Replaced the FDD drive belt and keyboard membrane on my first CPC 664

Posted on 26th April 2020 by anyweb

Today I fixed the keyboard membrane and replaced the disintegrated FDD belt on CPC 664 with the swapped motherboard base.

So now I have two working CPC 664’s, except one has video issues and some plastic damage to the case (this one).

This FDD belt was melted and ‘stuck’ to both pulleys (the small one and the large). It took a lot of effort and IPA to get the gunk out. But I tested it and it’s working 100% now

Below you can see the new belt in place.

and below you can see some of the gunk that was removed from the cleaning along with some perished (rubbery, sticky) broken belt.

And then I replaced the keyboard membrane (no photos of that, see my other post about how to replace them here).

Once done, I then tested using CAT on the FDD, and it worked, sounded a bit squeaky as it was probably the first time it was used in 30 years or so, but it worked !

Yes I know the video is off, the CRTC chip needs to be replaced, that will happen later.

Posted in CPC 664 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Replacing the keyboard membrane on my 2nd CPC 664

Posted on 26th April 2020 by anyweb

So today i decided to try out the new keyboard membrane from Rich Mellor!

It works perfectly but my CPC 664 has a video issue (probably the CRTC chip). I don’t feel in the mood for de-soldering that chip from the motherboard and then re-soldering it to verify, and I don’t have a new CRTC chip so i transplanted the base unit from a known working base unit CPC 664 (my first one) that i had and now this one is working 100%, new drive belt and new keyboard membrane and replaced motherboard (or base unit).

To replace it, place the CPC upside down on some protective cover. And remove the six or so screws holding the base unit together.

here the unit is open and the cables disconnected from the motherboard, next you have to remove all the screws (both big and small ones) from the back of the keyboard.

Once they are out, you can remove the metal plate.

In the photo below you can see the original keyboard membrane still in place.

And here’s the new keyboard membrane in place.

After replacing the keyboard membrane with the new one, i tested all keys, and they worked perfectly !

However you can see the video is chopped around the screen (I had this issue before).

I then tested to see if the FDD was still working, and it was. But again, video is off as you can see…

So I got my second (my first actual CPC 664) that has working video but non working keyboard, fdd and broken plastics).

And swapped the FDD and base unit with my ‘new’ CPC 664. The results speak for themselves ! Working keyboard, working FDD and working video !

Awesome !

Posted in CPC 664 | Tagged | 1 Comment

My first CPC 464

Posted on 7th April 2020 by anyweb

I got my first CPC 464 on January 29th, 2020, yup, many decades after it was first released. I remember visiting my friend years ago and he had a 464, we used to spend so much time on it playing Jet Set Willy II among other games, I’ve got JSWII on tape and I’m ready  to test my first CPC 464.

Posted in CPC 464 | 3 Comments

Replacing the FDD drive belt on the new CPC 664

Posted on 8th February 2020 by anyweb

So I decided to try and locate the problem with video on my new CPC 664, the video issue seems to be that colors look off and with a slight pinkish tinge on a known good working monitor. In addition you can see text/graphics in different parts of the screen repeated.

I took it apart to clean the motherboard and look for any loose solder joints. Here’s the video out before I cleaned the motherboard.

and after cleaning…

While I was at it, I replaced the drive belt on the FDD, it was easy enough, you can follow Noels video here on youtube for advice.

After replacing the belt and re-soldering the video connector i put everything back together again but the video is still the same, however, at least the FDD works and it loads games just fine, so I know the CPC works (aside from the duff CRTC chip).

 

Posted in CPC 664 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My second 664 !

Posted on 7th February 2020 by anyweb

So today, Friday the 7th of February 2020, I got my second CPC 664, yes I know, crazy, but this one was too good to miss. I got this one from ebay and it came with a bunch of games on disk and with another joystick. If you want to see my first CPC 664 then click here.

First impressions were that it was well packaged, and after removing the packaging I was very pleased that it was not physically damaged as far as I could see. Not only that, the keys actually look mostly blue !

The serial number of this one is 60829 and from factory K32-53 but it’s very hard to read the text as it’s well worn out.

And below after connecting it, initially the power LED did not come on, and I felt a sinking feeling. But after wiggling the power button back and forth and up and down, it came to life !

As you can see the text is repeated across the screen so something is wrong with either a solder joint for the video out, or a chip on the motherboard, I hope I can fix it.

Also, the FDD doesn’t work at all but that’s no surprise, the belt is most likely perished. One good thing however is most keys on the keyboard work but some of them (near the cursor keys) do not. Good news however, Rich Mellor in the Amstrad CPC 664 owners club on Facebook stated he’s going to order a new batch of keyboard membranes.

This CPC was listed on ebay as “Amstrad 64 colour CPC664 games and quickstart joystick *NO LEADS AND UNTESTED*”

 

Posted in CPC 664 | 2 Comments

welcome to Amstrad-noob.com !

Posted on 3rd January 2020 by anyweb

Welcome !

I’ve been using computers most of my life and one of my earliest computers was an Amstrad CPC 6128.

It came with a whopping 128K ram, and was a Z80 based computer, on that machine I taught myself how to code using Machine Code (Z80 assembler), and how to hack (modify) games.

You can browse this link to see all the games I hacked and even download code to run some of my original creations such as Disced (a floppy disc editor) which I released in 1988.

This website will hopefully contain info about my journey back to the Amstrad, to rekindle my interest, joy, passion in the product and to relive years gone by.

As I moved around in my early career, I mislaid my CPC 6128 and always regretted not keeping my hands on it. Later, after reaching 50 years old I found a facebook group that brought back memories of my early days of computing with the Amstrad, so I searched on ebay for a CPC 6128. It didn’t take long and I found one, complete with box and a colour monitor. I bought it and it arrived a few days later, what a joy !

It arrived November 6th, 2018.

Sadly it looks like there’s an issue with the Red colour output, i haven’t yet determined if it’s the monitor at fault or the CPC itself.

Update, it was the monitor, I got another colour monitor and it works fine.

I’ll write new posts here to document my retro journey.

cheers

niall.

Posted in CPC 6128, Disced | Leave a comment