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CoCo3 & Cloud 9 (a repair story)


eightbit

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As many know I recently got ahold of a CoCo3 in *fantastic* condition. It was literally like brand new. The seal wasn't even broken. I had to break it in order to install a 512KB Triad board I purchased from Cloud 9 previously.

 

I didn't do too much with it after that as I was waiting for a CoCoSDC. When my turn finally came I paid for the CoCoSDC and it arrived shortly after. The first thing I did was run the Triad memtest to make sure the memory I installed months ago was ok. It crashed after 6 loops....hmmm. Tried it again. It crashed after 14 loops. Tried again, it crashed after 20 loops. OH no.

 

Next I tried Donkey Kong (as this uses all of the memory) and it started, played for a few seconds and froze. Tried again, froze again. It would not run for more than 1 minute before freezing.

 

Pretty confident it was a memory issue I contacted Mark over at Cloud 9 and he agreed to take the memory in and test it. He got back to me about a week or so later. It was NOT the memory. Argh...

 

So, I contacted the seller of the CoCo3 and told him about the situation. I purchased this for a really great price ($120 with box) and he offered to refund the entire payment amount and told me to keep the computer. Wow!

 

Ok, so now I have some funds for a repair. I sent the computer off to Mark and he did a fantastic job. He found the issue was a faulty CPU...first he's ever seen in the CoCo3. Just my luck ;) Anyway, he replaced it with an upgrade Hitachi CPU, added a Pro-Tector+, reinstalled the 512KB ram expansion and gave it a full battery of testing.

 

It arrived today looking as mint as before, but now it works 100% properly. I cannot recommend this man enough. The repair cost was more than reasonable (parts and labor came out to just a bit more than what I was refunded) and he did not charge me the return shipping. Now I can get on with my CoCo3 fun finally :)

 

Most of you guys probably already know who Cloud 9 (and Mark) are, but I just wanted to post this little review of my satisfaction and say that he definitely comes HIGHLY recommended for both parts and services:

 

http://www.cloud9tech.com/

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks man. Yeah, the bad CPU is certainly a unique situation. You could swear this was a RAM issue. Really odd. I would never have discovered the problem. Mark was pretty surprised as well and said this was a very unique issue.

You will be better off with the HD6309 anyway....

 

MarkO

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