Dec 312014
 

today I got a couple of Oric computers.
Ive been after one of these for some time now but prices have shot up of the last 12 months.
I couldn’t resist buying these two, both of them which required repair, as the price was right.
IMAG1141

First is red/black one.
I first started by removing the ULA and powering up to check voltages. I do this with Spectrum’s too as these early voltage regulators have a habit of going wrong with disastrous consequences.
With everything looking OK I refitted the ULA and power up. I was greeted with this screen.
IMAG1145

Ive read enough about the Oric over the years to know that the ULA is very hardy and the RAM is very poor. Ive also read that a fried ULA will usually result in nothing on screen at all.
I opted to desolder the RAM first.
There are 8 x 4164 RAM chips and on testing two of them failed.
I socketed and replaced the faulty RAM and I now have this
IMAG1147

The random writing is my doing as the keyboard is flat on the bench when testing.
Happy with this. I think the second unit has the same fault too.

  4 Responses to “Oric repair log”

  1. wow never actually ever seen one of those! heard of them but that’s about it lol
    Nice fix mate and Happy New Year, another retro item fixed and working again 🙂

    – Ben

  2. that’s a very clean image, did you just use a scart-cable, or is that through a vga upscaler ?

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