Changing the subject line to more accurately reflect the discussion. I solved my problem. It was a lot simpler than what the discussion indicated. I reason my C64 didn't work after my changes was that I had put the VIC-II chip in wrong. Two pins were sticking out.
From looking at the discussion it was apparent that it follows the old story of the 6 blind men and the elephant. Every was looking at a different part and was right, but didn't see the big picture and never really had any specific experience doing what I wanted to do (i.e. no one had actually done it!). For the last few years I asked different people questions, and didn't get anywhere. I realized that none of them had actually converted a C64 and were guessing. So I decided to look up the information myself and just do it. I thought that the simplest way was to just buy a PAL C64 and ship it here, but I ended up getting NTSC C64 because the guy had no idea what he was selling. I shipped it back and found an easier way by ordering the parts.
I knew that there was an article from years ago that described what to do, but I had lost it. So I looked up a YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq2tlEr6_Ns&t=609s And looked at this article: http://biosrhythm.com/?p=1420 So I bought the proper PAL VIC-II chip, the proper crystal, and a piece of wire. I replaced the VIC-II chip: 6567 (NTSC) with 6569 (PAL), then the crystal 14 Mhz Crystal (NTSC) with the 17 Mhz (PAL), then found the part on the motherboard where I put a piece of wire to create a short. DONE! There was no need for step down converters, different power supplies or special monitors. The Samsung SyncMaster XL2370HD worked fine. I just had made a mistake when I inserted the VIC-II chip. Noticed it today, fixed it, and ran the demo. Now it seems that the demos want to run from a 1541 and not a 1571 or uIEC SD card unfortunately, so I have to go vintage. Also I used this video to VGA converter to send the signal from the C64 to the monitor: https://www.real.de/product/314543066/ If anyone wants help to convert it, I can help you. You need to match the proper VIC-II equivalent, there are three major versions of VIC-II chips, so that has to match because of the motherboard configuration. Now I have to find a particular type of audio cable RCA to headphone jack to get the audio working. Still have some other stuff to get ready for Maker Faire. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation