Does a "quick" MSX computers overview with "ratings" exist?

Paladin (805)

18-10-2020, 10:05

The saddest thing happened, my old work horse, an SVI-738 rebuilt to MSX2, with 256kb memory mapped ram and msx-music, died yesterday. My hunt for physical evidence of YM2413 resulted in death when I assembled the case back on. I'm mourning :-(

With that backstory, I'm on the lookout for a new MSX2 or higher. Now, the information pages on the different models like this SVI-738, are fantastic. But traversing all these pages are time consuming. As far as I can tell, it is also hard to know whether a model is rare or common. Some pages list up general shortcomings too. Point is, I'd like to make a short list of computers I'd like to try to get hold of, but I need the overview and input from people. Questions:

I understand people have different taste, but has there ever been a rating or poll for the top MSX-computer released? The most acclaimed. The "best"? Possibly grouped by msx-type?
Has anyone made a comparison chart from all the models listed here on msx.org. Like a spreadsheet with colums of all the important characteristics, like MSX-type, VDP, ram-size, voltage, # cartrigdge slots, internal DD (Yes|No), MSX-MUSIC(Yes|No), Output-scart (Yes|No), Output-some-other-kind (Yes|No), etc.
The list above with additional information, like rarity and maybe a rating

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By Manuel

Ascended (19691)

18-10-2020, 14:10

I'm sure it can be repaired... what exactly is going on with it?

By meits

Scribe (6577)

18-10-2020, 14:24

No matter what would role out of a "best MSX list" you'll always end up with availability.
In Holland you can quite easily find a Philips MSX. Shipping within our borders ain't that expensive either.
Now I'm not under the impression MSX is very widely spread in Norway, so you're probably gonna have to get your replacement from abroad. That will add noen kroner.

As Manuel says, it shouldn't have to be the end of of your SVI. There are some great hardware repairing guys around here. Double the shipping, but you might get to keep datamaskinen din.

By mtn

Champion (269)

18-10-2020, 15:43

I paid around 50 euro for shipping for a NMS8245 from the Netherlands to Norway for around 5 years ago.

That beeing said, I like to behave like a parrot! I believe as long as you didnt fry the ULA you could probably repair it.

By Bengalack

Paladin (805)

18-10-2020, 21:16

Meits wrote:

In Holland you can quite easily find a Philips MSX. Shipping within our borders ain't that expensive either.

Where to look in Holland?

I have been looking around quite a bit today. On ebay and I also found Jauce Shopping service (I can't read Japanese, and would need a service like Jauce). I feel that I'm starting to get on ok overview, many thanks to massive visits to the model-pages here on msx.org. It's seems like the crown jewel is FS-A1GT, but I kinda like the plain Z80. I need MSX2 (9938), MSX-MUSIC, a diskdrive and ideally 2 cartridge slots. With these requirements, most safe bets are an MSX2+. So that's actually what I'm looking at, at the moment. Ram I can get from a cartridge I have.

That said, there might be hope for my old machine. I just opened it, and closed it, and after that, it goes in a reboot-loop. It is heavily modified, so maybe it's no surprise that this happened? It looks like a warzone :-)

But I'm no electronics' engineer, but I may be able to use a multimeter to check a few wires. Some of the red ones seems quite sqeezed by the keyboard actually. Might be worth a look. I'll buy some compressed gas too, to see if that helps. But I'm not getting my hopes up.

By Grauw

Ascended (10824)

18-10-2020, 22:37

Haha looks nice. The likelihood of something as simple as a loose wire is high if you ask me. You could try contacting Omega. If he’s not available, I’m not a massive hardware guru but I do have the measuring equipment and some clue, I could give it a shot.

By Bengalack

Paladin (805)

18-10-2020, 23:16

Thanks a lot! But I'll try some basic checking myself first I hope I don't have to ship this around

By Manuel

Ascended (19691)

18-10-2020, 23:48

Bengalack wrote:

Meits wrote:

In Holland you can quite easily find a Philips MSX. Shipping within our borders ain't that expensive either.

Where to look in Holland?

E.g. Marktplaats.nl. But prices are steep nowadays, alas

By Jipe

Paragon (1625)

19-10-2020, 09:30

on the photograph there is a red wire which arrives in the middle of the chip next to the eprom 27c512 which is not connected

By gdx

Enlighted (6449)

19-10-2020, 10:57

Verify the suspect wires (pink arrows) and the content of the eprom who has no sticker to mask the UV (yelow arrow).

Verify also the voltages from the power supply.

To buy an MSX, first look for an offer and then check if it's worth it. You can inquire here. That will be simpler.

By Bengalack

Paladin (805)

19-10-2020, 21:01

Thanks for helping out guys, but I'm afraid I couldn't find anything initially :-(

gdx wrote:

Verify the suspect wires (pink arrows) and the content of the eprom who has no sticker to mask the UV (yelow arrow).

I have verified connectivity on all suspected wires. No luck. But verify content of an eprom? -That's beyond my skills or toolset

gdx wrote:

Verify also the voltages from the power supply.

My little analog hobby-multimeter shows around 19/20 VAC. The PSU says that the output should be 16 though :-) Not sure if this is a problem.

I have been thinking that a likely cause could be some bit of metal could have been off and connecting some random points on the board, so I have been using air-duster, but to no avail.

Plan B is to buy a new one.