Chip Transplant

Since diagnosing the blank screen and character set problems, I'd put the feelers out for replacement VIA and PIA chips. As luck would have it, another enthusiast in the Netherlands had an incomplete 4016 which I was able to purchase for spares. The same guy was also able to fix me up with a 8050 dual disk drive which I've since given a thorough clean-up.

I figured I'd just pop the two required chips out of the 4016 and slot them into the PET's sockets. Unfortunately, both of these parts were actually soldered into the 4016 main board, so it took an hour's worth of desoldering to free the two 40-pin ICs. Thankfully, they emerged unscathed and, after cleaning up and straightening the pins, they fitted nicely into the 2001's sockets.

The PIA was the first chip to go in. I can't verify it's 100% functional without hooking up the disk drive, but in any case it didn't cause a blank screen like the old one. Next up was the VIA, which also appears fine. I can now switch freely between character sets, although again I won't be able to verify it completely until I try out the disk drive.