How to dismantle a CPC 6128 and replace the drivebelt

[Trotzdem]

1st. step:

Remove the screws on the bottom of the CPC 6128. After havin done so, remove the 2 black screws on the right side of the case, that's where the floppy drive is.

2nd step:

Lift the upper half of the case up, but only on the right side, where the floppy drive is. You have to do it this way, because on the left side there are the connectors that connect the Keyboard of the upper case with the circuit board in the lower case.

In the end, the upper half of the case should make an angle of 90° with the lower half. Have someone hold it that way, or lean it against something.

In the following picture, I already removed the connections, after that the whole thing should look like that:



If you just want to replace the drivebelt, you don't need to remove the heatsink, but if you want to work on the circuit board, you have to remove the screws that are in the places I marked in the above picture.

Furthermore, you have to bend up the metal tongues that hold the heatsink in place. I also marked them in the above picture.

After that, your CPC 6128 would look like that:



3rd step:

On the right side, you have to remove 2 more screws that hold the floppy drive in its place. Then carefully remove the power cable and the data cable from the floppy drive. It's quit obvious.

The next picture shows the inner side of the circuit board of the floppy drive, already taken from the drive.



4th step:

In order to remove it completely as I did, you have to take out 2 plugs which are in the white sockets of the upper right corner in the picture.

Then you have to remove a black plug near the cables shown on the bottom side of the pictures. That may be done easier when you unscrew the cables seen on the picture first. They are attached to the drives motor with the black thing with the hole on the lower right corner of the picture.

When you have done all that, you can take away the circuit board. Be carful, don't damage the LED seen on the upper left side of the picture. It sticks in the floppy drives front panel, it is the red light you see when the floppy drive is in operation.

After the circuit board is out of the way, the lower side of the drive should look like this:



You see the drivewheel on the lower left side and the flywheel rather in the middle of the floppy drive.

5th step:

Next to the upper left corner of the floppy drive you can see the remains of the former drivebelt.

Now you can just slip over the new drivebelt. This may be done by putting it on the drivewheel and turning the flywheel while pressing the drivebelt onto it. It will slip in place all by itself.

6th step:

Then you reassemble the whole stuff in the reverse way, and you should have a working CPC 6128 again.

Here are a few extra - pics.

The upper half of the CPCs case, with the keyboard still attached. One can see the flat cables that connect the keyboard to the maincircuit:



They look harder to insert than they do. No need of much force, they just slide into the connectors on the main circuit when easily pressed into them.

Also seen: the blue/black cable, that connects the "speaker" to the circuit board, and a piece of the white/black cable, that transfers the power to the red power-on light.

In the next picture, the lower side of the power-switch is to be seen.



The metal clamps hold it together. If the switch should malfunction, as on my CPC 464, you just bend away 2 clamps on one side, then you can push the other two clamps from the switches corpus and access its interior.

After the operation, the clamps can be bent back so the switch is held together again.

[Gryzor]

Topic pinned, thanks for the thorough guide! Care taking it into a wiki article, too?

[Trotzdem]

I'd be happy to see it spread whereever CPC - friends may see it.

I think about adding some more photos.

Anyone who can make use of any of the photos in own contributions is hereby permitted to do so.

[Muzer]

I seem to have a different drive - it has one white connector on each side (left and white), and two or three hardwired ones - looks like its gonna be quite hard to replace


EDIT: When fiddling, a brass-looking pin fell out from god knows where. Where is this from, and would it matter if it doesn't go back?

[Trotzdem]

Could you tell which drive you own ? It's code is probably on a sticker and begins with "EME".

The pin is very probably responsible for detecting wether a disc is write protected or not. Sadly, I don't own such a drive, so I can't do any photos to show you where the pin has to be.

But is very likely you find some kind of microswitch on the circuitboard of the drive. The pin would be located above that, so it would press it when a disc is inserted.

Perhaps you can make a photo of the circuitboard of your drive, the drives body and the pin ?

[Gryzor]

EDIT: When fiddling, a brass-looking pin fell out from god knows where. Where is this from, and would it matter if it doesn't go back?

This is the classic description of what happens when you dismantle the drive and are not aware of the write-protect pin. It has happened to all of us! Basically, the drive mechanism recognizes whether a disk is write-protected by lowering the pin where the write protection hole is in the disk. So, without the pin, what you end up with is read-only disks - the drive always thinks the disk is write protected

[Muzer]

Could you tell which drive you own ? It's code is probably on a sticker and begins with "EME".

The pin is very probably responsible for detecting wether a disc is write protected or not. Sadly, I don't own such a drive, so I can't do any photos to show you where the pin has to be.

But is very likely you find some kind of microswitch on the circuitboard of the drive. The pin would be located above that, so it would press it when a disc is inserted.

Perhaps you can make a photo of the circuitboard of your drive, the drives body and the pin ?

It has an Amstrad logo.

All the relevant markings on the bottom of the board:

ME56PB31

A. 37193T

Amstrad PT No. Z70312


EDIT: Sorry, I was looking at the wrong thing - the code on the sticker on the side is EME-156.


And thanks, I managed to get the pin back in

[Muzer]

I managed it; I just unplugged all the wires I could, and managed to get the belt wrapped around pulling up the board as much as I could. Then I just screwed it back together and inserted it, and it works!

[Trotzdem]

Well done

The wires that are soldered onto the circuit board are (at least on my drive) fastenened to the motor that moves the drives head assembly. So you can release the screws on the motor, then pull the cables from the drive with the cicuit board.

But now that the drive works again, you probably shouldn't dismantle it again

[Muzer]

There were actually 3 lots of 2 wires each soldered at both ends - one went to the light mounted above the read head (whatever that is for) - I didn't want to fiddle with that in case I got it misaligned...

[PulkoMandy]

The light is for detecting the index hole. There is a small hole on the disk, and when the light goes trough, the drive knows it's going to read the first sector on the track.

[rpalmer]

Does the program CPCTapeXP v1.1 able to transfer it to disk?

The other option is create a WAV file from an audio editor and then play this via WinAPE and snap shot memory to the PC disk.  Note a custom loader would likely need to be created to re-load the image.

I have been able to transfer programs via WinAPE (albeit simple basic, but may be it can handle speedlocked or others protections directly).

[arnoldemu]

Does the program CPCTapeXP v1.1 able to transfer it to disk?

The other option is create a WAV file from an audio editor and then play this via WinAPE and snap shot memory to the PC disk.  Note a custom loader would likely need to be created to re-load the image.

I have been able to transfer programs via WinAPE (albeit simple basic, but may be it can handle speedlocked or others protections directly).

Yes it does, but mostly standard loaders I find.
You can use samp2cdt but it requires some magic and practice to get it to work as needed.
And samp2cdt does handle some custom loaders.

Once you've got a cdt (tape image), you can then load it into winape and "crack" it to disc

[Gryzor]

Let's resurrect this...

My belts arrived yesterday and I'm ready to replace one after several years. What I don't remember is - where is the write-enable pin located, and what should you take care of in order for it not to fall off? Unfortunately there are no hints either here or in the wiki article (after doing mine I'll update both guides and incorporate them somehow)...

[arnoldemu]

Let's resurrect this...

My belts arrived yesterday and I'm ready to replace one after several years. What I don't remember is - where is the write-enable pin located, and what should you take care of in order for it not to fall off? Unfortunately there are no hints either here or in the wiki article (after doing mine I'll update both guides and incorporate them somehow)...

well you can use my drivetest to check it's installed and working correct
I can't remember it's exact location.
best thing is to be careful when you turn the drive, it'll come out

[Gryzor]

I don't need to use a test program - hearing the pin fall on the table is good enough troubleshooting

But, IIRC, you *have* to turn the drive upside down, so how do you prevent it?

[MacDeath]

Unless you have a Tablecloth..

[sigh]

Is there an example of dismantling the 6128 Plus? I'd like to get that drive belt in.

[Gryzor]

They're pretty straightforward to dismantle, unscrew-as-you-go. Nothing fancy...

[Trotzdem]

I think there are drives with and without those pins. Considering that the pin would fit into the write - protect gap of a disc when it is inserted, that should give one an idea where it should be placed. I happen to have only drives without such a pin, at least none fell out ever. So I couldn't tell how to reinsert one.

[steve]

If you drive does not have this pin, could it be the reason why the drive does not work?

[Gryzor]

Wasn't there one model that used a light source to determine write protection status instead of a pin?

[Peterthewomble]

Having just replaced the belt on my 6128's floppy drive, I am now the proud owner of a little metal pin. At first I thought it might have been something my younger brother posted through the slot 23 years ago, but thanks to this thread I now know better.


I'll leave it, because I can't imagine wanting to write to any of my disks. I just want to play double dragon and run the gauntlett with my son.


So pleased that the repair worked I can't say. I have one of the drives where the led power cable is at the side rather than the front, and there are other wires soldered on.


Feel 20 years younger.

[Gryzor]

Morning Peter,

Yeah, it's the same with most of us, we fist lose the pin, then we decide all we want to do is play games and thus leave it aside

I'm glad this thread was of help to you, hope you have a great time with your son and that he appreciates the 27-colour magic

[ced64k]

In order to remove it completely as I did, you have to take out 2 plugs which are in the white sockets of the upper right corner in the picture.

Anyone have advice to take out these two white plugs ? Because mine are tied and I'm afraid to break the wires :/