Commodore 128 / 128D Diagnostics.

Boulderdash currently does not seem to have any C128 diagnostic cart.

I found here www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/demodisks/c128/index.html a Commodore 1571 C128D test disk.

And here the related manual www.bombjack.org/commodore/commodore/1571-C128D_Diagnostics_Manual_V1.2_314855-03_(1988_Jan).pdf

The manual makes a reference to a 48TPI Analog Align Disk.

I am now looking for that.

Thank you.

... and time passes by

There is a tape version out there: www.pcmuseum.ca/images.asp?images=C641541PhysicalExam-2-750.jpg

For this purpose, what would be the difference between the C128D and the 128DCR.?

Most of us know of the differences between a flat 128 and a 128D, which are for the most visible part (1) a detached keyboard and (2) 64K VDC RAM. Quite a few of us, though by no means all, are also vaguely aware that there are some sort of variations among 128D models, though the most that ever gets mentioned casually is that one flavour was North American, the other European… and one is housed in a metal case, the other in plastic. Careful attention to passing mentions will net a novice the further information that one flavour is unofficially called the DCR for "D, cost reduced." I have been aware of these three minor points of distinction for years, though as I have never owned either model of 128D I have never paid enough attention to them to be able to state which fact goes with which 128D revision.

While your post does a concise job of setting out which of the D and DCR is from which continent and which kind of case material each one has, your subsequent reiteration of the point that further differences between the two exist does not answer the question of what any of those other differences actually ARE. Please elaborate! I am very curious about this stuff, especially given that a forum conversation like this is both more interactive and likely to go much more in-depth than looking it up on Wikipedia or some such.

The only further datum I personally can recall on this subject is that the cost-reduced board has a moderately crippled 1571 controller board implementation included right on the main computer board, with a few components consolidated with those of the CPU circuitry and/or eliminated entirely in order to reduce the part count. Alas, the specific changes that were made in that regard are rumoured to impair compatibility with the more esoteric aspects of disk-drive programming, though once again, the nature of any incompatibilities is rarely stated plainly—you are expected to either already know, or have an independent source of hard-to-find information handy.

The following is not in response to any prior post in this thread; I just felt a need to pull up a soapbox for a moment… Please pardon my blabbering.

I'm sure the relevant details (or, at least, most of the better-known ones) of what was changed from the D to the DCR could be figured out soon enough with judicious use of search engines, but we join forums like this one so we can explicitly share knowledge and converse about the parts that may be unclear, not so we can link to some static (and potentially erroneous in subtle ways) document elsewhere, that is most likely going to be perfectly usable in its limited way—until one day you try to refer back to it, but it isn't there anymore.

I'm sure we are all entirely too aware of that particular point after what befell our predecessor forum, "Commodore 128 (and PET) Alive!". Again, none of this little postamble is directed at anyone in particular. I just felt it should be stated explicitly at some point.