My latest eBay purchase was a Sinclair QL fully boxed with manual, power supply and a bunch of microdrive cartridges. This was again listed as not working so was expecting to do another repair.
When it arrived my first test was to check the voltages coming from the power supply. Nothing seemed to be being output so this was definately one of the issues I needed to sort. I didn’t want to make a start repairing this one yet as I am still working on the MSX2. But I thought I’d just open up the power supply and check for any obvious issues.
It all looked clean inside the PSU, so I plugged it back in to check some of the voltage lines only to find they now all looked fine. I checked the voltages at the connector end again and once again everything looked good.
I can only assume a loose connection at this point so I put it all back together for now. I then plugged the QL in to find it all seemed to be working perfectly. I tested both microdrives and they worked fine also.
The only issue I discovered was the keyboard membrane had a break in one of the tracks. This is a common fault with these old membrane based keyboards and luckily brand new ones are still available so I have ordered one and just need to wait a few days for that to arrive.
So, I think I got another pretty good deal with this one. Bit of a shame that it wasn’t much of a repair as I really enjoy getting stuck into that (The MSX2 repair has been great fun in that respect so will post an update about that shortly).
Anyway, here it is. The Sinclair QL
I have one of those in the loft, it was working fine but it’s years since I tested it. I believe I fitted a new membrane.
I also have the box, but mine is just a plain brown cardboard box with the poly inserts.
I need to get it out the loft and into my Retro Shed 😀