Amstrad CPC 464 Repair & Restore - Junk to Jewel
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
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A fairly long clean up and small repair to an Amstrad CPC 464 computer. Please check out Novabugs channel:-
Novabug / novabug
Novabug's Chase HQ Review • NRG: 5-10 Minutes of G...
Novabug's latest CPC pickup - • Retro Waffle - A Near-...
Tynemouth Software - Vintage Computers - an ebay buyers guide
blog.tynemouths...
Bwack (5v saver PCB) / bbytew
#amstrad #cpc #repair #mod #overvoltage - Věda a technologie
Correction: The DIN coming out of the PSU there plugs into the CPC. It contains a modulator! I covered that in the recap of the PSU.
Novabug czcams.com/users/Novabug
Novabug's Chase HQ Review czcams.com/video/FPnU0V_SRPc/video.html
Novabug's latest CPC pickup - czcams.com/video/dhN0Kh7z7So/video.html
Tynemouth Software - Vintage Computers - an ebay buyers guide
blog.tynemouthsoftware.co.uk/2016/05/vintage-computers-ebay-buyers-guide.html
Bwack (5v saver PCB) czcams.com/users/bbytew
If you would like to support the channel via Patreon (more support = more videos) - www.patreon.com/GadgetUK164
What was the plastic polish that you used?
Junk to Jewel! absolutely love it :D - The CPC was my first, so the kettle is on to enjoy this in full.
Junk to Jewel is a catchy title ;)
My cousin had a CPC back in the day. The only memories I have of this are that it never bloody worked.
Thanks =D Inspiration from "Trash to Treasure" for sure.
Same here, got it off some guy at work along with loads of games for £50!
CPC awesomesauce, good sir. We're a breed apart us CPC types, Neil. CPC popped my cherry :3
So it was you that outbid me!! I’m glad it went to someone who appreciates it and who had the ability to get it up and running
Haha lol =D I was sick of being out bid at the last minute, and this one appealed to me because of the speakers, the expansion thing (speech unit) and PSU. I wasn't going to miss this one lol.
the original amstrad cpc 464 had chunky keys as a kid we bought one back in 1984 they are so rare ..great vid thanks
The most fun part of buying a old computer or console is making it look and work like its brand new.. Speccy, Amstrad and a C16 will be somethings I will add to my collection in the near future because of fond memories back in the 80's.. When you get a old system looking sweet, it is such a personal achievement.. :) Good job on you CPC
Thanks =D Much appreciated =D
One of the best repair videos I've ever seen, full of useful information. Thank you!
Wow, thanks!
Thanks for repair advice as I'm tinkering on my cpc 464 cheers GadgetUK.
That was my first computer, and I’ve still got it 30 years later and Still play it today :)
I had a CPC6128 around the late 80s, I got in on sale at Argos, the one with the disc drive & colour screen , it was around £100, I know I had to phone around several stores till I found onein Hammersmith, the last in stock, it was a good machine & the magazine Amstrad Action provided good support...
AA was the best of the specialist Amstrad CPC magazines. If I remember correctly, there were 4 of them. One 2as the official Amstrad may, another was " Computing with the Amstrad" . I can't remember what the other was called.
BBC BASIC had two pointers !! when you pressed the cursors shows the copy cursor !! :D
There was a guy I knew many years ago who died around 2000 who was the designer of the ram drive for Amstrad and he upgraded his own to have multiple drives all sorts of sizes and wrote his own OS for it it had 640K and so much more and that was a CPC 464, he was ahead of his time, shame he died he taught me a lot around programming on Z80 .. he helped port over software from the CPC to the Einstein back then ...
What a shame =( Sounds like a smart guy!
@@GadgetUK164 Yes he was very much so! he was that good he could look at a circuit board and tell you what was faulty even on prototypes .. my father met him when they worked at Manchester Poly in the 80s as lecturers in Electronics and Micro processors ...
Ah my beloved Amstrad cpc 464 got me through the 80s, pulls at my heart strings, so many games and so much fun, looks exactly like the one i had got in the very early 80s. Sadly sold mine in the early 90s broke my heart. Great job looks as good or even better than when i had one.
=D I cannot wait to play more games on it! I've got a DDI3 coming!!!
Had some great games on it, too many to remember i had at least 100+, Castle Master, Tai-Pan, the Dizzy games, Death Stalker had some pretty cool music, Barbarian 1 and 2, Tau Ceti, to name a few
Bravo sir. You can translate the series number to release date, country and factory of origin. Thanks for the mentions, lovely to see another 464 rescued.
Thanks mate, and thanks for your help =D I will check the serial number later to work out its release date =D Started with tape loading issues yesterday but I worked out a few solutions today. Ideally I need to find a replacement idler wheel but it seems like no one has found a suitable replacement for these tape decks. Plenty of belts around but that wasn't the issue.
Nice one fella, this was quite nostalgic for me. You restored that thing up beautifully. I've cleaned up a few second hand items and oh the ick factor was strong with this one. Unfortunately my mother gave away my old CPC to some neighbourhood kid after I'd left home. I doubt they knew what to do with it as it was already very outdated by then so I imagine it probably just got thrown out at some point when they couldn't make it do anything.
Thanks =D Yes, its a real shame how many old computers have probably been thrown out over the years! I would hazard a guess that at least 60% of larger computers have been trashed over the years.
great video. A system ive always wanted - impossible to find over in the USA. thanks for showing it off!
CPC 464 clone: czcams.com/video/9rIPpTI_LYM/video.html
CPC 6128 clone: czcams.com/video/eunGoVPqoWA/video.html
more: czcams.com/users/zaxoniecvideos
www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/just-cpc-6128-fully-assembled-board-9921
You'll have to get one from the UK. Remember we use 240v
Yeah, you could power it with a decent 5v PSU, something that outputs 5.3v ish before load. Maybe a 2 or 3 amp 5v PSU would work OK. That way you could get a 110v model and it would work fine. Just check polarity first.
Thanks =D There are loads on eBay, just the postage and import fees makes it a pain =/
Er... that's funny. I just wrote a comment about this. Another concern with this thing is whether or not you could connect it to a monitor or TV. They were supposed to have some proprietary A/V connections for a monitor that came with them, weren't they?
I was thinking the same. This board was a number 1 candidate for a dishwasher. You can always use later some IPA or some contact cleaner in the socketed chips, or take them out use the contact cleaner and insert them again.
Yeah, I think provided its rinsed off with distilled water or IPA that technique is probably OK. The problem is where salts or liquid doesnt come out from under chips or from inside sockets. Blowing the board down would fix that though =D
I decided to pop my restoration cherry and begin the process of reviving my old 464. 30 years of ownership with 22+ years in the loft left had left it in surprisingly good order, if very grimy. The weird thing is that my two blue keys have suffered discoloration, which is a drag. But she did fire up first time.
The tape deck works but all I get is a lot of noise/interference out of it. I can hear the program playing faintly when I try to load it, but it won't pick up. The tape unit will need some closer inspection.
Very good video.
Thanks, let me know how you get on! Chances are the belt needs replacing, heads cleaned, pinch roller cleaned (and possibly edge roughed up). Maybe tapes will work then! =D
I used to have one of these when I was younger. U are right it does look very nice compare to other computers of the day.
Super cool video. Growing up in the USA we didn't have a chance to experience this and other computers native to the UK. Looks like a neat 8-bit. thanks for sharing! BTW: Thanks to your Saturn videos I was able to take a junk Saturn and restore it to working again! Awesome stuff!
Thanks, very much appreciated =D It is a neat machine! Looks nice and is pretty capable! Glad I was able to help provide some pointers with the Saturn!!! =D
Great trip down memory lane, hours spent on winner spinner game lol. Brilliant video
Thanks =D
I finally got around to finishing this. What a great outcome -- it looks near mint. I serviced PCs for many years and had a customer whose cat would sleep at the base of the tower -- OMG, it was like a whole other fur creature was being spawned every time I cleaned that computer...nasty stuff -- I have a picture somewhere that I'll try to dig up. Anyway, great work. Well worth the effort.
Hehe =D Yes, pet furr gets everywhere! My PC suffers from that with our cats.... Thanks mate =D
Good job man. These are my favourite videos, where you put that electronics knowledge to use and fix broken boards.
=D Thanks!
This was my very 1st computer, all my mates had zx-spectrums and commodores and they used to wind me up about not ever having the early releases of any games. I had some real nostalgia watching your vid thanks. Oh I rem spending days writing out programs copied from some book I had at the time to get for example a ball to bounce across the screen :)
=D Lovely machines! Yes they were perhaps a bit limited in some ways compared to say a C64, but they had their own feel that made them a unique experience.
Wow Chris, what a happy moment fixing that connectivity to pin 24 :) I have to say, I'm really impressed with the Amstrad CPC. It's nothing worse than the C64, perhaps even better considering the colours it can display.
It's a testament to the resilience of the hardware really that it can take such abuse and still work. There's only the one via that got corroded. In essence you could have found that without the use of a scope. What was vital here though was the proper documentation of course.
Wouldn't the salts and the other chemicals used in a dishwasher affect the board at all Chris? There's usually regeneration salt in there and glass polish crap.
Yes, that's one reason I don't recommend it lol. But the idea is to wash the board in the dishwasher, then rinse with distilled water and IPA, clean it down, brush it down with IPA etc, and use hot air to dry. Not something I would do or recommend, but lots of people do it regardless lol
Yeah - I was pleasantly surprised lol! I fully expected either a RAM fault, dead CPU or faulty gate array or VDP etc. True that if I inspected all traces carefully I would have questioned that one near the gate array. It was quite short in length though, easy to miss. All the more reason to clean boards up before doing a full inspection I guess. The CPC is a really nice machine! Its not as powerful regards gfx and sound of the C64, but some great games on there.
The CPC hardware is the best out of all the 8 bits machines. Almost no Capacitors, and tank built. once again the proof :D
I got a 464 from my local flea market for £5, a year later got a big bag of games for £8
Lovely restore, great video.
Thanks, much appreciated =D
Awsome restoration! The CPC is by far my favorate computer (my first computer was a CPC 6128) I've had many through my hands and they only ever seem to suffer simple faults, soon as i saw that one I thaght corrosion lol. Oh and that PSU is also a TV modulator I mod them when I get them in with a scart lead coming out. much neater than the seperate scart lead. also watch how that lead you have is wired, if its useing the full 5V to switch the TV into RGB it could potentialy dammage your tv as the TV is expecting between 2-3 volts.
JaysVintageJunk JaysVintageJunk
Allo, mate.
Haven't seen you on here for a while, but I've been following your ZX81 vids etc. Good stuff. ;)
I would recommend always adding a series resistor to machines that have a direct 5V output going to the SCART cable btw.
(just to limit the current, in case something shorts out.)
But, I've found that some TVs won't switch to RGB mode if the resistor value is too high though, due to the usual 75-Ohm pull-down on SCART pin 16.
The resistor might need to be 100-Ohms or lower for it to work with most SCART TVs.
I guess that's one big advantage to using switched-mode PSUs these days too - they tend to have fairly good overcurrent protection, assuming they're not too beefy. lol
Thanks =D Yes, I spotted the RF lead today lol! Don't know how I didn't see that earlier! There's a resistor in there but its too large - TV not switching, so I will need to reduce it. I suspect it will switch an old CRT but not an LCD like mine (had that issue before with RGB leads using 5v).
Nice work, that board clearly needed a good clean. Wouldn't recommend dish washer though as water gets trapped under chips and can lead to more corrosion. I try to stick with things like IPA which will evaporate.
Thanks the callouts, and the 'untested' blog link.
Dave Curran
Yep, I agree. Please stick with IPA where possible, or distilled water at a push.
(Isopropanol is quite cheap nowadays, though.)
I would personally never recommend that anyone use normal tap water on PCBs.
Tap water usually contains chloride, fluoride, metals / minerals, and other impurities that not only make it more conductive, but can leave trace amounts on the PCB after drying, which can accelerate corrosion over the years that follow.
Also, as Mr GadgetUK (and yourself) said, the water can wick underneath the sockets and chips, and often not fully evaporate for many months.
There are WAY too many vids on CZcams where people suggest that washing PCBs with tap water is a good idea, IMO. lol
I've even seen people washing rare / expensive arcade PCBs in the sink / bath / shower, or even using HOSING down an entire CRT chassis or vintage amplifier. :o
There really needs to be a "Picard Facepalm" button for those vids. lol
Thanks =D Yeah, I wouldn't recommend using a dish washer either. But a lot of people do seem to use them for really bad boards. I prefer IPA too because it evaporates, leaving no residue etc. Dishwasher will probably introduce salt and stuff on the board somewhere as well.
Love the tower of power in the background. Subbed, Gadget. :)
Cheers =D Much appreciated! Yes, I love the Megadrive Tower of Power!!!!
I wish I could find those £30 CPCs on eBay!
I live in America now, so it's really hard finding computers at a reasonable price from a seller who's willing to ship overseas.
My childhood CPC 464 didn't come with a monitor, it had this enormous power supply/RF modulator box that plugged into the TV. I might be exaggerating the size of it in my mind, but I'm pretty sure the modulator box for my Amstrad was bigger than my Spectrum!
I received the Amstrad as a gift from a relative who no longer wanted it.
Having an Amstrad was a bit lame, because all of my friends had C64s and Spectrums. I ended up continuing to use my Spectrum most of the time as a result.
I ended up selling the CPC to partly finance my Atari ST. I'm happy I did it at the time because I really love that ST (which I still own to this day), but I do want another Amstrad.
Great machine. Played "Oh Mummy" & "Boulder Dash" over at a friends house when I was very young. Great games.
Hehe, I played "Oh Mummy" a fair bit on the +2! Fun game despite its simplistic gfx and sound!
Heatsinks in a CPC. Glorious!
Well my 464 has been up in my mum's loft for about 20 years. It should be about done by now.
LOL @ "it should be about done by now" =D Ready for you to spend several hours restoring it! =D
incredible transformation.. well done..
Cheers =D Very much appreciated =D
I'd love to get hold of a cpc664.. my mate had one back in the day, actually he bought it then the following month the 6128 came out!! same computer twice the memory and cheaper. I always felt the 664 was a good looking machine.. 464 seemed too childish, 6128 (which i later owned) too officey looking, 664 was about right.
Yeah, the 664 looks nice and I agree about the 6128 does look "officey" =D
Nicely done. That thing looks new! This is one of the many British computers I'd like to get some day when I think I could handle the shipping across the pond.
Thanks, yes, luckily it came out looking good as new (pretty much) =D
Restoring dead computers is saintly.
A brilliant video as always. You have restored it to all its glory. Looks amszing! Great job cheers
Thanks as always =D Much appreciated =D
Ok, so I stay away from CZcams and the internet in general for a few days, and immediately come back to a relevant vid from Gadge.
The wife has a bit of a condition and I was ill so all efforts were for her. In the meantime we discussed old computers and stuff for shits n giggles, basic banter, what games you played, what did you play them on, etc etc. she had a cousin who had a CPC 464 with the colour monitor (Edit, this took some working out with pictures and stuff - props to google images to allow me to revitalise memory), they played Bomb Jack all day. The wife was jealous at the time, she had no computer at all.
I come back to the internets and here's Gadge with said machine, spooky stuff. I'm not gonna show her this vid cause I can't afford to get her one. It's a life goal however.
For those who don't know, the CPC originally got its power from the monitor.
Sorry to hear about you and your wife =( Hope you are both feeling better! Hehe, freaky that I got one just after you were talking about it lol =D Yeah, the monitors typically power the unit. Not sure what the MP1 was aimed at? Maybe that came with a basic mono monitor?
Thanks Gadge, it's a just a recurrent thing with the Mrs. One of those things you just have to deal with daily.
I know Amstrad CPC's had issue with release in places, was it Spain that had taxes regarding the Tilde key? No tilde, no go. I wonder if there was a PSU made in the same vein, I mean shipping a CRT along with a computer must have been a hassle and so had to provide power and a modified "monitor" cable to allow the use of standard equipment? Who knows. It's the first time I've seen an MP1 truth be told.
I wonder if the guys over at The Centre for Computing History czcams.com/channels/nw4p95EOWghQNP4vOv8VHw.html may have answers?
PS I love you and your vids.
Some were sold without a monitor, and had the external PSU/TV modulator unit.
@@Neffers_UK In Spain there was less import tax on computers if they had at least 72k of ram, so Amstrad bunged in an extra 8k of ram, which wasn't actually hooked up to anything!
Man, you guys have all sorts of awesome 8bit micros to showcase!
Hehe =D Yeah, there are a lot of UK 8bits I've not got yet!
i've never had any issues cleaning off the major dust bunnies by hand and then scrubbing it down with windolene glass shine in the sink, the boards don't warp easily like a lot of others do so running a hairdrier over it to get it bone dry doesn't hurt anything either.
A really nice clean up and fix!
The Beeb has the same arrow and copy key idea, for redoing commands / listing.
I wouldn't mind an Amstrad 6128 plus. But it that'll have to wait for now.
I've never personally used a CPC apart from at Dixons all those years back. Like you, I grew up with the Sinclair range.
Yeah, I would like a 6128 plus too =D LOL @ Dixons, I spent time using some of the systems I never owned in that same way. Got kicked out of Dixons once for changing a load of PC keyboard layouts to french with the KEYB command.
What an awesome video! I need to get one CPC one day :) Then I will use this tutorial video as reference if something is wrong with that one.
Thanks =D Much appreciated!
great video, thanks for all the trivia and technical info. wow, this one was indeed pretty dusty. nice that it is back to life now :)
Thanks =D
No power input protection, thats crazy! Great job pin pointing the failure so fast. I would definetly have taken this to the sink to wash myself haha Giving it a good cleaning and rinse gives me more peace of mind when it comes to germs these things comes with, than just surface cleaning with alcoohol.
Thanks =D Yes, I think the board could be more thoroughly cleaned for sure!
Amstrad CPC, your talking my language. It was my only computer as a lad. I had to fight the Speccy and C64 fan boys with my Amstrad releases. You one is a later revision with the newer laptop kinda keys and logo. I wired a female 3.5 audio jack on the side and wired it up to the tape deck to load games via .mp3
Hehe =D I did the same thing today - added a 3.5mm socket, so I could use my tzxduino. Also had to do a fix to the cassette deck today which I might upload at weekend. Lovely machines! I would have enjoyed using one back in the day I think.
Great job, looks brand new.
Thanks!
Two years on and those days are over! CPC's on eBay now go for £125 minimum with Buy-it-Now. Time to start visiting the boot fairs...
=/ Annoying, but the cause is more people buying them, and ones for sale reducing in quantity.
Hi Chris back in the day I had one of these with the exact same fault. These was brilliant mine had the EPROM programmer and the disk drive I regretted ever selling it because it was totally mint but I wanted an amiga. That machine was a bacteria farm but it has cleaned up really good near immaculate😋 Great vid Chris ........Kim 😋😋😋😋😋😋
Thanks as always =D Wow, you had an EPROM programmer for one - nice =D
My first computer ♥
Another lovely job. Cleaning and repairing stuff like that is sooo satisfying, though I mostly do hifi gear these days. I would love to own an ultrasonic cleaner but find that you can get excellent results manually, like you just did. I've never used the dishwasher though, it kinda scares me a bit.
Thanks =D Yes, I think a dishwasher is a bit 'brutal' really. Its bound to leave residue etc. I do also agree that cleaning and repairing them is often the most satisfying part =D
Fantastic job sir! Your channel is an inspiration. I must get back to fixing some of my buggered C64s.
Thanks, much appreciated =D
The reason CPC ports often didn't run as well as the Spectrum version is because the Spectrum has an 8k graphics display while the CPC uses 16k. All those pretty colours require extra memory to control, so with all other things being equal the Spectrum could rewrite screen memory in half the time of the CPC. This is why CPC games often used a severely reduced screen size.
Nice to learn about these exotic beasts.
Edit: Great repair work!
Thanks =D
Nice job mate :) Looking sweet now! I need to get myself an Amstrad, I never owned one, had a Speccy and a C64 but never an Amstrad. Good job :)
Thanks =D They are pretty cheap compared to a lot of other systems, so I would snap one up now whilst they are affordable. I imagine in a few years they might start to become rare.
That may not be a bad idea. I'll see what funds are like at the end of the month :)
Loved my CPC just wish lazy developers didn't put so many crap Specy ports on it. I was lucky to have the tv modulator and the colours were stunning. Great video dude, subbed.
Thanks =D Yes, it is a shame there wasn't more effort put into some of the ports. I am sure lots of the ports could have been much better in the right hands.
Yeah the Lotus Esprit and R-type ports just killed me as a kid. Do you think your CPC ram could be modded to 128k?
I am looking at ways of doing that, but it's not that straight forward... It seems like I would need to create some logic to link the additional 64K, with a PAL and some 74 logic (5 or 6 chips by the looks of things), plus the RAM. Might be easier to see if there's anything I can buy.
Nice work. Congrats on the result.
Funny that the tape recorder keys look more sculptured than the keyboard keys.
Another great video!
I've always wanted one of these.
There's loads of them on eBay in europe, but might be costly for shipping and any import fees etc =/
@4:01, I believe that is what Sir Alan would refer to as "a mug's eyefull" lol
Nice repair Chris, the system looks good as new after a bit of spit and polish.
Thanks mate =D Looks like new!!! =D
If you use IPA or 99% Alcohol, it's a much better job if you use a paint brush, I personally use a pastry glazing brush as it seems to have a nice stiff feel to its NYLON bristles and thus able to work the IPA or Alcohol into nooks and crannies where water damage seems to do the most harm, Once done with the cleaning, it's a good idea to use another dry brush to follow up, and then allow to evaporate for 48 hours, if you have a can of compressed air, that will do nicely and save 36 hours of waiting BTW - "NEVER EVER USE A COMPRESSOR" that pumps up tyres to blast it dry, as those compressors will most certainly introduce water vapour onto and into the circuit boards nooks and crannies, even if you think your compressor doesn't blow out any water, trust me they in fact all do, and it's the very reason why compressed air is sold in a Disposable Can..
Chase HQ, a CPC triumph.
Indeed - a wonderful 8 bit version, perhaps my favourite!
Finally...was waiting and wondering when you do repair the Amstrad CPCs....
=D
They rarely need repair
My first PC! Manic Miner...OMG :).
Great machine, Macrocosmica rocks!
Track rot was common on board of that era. The spectrum with its tinned tracks seems to last better in that sense.
Yes, I think it's better described as track rot. Since the area next to the ROM there didn't really have any corrosion there, it was like corrosion was already on the trace all along and it corroded under the solder mask.
Awesome video
You should try using bus wire to bridge gaps. So much easier.
Yes, I do often use some very fine coil wire - just on this occasion I grabbed what was nearby at the time!
The power module outputs a tv signal too. Should have an analogy output to tune your tv too like the spectrum. We use to have ours hooked up to the downstairs tile lol 😂😂😂
Yeah, I spotted today what looks like an RF lead coming out of the MP1! I will test that when I come to look at that PSU.
Sweet. My first computer was a CPC6128. Memories! Great job. PS if you trace the wires that go to where the tape head reads the tapes then you can solder into them, put a (mono I think) jack on the end and use something like Tapdancer on your phone to load games ;) There is a howto somewhere online. Good call with the cap and saver on the power in. I am using a shoddy ebay 5v so worth checking...
Thanks! Yes, I did exactly that today - just like I did on my +2 original (before I reverted that mod). It works fine though, and I can load from tzxduino via SD OK now! Although some games have issues due to delays and copy protection.
hi gadget - great video as always. Here's a little tip - get yourself an egg box, they are great for putting screws in as you're working :)
Neat tip thanks =D
I used to think this computer was kinda primitive. After seeing 'Chase H.Q.' and now knowing that it outputs _stereo_ sound, that opinion has changed.
Hehe, yes, I think we've all thought that. There are some great games on the CPC and the sound and colour is great. Just a bit slow with some titles.
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods Slow loading or slow playing? Slow playing isn't unusual for the time, and if it loads from a tape drive, slow loading is always the issue.
Slow playing - some games are lazy Spectrum ports and run slow, others are just not very well optimised for the CPC hardware. There are some great newer re-releases of some games though - see the R-Type remake for example.
The 3" disc drive works way faster than the Amiga or ST, just a few seconds loading
I had always heard the Amstrad gear was absolute trash, but never actually saw one in person or used one. I will say I do love the ancient looking colour keyboard with sculpted keys, and the game actually looks great once it finally loads in. The internals were a bit frightening at first (I was yelling "where TF is the voltage regulator" before you discussed it being absent). I swear those are your pubes on that first cotton bud -- but I doubt they could escape from your ESD-safe underwear. Interesting video!
Hehe, yes - I think their reputation is unwarrented. They are nice machines and very robust tbh! Not as many Spectrums or C64's have survived in as good condition as these CPCs. LOL @ pubes, yes - it was really dirty in there!
Not long got one myself, got mine with a green screen monitor. Looking forward to messing more with it
Nice =D I would have loved a monitor tbh!
My 464 had a green screen monitor so I had to buy the official converter which allowed me to play it through the TV.
I think mine is an earlier board. It`s a lot smaller. I just got a out of memory after about 30 seconds of loading a game. It did the same on a few different games. This is strange as I thought like you said one chip goes down and the whole thing stops. I had a similar problem last week with the Speccy that had upper ram fail. More fun lol. :)
It depends on the type of failure of the RAM! You can get a complete fail to boot if a RAM chip is totally dead, whereas with a RAM chip that has fauly locations within it, or a range of addresses where it cannot hold data correctly, it may work up until that area of RAM is used. You can also get temperature or time based issues where it works for a few minutes, then becomes a problem etc.
@@GadgetUK164 I`ve just done a poke and 60000 ok. 70000. Out of range. I was hoping for a value at least so I could track a chip down. I will strip it down and see what`s inside. Cheers mate for the help. Must be upper ram in mine.
Cleaning an old computer that was used by kids to play games is different from cleaning a computer that was used by young men to explore the newsgroups, it is another kind of sticky.
Great work Sir. Want one!!!
CPCs rule :) i was using CPC464 for about 2 years before i got hold of a 6128 in 1990, CPC years faded from 1993 onwards when i got an amiga 600
Konix Speedking and Konix Navigator were about the best joysticks for the CPC ( and were also good replacements for the Atari VCS 2600 sticks ( Atari sticks didn't last long with Daley Thompson's Decathlon!))
Jump to 10:30 to get to the interesting bit
Stick the PCB's on the readiator or out in the sunshine for a few days & it will be good. Works for me =-)
Nice work :)
NOTE: There's a small editing mistake there - the point where I test the tape deck, just skip ahead 30 seconds =D
I've just subscribed to ur channel and yeah I've had a few spectrums and amiga but my fave was my amstrad 464 I had the green screen at first think maybe 12inc then got the colour screen think was 14 Inc all my mate's at school had spectrums but when thay seen my games in colour well Nuff said and I remember the games in shops for £2.99 only problem with cassettes was if the game was a big game took an age to load and if it crashed during loading witch more often then not it was a right basket
Lmao that label😂, awesome work
:o)
Do you think there is much validity in adding heatsinks to the chips if these machines have survived 30+ years without?
Absolutely! You have to rememeber - it hasn't been used for a whole 30 years! This one was likely faulty 25+ years ago and got put into storage at that point. And even when used, it's not like it was left powered up for 24 hours a day etc. A lot of these systems are getting more use now than they did back then (with SD card solutions etc). Most of these systems from eBay have had only 4 or 5 years use earlier in their lives. The cooler you keep chips, the longer they will live. I came to understand this from a friend that has a PhD in materials and thermo dynamics, it's actually logical when you consider the effect that heat has on anything, and the relationship to entropy (ie. ordered things disordering themselves with heat being a factor). Might not make much difference long term, but it does make a difference. It might be a case a chip lasts 10 years (constant use) vs 5 or 7 years etc.
Good thinking, I've got an IR temp sensor and a few old heat sinks in the loft so maybe I'll check my Amstrads and stick some on if I find any high temps. I did think that alot of the machines have probably been in hibernation since the early 1990s. We sold all ours around 1992 when my bro moved onto Amiga and I got a PC. Got back into them a year or so ago.
Especially like the " Junk to Jewel " title!
=D
24:40 "You can see it looks a bit dirty" , while poking about in what seem to be 30 year old pubes. Hey, you do you ;) Nice rescue!
LOL =D Yes, it was really bad! The keyboard was quite shocking really! Thanks =D
I've had a "Untested" Multi Mega, which I presumed faulty but was working fine.
I would have worn gloves touching that board, its filthy.
The C64 of Chase HQ is a very very poor port of the spectrum version.
The better version of Double Dragon for the Amstrad was ported from ther ST too.
Good work, novabug would be proud.
Yeah, you can luck out with 'untested' on eBay sometimes! Sounds like you certainly did with the Multi Mega!!! I will check out the Double Dragon port on the CPC, not seen that!
Wow I would love to have this done to mine, I had it since I was a child in the 80s
Great job man lol I can remember fast forwarding the cassette games while loading and unbelievably they still loaded sometimes,
Do you refurbish these as a service?
Thanks! I cannot offer customer repairs sorry!
heh blackpool lad, teanlowe centre.....takes me back.
Hehe =D
Fantastic job. Very impressed. Do you use a green silk screen touch up pen after repairing corroded traces??. It just adds to originality and protection.
Thanks =D It's a personal choice thing really. You could use a touch up pen or something similar (nail polish etc), but solder will be fine exposed. It's bare copper that needs toughing up that way really. But I agree it can make a repair look cleaner and tidier =D
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods
I think I would use a silk screen mask pen. If I'm already in the machine and spent all the time cleaning up the traces and board etc then why not.
Yeah, totally cosmetic if the trace is covered! No one is going to see it, so why waste more time painting it? If there's exposed copper, I can see the point, but when covered by solder, solder is doing the job of the solder mask.
It's got no fan - it's so odd that it's so dirty inside... Nice work though! Oh and those metal bars in the keyboard are called stabilisers.
Thanks, I had no idea they were called stabilisers! =D No idea how so much fluff and dirt got in there tbh!
If a board can go into dishwasher, then it can just as well go under the shower or into the sink. Anywhere where you can give it a bit of water pressure and dish soap. Naturally it's not the most conservative way of cleaning a PCB, but this particular board, looking at it, must have seen worse.
Great informative video!!!
I have acquired a CPC after a long time without one. It's dead! so no power! What possibilities could cause this? Or would you actually need to test?
Thanks, a noob restorer :P
It could be a bad power switch (very common), or a broken solder point on the power socket, or a bad power socket. Beyond that the possibilities are endless. You would need to check the 5v on the board when powered on, and work from there.
I had a 464 in the 80's and loved it! I managed to acquire a new in box keyboard (same version as Novabug) and a scart cable/power lead from Retro Computer Shack. All works great apart from when inserting the power lead in I have to press the lead down/wedge to maintain power. I want to know are there any options to this problem?
Thanks.
Sounds like the DC barrel socket has a bad solder point on the board. Just take the main board out and inspect under the power socket. Chances are you just need to resolder the connector. It could also be the connector on the power lead that's bad.
Thanks for the reply and the advice! I will look into it at the weekend and see if it can be fixed.
hello i have a ddi-1 for my amstard 464 its very old now lol. i thing the stepup morter is bad has it dose not spin do you have any idea how i can check the voltage on it please
If you disconnect the stepper motor and feed it 1v between its two connections, it should move. If it doesn't you need to find a new stepper (or try to repair the stepper). You could measure the voltage going into the stepper on volts DC on a multimeter and use some software to try and drive the stepper whilst you take the measurements.
Great job! It's better than new now.
Is there a reason you wanted 464 rather than 6128?
Thanks =D Yes, a 6218 costs a lot more lol! Plus, the 464 just looks cooler imo =D I may get a 6128 at some point though! =D
I recently acquired both 6128 and 464. 6128 is great with Gotek. Thinking about getting another Gotek for my +3.
You need to type RUN" or run" then enter.
"control"+"small enter" was interpreted by the OS as the RUN". command
The speaker on mine buzzes rather loud should I replace the speaker?
Maybe you need to swap some of the electrolytic capacitors in your PSU or on the audio section of the tape deck (I think the speaker is powered from there).
Graphics looks a bit sharper on it. Is it a good gaming system? I mean compared to C64
bwack There are no hardware sprites, and the screen memory is 16k which is quite a lot for the Z80 to be pushing around, so games can be a bit slow and jerky on the system, but it was a very popular system in Europe with some great games. A worthy contender to the C64 as was the Spectrum.
bwack
Hi,
We had a 6128 in the 80s, and I loved it.
Our first home computer was actually a C64, but it was sold when I was around 3 years old, so only vaguely remembered it.
Having then grown up with the CPC, Olivetti PC1, and Speccy +2, I never really appreciated the "pastel" style colours of the C64 (until recent years), regardless of it's hardware sprites, scrolling, and awesome SID chip.
The CPC was based around the 6845 CRT Controller chip, which was really very basic. It was used in the Commodore PET, and on most older CGA graphics cards.
The CRTC only had some X/Y counters, and would often just directly address a character ROM, depending on the contents of a small RAM.
In the CPC, the Gate Array just does the basic address decoding, RAM refresh / addr muxing, and adds colour to the CRTC output.
So, it doesn't handle hardware scrolling nor hardware sprites, so that's normally done with "brute force". ie. using the Z80 to write directly into the screen RAM area, like the Speccy.
But, later in it's life, the games programmers and demoscene coders figured out how to "abuse" the video timing registers on the CRTC to help do better scrolling effects etc. ;)
There's a very good remake of R-Type for the CPC, and a perfect example of how the system suffered from very lazy ports of games from the Speccy and other Z80 systems (as GadgetUK mentioned).
As much as I love the Speccy for it's quirky / original / fun games, the CPC also had tons of character, nice colours (in the better ports), and some really great versions of games like Cauldron, Gauntlet, and many others.
I will check out that port of R-Type, I think Novabug mentioned that to me earlier. I might have watched his video on it actually!?!? Yeah, the CRTC was the bottleneck I think! Nice machines none the less though =D
Some good games but as others have said, the problem with the CPC was bottleneck on graphics. So a lot of games tend to run slower than the Speccy or C64. Some though are better imo!
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods I think the graphics are by far the nicest looking of the 'big three' micros in the UK. When it's programmed well the CPC can be stunning. The CPC plus range, that came out in 1990 was fantastic, as they added the hardware sprites and some of the (few) games that came out for it (and the GX4000) were gorgeous.