail" and The Commodore MaiLink. 


RECOMMENDATIONS 

V-TECH. I want to communicate my experience with V-Tech, (2223 Rebecca, 
Hatfield, PA, 19440, ph. (215) 822-2989) to our members, many of whom may have 
been put off by the company's slowness or failure to respond several years ago. 
The first time I dealt with them, they took a month or more to send an order. 
Since then however, they have been prompt and resourceful. Only the second time 
I phoned them, the answerer remembered my name, (Is it a one-man operation?) 
They have been able to supply me with everything from ribbons for an ancient 
Brother daisywheel to cartridges and re-inking kits for my new Canon BJ-200. I 
love their re-inkable ribbons for Panasonic and Okidata dot matrix printers. 
Send for their price list, which features ink, re-inkers, special auto 
re-inking ribbons, etc. Inexpensive cartridges and re-inking kits for inkjet 
printers can also be had from "P.S. INC.", 317 Booye Terrace, Northfield, NJ, 
08225, PA. (609)-645-1888. They will also do re-inking for you. From CHARLOTTE 
MANGUM. 

PERFECT PRINT improvement. I got a parallel printer cable from Skyles Electric 
Works, (P.O. Box 1984, Cupertino, CA 95015) for $18.95, including $3 freight. 
It sped up my "Perfect Print" greatly. DICK RIGHTER. 

SUPERBASE. I have a small mail order business. I use Superbase 64. After great 
effort on my part, Precision Software finally sent me 1581 version of Superbase 
64. This allows me to have over 1000 addresses in my mailing list. I haven't 
tested it to the limit yet, since most of my lists are under 250 names, and 
thus fit on a 1541 disk. I regularly use the "sort" and "find" options to send 
out or analyze various lists. I see that someone is selling Superbase 64 again, 
it is a tremendous and powerful database I heartily recommend. I'd be glad to 
answer questions about using it. DICK RIGHTER. 

(Ed. note: Software Support International offers "Superbase 64" and "Superbase 
128", see the item about their latest catalog in the July MaiLink.) 

COMPLAINTS? We all have them from time to time, but this is not a complaint but 
praise for LOADSTAR. I had a problem trying to get some Clip-Art graphics on a 
disk I had purchased from Loadstar to load into Geos. I called the 800 number 
and asked for help. The young lady that answered was unable to help and asked 
me to hold. In less than a minute, Fender Tucker was on the line. He could not 
solve my problem but said he would make some calls and phone back. Within an 
hour he called with the solution. He had phoned the person who programmed the 
Clip-Art and found the answer to my problem. That's what I call support!  TOM 
COLEMAN. 

ADDRESS AND PHONE CHANGE. In the July MaiLink I recommended "Micro Resales", a 
source for used Commodore hardware. The company has moved to 901 S. Neil St., 
Champaign, IL. 61820, their new phone number is (217) 378-8733. JEAN NANCE. 




MISINFORMATION WATCH Maurice Jones 

THE PLACE: COMPUTE, September 1993, page G-22. THE MISINFORMATION: The 
following program is recommended. 

10 READ A$,B$ 20 PRINT A$+" "+B$ 30 DATA BILL,CLINTON 

THE TRUTH: The plus signs in line 20 cause the computer to create the string 
"BILL ", store it at the top of BASIC, create the string "BILL CLINTON" and 
then print "BILL CLINTON" on the screen. Since the end result is simply the 
printing of "BILL CLINTON" the line: 

20 PRINT A$" "B$ 

would serve the purpose, would not use any memory at the top of BASIC, and take 
about .00083 seconds less. Type in the program, run it, change line 20 and run 
it again. There is no apparent difference, but time and memory have been saved. 
Add the following lines to the program in the column to see the memory use at 
the top of BASIC: 

40 I=PEEK(51)+256*PEEK(52) 50 IF I>=PEEK(55)+256*PEEK(56) THEN END 60 PRINT 
CHR$(PEEK(I))"*"; 70 I=I+1:GOTO50 

The addresses 51 and 52 store the low-high bytes of the bottom of string 
storage while addresses 55 and 56 store the bytes of the top of BASIC. Line 60 
prints the character whose ASCII code is stored at the address I, followed by 
*. The * is used to show any spaces which may be stored. When run, the line 
prints: 

B*I*L*L* * 
  confirming my claim. Try it. Change line 20 to my code and run it. This time, 
nothing additional is printed, because there is nothing stored at the top of 
BASIC. Since this is a column for beginning programmers, one should expect that 
the best programming practices would be recommended. Our C64 is not fast and 
does not have much memory; therefore we must program much better than those who 
don't have to consider either. We should not cause the computer to do unneeded 
manipulations nor to use memory needlessly. I have called attention to BEGINNER 
BASIC before, but have passed up other things that I could have commented on. 
In this issue, there is another program using the INPUT statement, this time to 
enter strings. The INPUT statement is so sensitive to error that LOADSTAR 
programs NEVER contain them. Beginning programmers should be told of this 
difficulty, rather than simply being shown programs using INPUT. In general, 
the advice in BEGINNER BASIC is no more sophisticated than that which we saw in 
1984.  LOADSTAR has published several series for beginning programmers, with 
each series reflecting the most recent trends. While I can always find things 
to criticize, the LOADSTAR columns are far more reliable than the current 
Gazette columns. 



FEEDBACK ON TIPS 

From MILFORD ZEMAN.  A comment on Ferol Austen's tip on disk initializing and 
the editorial tip on using the cardboard retainer. I recently bought a 
refurbished 128D. When it came the lever was turned down and there was no 
detector in the drive. I had to initialize it to get it to work, but it's 
working O.K. now.  If a computer is to be shipped or hauled anywhere, be sure 
to have the head vibrator detector in place while shipping it. This is 
mentioned in the manual but it is easy to forget.  From BRIAN VAUGHAN.  In the 
July MailLink, Ferol Austen brought up good points as to the Initialize command 
on 1541 drives. Some commercial programs can leave the R/W head of your drive 
parked at Track 35 or above. When this happens, the disk drive will never work 
again unless you reset the head to Track 1 using the protective card which came 
with the drive, or preferably simply sending the Initialize command to reset 
the head to the Directory Track 18. Ferol also gave an incomplete command to 
Initialize the drive. The correct command from the Direct Mode is: 
OPEN15,8,15:PRINT#15,"I0":CLOSE15. Users who have a DOS Wedge available to them 
can simply send the "?I0" command to Initialize the drive. I recommend that any 
disk be inserted into the drive prior to sending the "I" command. Sending this 
command to an empty drive will needlessly bang the head against the end-post. 
Once the drive has been Initialized, it will work properly 



FEEDBACK ON BUY/SELL/TRADE 

From JEAN NANCE.  In the July MaiLink I asked advice on the purchase of a 
printer and interface. I want to thank all those who wrote me with such good 
advice. I admit, I got impatient and ordered my printer before all the advice 
was in. I bought a Star NX-1001 printer and a Xetec Super Graphic Sr. Interface 
from Tenex. I got prompt service from them. and am quite pleased with my 
printer. Two people warned that the Star NX-1000 series has one problem; print 
is not as dark as one could wish. The print was dark at the beginning, but 
after a couple of weeks of the kind of use I give a printer, it was noticeably 
lighter. Luckily for me, Emil Volcheck had recommended that I buy an automatic 
re-inking ribbon for my printer from V-TECH. (See the Recommendations column on 
page 3 of this issue for more on V-TECH by Charlote Mangum). I truly believe my 
problem is solved, it appears to me that the defect may not be in the printer 
itself but in the ribbon provided for it. It is recommended that you put a drop 
or two of ink in a hole in the ribbon cartridge every day or so, and they 
promise the ribbon will outlast 20 ordinary ribbons, and keep on providing good 
dark print. My print is dark again, and my hope is that as long as I "feed" the 
ribbon regularly, it will continue to be so. V-TECH sent my order fast, the 
ribbon cost exactly what an ordinary ribbon from TENEX would have cost, a big 
bottle of ink was also reasonably priced.  Kenneth Jewell recommended using 
cotton rather than nylon ribbons with the Star NX-1000 printers, he feels this 
is another answer to the problem of light print. 


KEYBOARD PROBLEMS Jim Russ 

Next to the disk drive, the keyboard is the main source of woe for Commodore 
users. It happens to most keyboards with the passage of time. Dust and dirt 
work their way into the keys and then one day, you press a key and nothing 
happens. Sometimes there is a warning sign of what is to come. Once in a while 
a key will not print. You may not notice it at first, thinking that you made a 
typo. Hey! It happens to all of us, even an accomplished two finger typist like 
me! But then comes the day when you are watching the screen and you see that 
nothing happens when you press the key. When this happens, it's time to clean 
the keyboard contacts. Or is it? More on this later. There are two schools on 
how to clean the keyboard. The first is: "Take it apart and physically clean 
the contacts using a soft burnisher such as a good gum eraser". The second is: 
"Use a spray of contact cleaner and hope that it does the job". Since the 
latter is so much easier, I have always opted for trying it first. Here's how I 
do it. First I placed several layers of paper towels on an old work table and 
then I stand the keyboard on its end. Using the spray wand that comes with the 
cleaner, I sprayed in between the keys working my way from the top to the 
bottom of the keys. I make sure the area I use has good ventilation and try not 
to breath any of the fumes. Next I prop up the keyboard for several minutes to 
give the liquid a chance to drain from the board. You may be amazed at the 
amount of dirt and grease that comes out of it. Now lay it down and give it 
several minutes to dry. The liquid vaporizes very quickly which is part of the 
reason you need good ventilation to carry the fumes away. When the keyboard is 
dry, plug it in and give it a try. If you are one of the lucky ones, your keys 
will all work now. If not, back to the bench and plan #2 (or was it one?). Take 
the keyboard apart and burnish the contacts. This is not a job for the faint of 
heart. There are a good number of screws and some switches that have to be 
unsoldered. That is why I always try the spray cleaner first. But wait! There 
is one other test that I have found useful before taking the keyboard apart and 
cleaning the contacts. This worked just last week on a friends C-128 keyboard. 
He had tried both spraying and taking the keyboard apart to burnish the 
contacts to no avail. This was the first time I had seen a C-128 keyboard 
apart. The contact are not at all like those on the C-64.  Gone are the rows of 
copper colored circles and in their place were rows of brownish rectangles of 
some conductive plastic. The keys have a "u" shaped pad of this material which 
bridges the gap between the two rectangular pads and completes the circuit. He 
had rubbed an artist eraser "lightly" across each pad on the board to clean it 
and then for good measure, sprayed the board with the cleaner to remove the 
dust and any oil that may have gotten on the contacts from an errant finger. We 
reassembled the keyboard, soldered the caps lock and other switch keys back on 
to the board and fired it up. The blasted thing still had the same problem with 
three keys not printing. Needless to say he was very disappointed. We were 
about to pack it up and place an ad on Q-Link for a replacement keyboard when I 
decided that since we had gone this far, we might as well check out the key 
caps that were malfunctioning. Using an "L" shaped tool I have for prying up 
keys, I removed one of the bad keys being careful to cup my hand over the key 
as I pried it loose so as not to lose the spring that is under the key cap. It 
came off rather easily and an inspection showed nothing wrong that I could see. 
With the power still on, I placed a small dowel in the hole into which the key 
cap fit and pressed down. Low and behold the letter appeared on the screen, I 
pressed again and it printed a second time. I removed the dowel, replaced the 
key and pressed it. No good. The letter would not print.  It was obvious that 
the key was not traveling down enough to touch the "U" shaped pad on the  
(Continued on next page) (Keyboard Problems Continued) bottom of the key which 
makes the contact with the two pads on the circuit board.  What was needed was 
some way to extend the end of the plunger on the key cap so it would press 
against the "U " shaped pad. Again I removed the key cap and then I used a 
knife to cut off a small piece of the dowel about 3/16". I placed this in the 
hole before replacing the key cap. This time when I pressed the key, IT WORKED! 
I printed a whole row of the letters just to be sure, and then repeated the 
whole operation with the remaining two key which would not print. THEY TOO NOW 
PRINTED PROPERLY! My friend was overjoyed! He had his faithful C-128 back 
again. To date he has had no more problems with the keys. It must be that some 
keys are just barely long enough to reach the contacts and that with time they 
wear down. The shims I made from the dowel allows then to make the contact and 
restores operation. So, if you have an inoperative key on your keyboard, give 
this a try. It just might work for you too. It's a lot simpler then taking the 
board apart to clean it and much cheaper than buying a new keyboard. The "L" 
shaped tool I use for removing key caps is home made. Any piece of thin stiff 
metal will do. Cut a strip about 1/4" wide and about 5 or 6" long and wrap 
about half with tape to guard against sharp edges. Then using a pair of pliers 
or a vice, bend an "L" on the bottom as short as possible. About 1/16" or 1/8" 
at maximum. The shorter the "L" on the bottom, the easier it is to slip it 
under the key cap. Cup your hand over the cap (remember the spring, see above) 
and pull up. It may be necessary to pull on each side of the cap to get it off, 
but in general they come off quite easily using this tool. Good luck in your 
endeavors! 


WHAT'S UP HERE, I WONDER? Jean Nance 

The Tenex summer catalog offers a Commodore 1804S monitor. They say it is for 
the Amiga and a composite hook-up allows use with the C-64 and C-128. However 
they state "Not for 80 column C-128 use". I have a C= 1084S, and use it with my 
C-128 in either 40 or 80 column mode. This puzzled me so I phoned the Tenex 
technical information line. I was informed that indeed, the newer 1084S 
monitors are not identical to the older models, although they bear the same 
number. They have left the 40/80 switch off of the newer monitors. When I was 
phoning in an order a few days later, I asked the salesperson, the same 
question. His answer: "The catalog is in error, you can use the 1084S in 80 
columns with the C-128 if you have the proper cables to the C-128." An 
informant on QLink has told me the same thing. I'm still puzzled, but it might 
be a good idea to be cautious if buying a new 1084s monitor. 


ACTION REPLAY CARTRIDGE Steve Hedges 

The Action Replay is a fast load/utility cartridge, which is so versatile and 
powerful that has seen it criticized by a few people due to the fact it makes 
cracking games so much easier. I bought it because I was tired of the dreadful 
slowness a standard C64 has for loading programs.  The A.R. will load a 202 
block program in under 6 seconds and works with the 1541/1571 & 1581 drives. It 
also has an extended toolkit which is extremely handy eg., auto number, old, 
delete, merge, append, linesave, and it will copy disks, files (not seq.), and 
it will format a disk in about 7 seconds on a 1541. Another feature is it's 
freeze facility with which you can screen dump to your printer (centronics 
interface included), or go to a Prof Machine Code Monitor, or for you games 
players, you can edit your games in lots of ways or get infinite lives etc. It 
also has a sprite editor (which I haven't figured how to use). My favorite part 
(other than the fast load) is that you can freeze a program and then compress 
it all down to one file, this makes it a lot faster to load and cuts down on 
directory space.  I did this to The Write Stuff, freezing it at the edit screen 
on BB Writer, so now it is one file and takes about 8 seconds to load. Another 
unique feature is that you can save a personal file in such a way that nobody 
else can ever load it or read it unless they have your cartridge. On a 
finishing note, my complaint is that it tends to move a bit in the cartridge 
port, and when this happens, it is apt to crash, which is very annoying when 
you are halfway through a program or game, and you have to reload.  Apart from 
that, if you are like me and cannot afford to spend too much then the Action 
Replay is the best way to go. The Action Replay is available from Datel 
Electronics, GOVAN ROAD, FENTON INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, FENTON, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ST4 
2RS, ENGLAND.  The price is $34.99. 


TEN YEARS ON THE C-64! Brian Vaughan 

It was August of 1983 when I bought my C-64 which I am still using to this day. 
It has met all of my computing requirements and I would never part with it. I 
have since bought C-64 spares from my local flea market paying from $5 to $20. 
I have had my original C-64 apart to upgrade the KERNAL ROM IC, to add every 
upgrade IC that ever came out, and twice to clean the circuit board key 
contacts when certain keys would cease to operate or when keys would "bounce", 
meaning they would print to screen two or more like characters when a single 
key was pressed. When the C-128 came out, I could not see any major advantage 
to upgrade to it. With my C-64, I can link files and print from one or more 
disks all day without interruption, thus no need for a C-128. And the addition 
of RAMLink & RAMCard with several Megs. of RAM was the best investment I ever 
made to upgrade my C-64. It increases my productivity tremendously and I highly 
recommend this unit. 


APPROACHING ZERO Rex Whetzel 

Some people in the group might be interested in a book I've run across. It runs 
thru the history of the computer underworld. It doesn't teach the how to's but 
certainly does warn about the dangers involved. APPROACHING ZERO by Paul Mungo 
and Bryan Clough (The Extraordinary Underworld of Hackers, Phreakers, Virus 
Writers, and Keyboard Criminals). 364.168 Covers some early computers such as 
our beloved 64, along with DEC, Altair, Hewlett-Packard 9830 -- beginnings of 
Apple II -- introduction of the revolutionary 5 1/4 inch disk. Talks about 
Easywriter being written by an individual incarcerated for phreaking while in 
prison for his second offense. Covers many first time convictions for various 
computer criminal activity. Informative but a bit boring unless you are really 
interested in this sort of thing. Would make an excellent book for a student 
report. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Rex also discussed "Approaching Zero" in a letter to 
Loadstar, published on Loadstar #111.) 


ANSWERS 

From RODGER JARVIS To REX WHETZEL regarding his question on making a backup 
copy of Ace Of Aces:  A backup copy of "Ace of Aces", versions 4 or 5, can be 
made with Central Point Software's, Copy II 64/128, Ver. 4.0. On side 2 of the 
utility disk is a list of programs that can be successfully copied, plus the 
parameters to backup each individual program. 


WORD PROCESSING George Clark 

The title has always seemed off-beat to me... it conjures up a vision of a 
kitchen appliance being fed pages from a dictionary! My very first Word 
Processor was laboriously entered from a magazine in December 1982 for my 
TI-99/4A Home Computer and was saved on tape! It had several good features such 
as Search/Replace etc., but if you wished to MOVE you had to save the file in 
pieces then reload it in the new order!... and working on a 28 column screen 
for an 80 column printout was a real pain! In 1983 I bought a (tape) program 
called MINIWRITER which had to be loaded into the Mini Memory (Battery backed 
up) cartridge. It was instantly available with two key presses which was a VAST 
improvement over cassette loading every time... but it was very "Bare Bones"! 
However it scrolled to 80 columns as one wrote on a forty column screen... a 
great stride! I bought a GORILLA BANANA (honest!) printer because that was all 
I could afford... all my printed output was in CAPS because it did not have 
"True Descenders" (it had Little Bastards?!!!) and looked absurd on paper... 
absolutely silly, in fact queer! When I graduated to a Panasonic KXP-1091 I 
poured over the manual for hours until I could make many improvements when 
using MINIWRITER... then I bought a 24 pin RAVEN printer (Epson compatible) a 
couple of years later and was able to incorporate centering, justification, 
change fonts, change pitch etc. with my MINIWRITER and had much satisfaction 
with it... it was a great learning tool, especially with regard to 
understanding printer codes! In 1986 I bought a C128, (2) 1571 drives, a Xetec 
Super Graphix interface and a 1902 RGB Monitor... and POCKET WRITER. I have 
since up-graded through Pocket Writer 2 to PW3 and still consider it to be the 
Rolls Royce of C128 Word Processors. It is easy to use and has an incredible 
amount of flexibility allowing me to take full advantage of all my printer's 
options. It allows working on two files simultaneously (32K each) and you can 
move/copy from either one to the other in a flash... one neat little trick I 
have found for it is to write a letter in one memory and load my envelope 
addressing file into the other. The envelope file has my return address in 
compressed italics and a blank for the recipient. I mark the address entered on 
my letter for the buffer, switch to the other file and move the cursor to col 
50 row 12 and press CTRL C and the address is copied to the second file and the 
envelope can then be printed.... of course the paper has to be "parked" and a 
blank envelope fed in from the front loading door! All in about 45 seconds! 
Among the myriad features of PW2 and 3 are the ability to work on a 50 lines 
screen or the standard 25 and WYSIWYG is REALLY true... there are no imbedded 
commands visible on the screen, but if you underline a word or sentence you see 
the underline on the screen... if you make a word or sentence BOLD you see it 
in BOLD on the screen and the same with italics. You can see how much memory is 
left (in either memory if you are using two)... you can see how many words you 
have used in your masterpiece... erase forward or backwards... and you can 
customize your own printer file. In my case I can call for Bold PS, Courier 
Pica, Prestige Elite, Script Elite and can call for Double Height and Double 
Width combined, double width only, and even 20 pitch in subscript for 
mini-print... all from within the program. ALL the French characters are 
provided for with CTRL 1-9... very handy for me as I live in a predominantly 
French speaking Province! (Continued on next page) (Word Processing Continued) 
I could fill pages with features and praises, but the above reflects my 
enthusiasm for the PW series... Oh! Yes! PW3 provides for line and boxes 
drawing in your document... great for form making. PWs do NOT allow the use of 
graphics as used for Newsletters, but I do not write news letters! When I want 
to include graphics in my Christmas letters (e.g.) I use my TI-99/4A (which now 
has two double sided drives and a 512K battery backed up RAM). I have tried The 
Write Stuff, Fontmaster 128, RUN Script Plus and Speedscript and in my earnest 
(just slightly humble!) opinion none of them can compare with Pocket Writer 2 
or 3 for ease of use and the vast array of options it puts at one's finger 
tips. I am currently budgeting for purchase of a RAMLINK (with 30% exchange on 
the $$$ plus Taxes it becomes a costly consideration for a pensioner with an 
income with ever-decreasing purchasing power!). The BIG disadvantage with 
Pocket Writer is that it is heavily protected so it cannot be saved to a RAM 
disk! I am NOT in favor of copying for pirating purposes, believe me! But it IS 
frustrating to be unable to copy it for this purpose!!! However... there was a 
terrific C128 word processor on the LOADSTAR Quarterly Disk #2 called 
BRAINPOWER by Mark Jordan, which can be saved to a RAM disk. It is excellent 
and easy to use and customize for one's own needs, so that is what I will be 
using for HURRY UP letters when I get my RAMLINK. Pocket Writer it ain't! But 
beggars can't be choosers! 


MAKING FGM CLIP-ART FROM PS/PM GRAPHICS Jean Nance 

Hugh McMenamin stated in the July MaiLink, 'Unfortunately, The Illustrator II 
can not read the Shape graphics of RunPaint, or the PrintShop graphics that 
were used in the original Illustrator.' This is true, but it is relatively easy 
to turn any PrintShop or PrintMaster graphic into a Clip-Art file. You can 
build your own Clip-Art collection, using the many PrintShop and PrintMaster 
graphics. Here are the details of the procedure for those who, like me, are not 
very expert with FGM. Load FGM, choose 'Creator', and load any PrintShop or 
PrintMaster graphic. Paste it to the screen with 'P'. If you wish, you can 
expand it, crop it, add lettering, stretch it, flip it, pixel edit it, etc. You 
could load and paste more individual graphics to make a design. Put the FGM 
disk back in the drive, hit "+" from the menu which will take you back to the 
original screen menu, and choose "Clip-Art". Your original screen will still be 
there. Choose "Save Clip-Art". An area of the hi-res screen will now be pink. 
Using the cursor keys put the pink area over your graphic, and then use 
CONTROL/C=/H to reduce the pink area horizontally, and CONTROL/C=/V to reduce 
it vertically. If you go too far, CONTROL/H and CONTROL/V will enlarge the area 
again. What is inside the pink area will be your Clip-Art design. Save this to 
disk as a Clip-Art File. The name will be proceeded by two periods, for 
example, "..house". This can be used in "The Illustrator II". It takes a little 
time to convert each graphic, but you will soon get speedier. It would be more 
efficient if you dealt with three screens at a time, loading a graphic you want 
to convert into each screen, and then moving to "Clip-Art" and saving each of 
them. 


TIPS 

From KEITH KELLER: If you use the 128 version of Compute Gazette's "MetaBasic", 
it causes nonfatal interference when listing a program to disk using something 
like  OPEN, 8,2,"file,s,w":CMD2:LIST. After properly closing the file, it won't 
return to READY as it should. The solution? Disable "MetaBasic" again. 

From W. R. (Bill) Kennedy: I was having trouble getting FGM (Fun Graphics 
Machine) to work right with my 24 pin Star 2420 color printer. Ron Hackley, of 
FGM, patiently worked with me and we finally arrived at the correct settings 
for the printer. In the EDS mode set switches A-1 and D-1 to off. Then from the 
"Select Printer" menu of FGM, select the Epson (non-crt) printer. That's all 
there is to it. I was able to get the calendar template from FGM to print 
exactly on an 8-1/2" by 11" sheet. Before that I was getting it to print on 
about 8-1/2" by 14". 


COMMODORE CHIP SOURCES Robert W. Ritchey 

I was reading in the last issue of Commodore Mailink that there may be some 
worry about parts for the Commodore computer. There are two places that I know 
still sells the main chips for the 64 and these are: 

The GRAPEVINE GROUP INC. 3 Chestnut Street SUFFERN  N.Y.  10901 1-800-292-7445 
for ordering FAX (914)357-2424 

JAMECO ELECTRONICS 1355 Shoreway Road BELMONT,  CA  94002 1-800-831-4242 for 
ordering FAX 1-800-237-6948 Telex 176043 

Both of these list the main chips, which are:   6510 (CPU); 6526 (CIA); 6581 
(SID); 6567 (VIC II) and the 82S100PLA (PLA).  I have found that 9 times out of 
10 the problem will be the PLA chip (82S100PLA) and the second problem after 
that is the VIC II or 6567 chip.  The failure of the 6567 (VIC II) chip is 
usually due to overheat. This over heating can be caused in the older 64 
computer because there isn't any vent holes punched in the foil RF shielding 
that covers the main board. If you have one of these older computers you can 
punch or cut away the foil cover over top of the shielded box over the VIC II 
chip because the VIC II chip has it's own heatshield and RF shield built-in. 
Just open up your computer by removing the three screws in the bottom front of 
it and lifting the front top back. PLEASE be very careful so as not to break 
the tabs off of the back side or pull loose any wires to the LED on top or the 
keyboard. After opening the computer you can tell if it is one of the first 
computer made. The foil RF shield will be one solid piece with no vent holes 
punched in it. Later they punched vent holes in it. Even if it has vent holes 
there may not be enough air circulating to allow the VIC II chip to cool down. 
What I usually do, to allow more air to circulate and cool the VIC II chip, is 
to cut a square hole in the foil RF shield just the same size as the cover over 
the VIC II chip. This can be done with a single edge razor blade. Be very 
careful not to cut away any more then you need to or cut some other parts. I 
have found three different RF shields in the Commodore 64 computer. I haven't 
open up any of the newer 64C so I don't have any idea what type is used in 
them. However the first 64 made had one solid piece of cardboard (about like 
poster board) covered with foil. There wasn't any vent holes punched or cut in 
it. The next type is the same cardboard cover with foil but has several vent 
holes in it. The type on the models of 64 made in 1984 and later has a metal 
heatsink and RF shield that fastens to the main board with the same screws that 
hold the main board to the base (bottom) of the plastic computer case. This 
metal cover also acts as a heatsink because it has spring like section over 
each of the major chips that touch the chips. Between the cover and the chips 
is a heatsink compound. This heatsink compound is very important, if it isn't 
replaced when you have removed the cover it can allow heat to build-up in a 
chip allowing it to fail. Never use a whole lot of heatsink compound just 
enough to make good contact between the chip and the metal shield. In the first 
64's the PLA is in the top row of chips right next to the 6510 (CPU) and the 
SID is down next to the VIC II chip. However, take NOTICE, in the 1984 computer 
the PLA and SID have been changed around and the chip up next to the 6510 (CPU) 
is the SID and the PLA is down next to the VIC II chip. However, this may not 
always be true either, so check the chip's number before replacing it. The 
number is right on top of the chip. You may have to wipe away the heatsink 
compound to read it. Use a paper towel to wipe away the compound and be very 
careful not to allow it to go down over the edges of the chip and get all over 
the pins and socket. I have worked on over 20 64's and have found no two 
exactly the same. I know that there is around 15 different schematics for it. 
However, the number for your board schematic will be on the bottom right hand 
side of the board. I have found it there on everyone I have worked on. You 
should have a schematic and a logic probe as well as a Volts/ohm meter to work 
on the computer. I have the book "Troubleshooting & Repairing Your COMMODORE 
64" by Art Margolis; from TAB book. It is ISBN number 0-8306-1889-9. I suggest 
you check your local library for this book before trying to work on your 64. 


PCX GRAPHICS TO GEOPAINT Dennis Page 

Converting IBM PCX graphics to Geopaint is something that I never thought 
possible. That is, until last week. I have been learning quite alot about the 
IBM computer this year, by helping out some people at work with their new IBM's 
and my aunt who also bought an IBM this year. They all had very little 
experience with computers, and I guess since they new I used a computer at home 
alot, they asked me to help them with theirs. Little did they know that my 
computer was very different from theirs and I wouldn't be much help to them. 
But I went to the library and picked up a few books on their computers and was 
able to help them somewhat. Anyway, before I get to far off the subject here, I 
would download programs for the IBM computer on my 64 and then transfer the 
programs to IBM disks with Big Blue Reader and take them to my aunt (I haven't 
convinced her to get a modem for her IBM yet). To make a long story a little 
shorter, I recently downloaded a graphics program for the IBM called Graphics 
Workshop for Windows. This program (which is shareware) allows IBM users to 
change their graphics to just about every format there is on the IBM. Graphics 
formats such as PCX, TIFF, GIF, MAC, BMP and more can be converted from one 
format to the other. The local BBS that I call has lots of those PCX clipart 
files on it available for downloading. So I downloaded a few and transfered 
them to an IBM disk and gave them to a friend from work. I asked him if he 
would mind converting them with Graphics Workshop for Windows from the PCX 
format to MAC format for me. The MAC format is MacPaint format which is a 
format that can be converted to Geopaint using a program called MacAttack II+. 
My friend converted the files for me and put them back on an IBM disk. I then 
used Big Blue Reader to transfer the files back to a Commodore formatted disk. 
Then I loaded Geos and MacAttack II+ and converted the MacPaint files to 
Geopaint files. It was a success. One of the graphics is on page 10 of this 
issue (the teacher at the desk). I was really surprised that it worked so well. 
Hopefully somebody will come up with a conversion program for Geos to convert 
the PCX files to Geopaint files, it would sure cut out some of work and save 
lots of time. But in the meantime, I'll keep converting them the only way I 
know how.