Share your knowledge on these two classic MPCs
By Stuart_London Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:58 pm
Hi there, I’ve just bought an MPC60 which as far as I can tell has had no upgrades. I’m ok with floppy disks for now but I’d like to upgrade the OS and RAM. I’ve read the thread about valixigate and am aware that it’s unsupported.

I’m still not really clear on the differences between Linn’s 3.10, valixi and vimana. I know Linn is still selling 3.10 for $195, and valixi can be bought for about $30 it seems.

I suppose I’m wondering if I just get the valixi OS and it corrupts or whatever will that kill my mpc completely or would it just be a case of swapping out the OS again (back to my OG chips or maybe 3.10)?

Also what’s the difference between valixi and vimana?

Thanks in advance for any help, I’ve tried searching for these answers but haven’t really turned up the info
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By NearTao Mon Mar 30, 2020 4:37 pm
You can swap out all the chips when the device is off and unplugged. The real question is how comfortable are you doing this and are you up to snuff with your shock protection to make sure you don't fry the chips or the board.
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By NearTao Mon Mar 30, 2020 5:16 pm
You'll be fine. Just make sure you check the Notched sides, and insert the new ones to match. I forget how many chips you need to replace total, but you'll probably get a picture that will say chip 1/2/3 goes to IC<x>/IC<y>/IC<z> which will be labelled on the board. It's super straight forward. I just replaced the chips on my S1000. The only problem I had was the pair I had didn't work for some reason. I contacted the seller and he replaced them pretty quickly. Was able to use the original chips while I waited, so there wasn't anything to fuss over.

Just make sure you go slow popping the chips out and putting them back in. The pins can handle some pressure, but you want to get them to come out as straight as possible. If you bend the pins metal fatigue will cause the pins to break pretty quickly. The last time I did this I just used my Swiss army knife bottle opener, got it under the chip a little... wiggled it until I could get it up so I could get it about halfway under the chip and slowly pushed up until it was a little ways up. Switched to the other side and repeated. Did this maybe four or five times and was able to get it out by hand super easy.
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By NearTao Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:25 pm
Hey no problem

One other thought... before you take the chips out... use some paint or nail polish or something to label the chips and take a picture... so you can put them back in the way they came out if you need to.

I think I just used to tape or something myself... but some of these older eeproms look the same and have no labels on them. Better to just go in prepared instead of having to guess which order to put them back in later if you need to.