{"id":10427,"date":"2019-11-06T17:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T22:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/?p=10427"},"modified":"2019-11-06T19:36:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T00:36:04","slug":"newsoft-saves-my-trs-80-model-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2019\/11\/06\/newsoft-saves-my-trs-80-model-4\/","title":{"rendered":"newSOFT saves my TRS-80 Model 4!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ll try to keep the story relatively short and maybe sweet, but first off I want to thank Jay Newirth. He drove from Maryland to New Jersey with parts in tow to fix my issue. Jay has his own online store, newSOFT, with tons of systems and parts for the TRS-80 line, so definitely check it out here<\/a> if you need anything from new case badges to mounting hardware and motherboards. He’s a class act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, basically, I decided I wanted a TRS-80 Model 4 with black and white monitor to complete My Collection 2.0, which, instead of featuring many hundreds of different systems, now features a small, curated selection of systems that matters most to me. After a series of interactions with some great people, I ended up with a TRS-80 Model 4 that inadvertently had a memory problem when given to me. Fortunately, I was able to get two sets of 64K RAM chips from Ian Mavric<\/a>, along with various other items, including his FreHD board, disks, and a hi-res board. These joined a M3SE<\/a> that I previously purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support and understanding over a period of a month or so from all parties involved was outstanding and it got me to what should have been a near-perfect setup. There was a hiccup, though, in that I inadvertently broke pin 1 off of the needed U72 GAL chip, which enables the system to utilize the full 128K. Shockingly, given my limited skillset and clumsy hands, I was able to solder a new pin 1 on and it actually worked once installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, here comes the crazy part, which, after posting about it in the TRS-80 Model 1-4\/4P group on Facebook<\/a>, is apparently not too unusual–I broke the back of the monitor putting the top half of the case back on. I describe what happened in this super casual video I sent to Jay so he knew what needed to be fixed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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