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Amstrad CPC 464 blue screen and Dandanator problems

Started by CPC78, 16:58, 02 February 23

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CPC78

Quote from: Rabs on 16:50, 03 February 23You could have some for free but they will take forever to get from the UK.

I ordered a pack of 20 from Poland. It should not take long to recieve and actually also cheaper than getting anything for free from UK. After Brexit I have to pay 25% VAT on anything I recieve from outside the European Union and on top of that there is also a flatrate fee of 28euro.  :o


Quote from: gerald on 13:02, 04 February 23If you get sound out of it, I assume the basic is running OK.
From the 2 screen you posted, one option is that the DISPEN output of the CRTC is not getting to the gate array such the gate array always display a border.
On simple thing to test is to change the border color with a

BORDER 0


I will try that.

Rabs

Quote from: CPC78 on 16:17, 05 February 23
Quote from: Rabs on 16:50, 03 February 23You could have some for free but they will take forever to get from the UK.

I ordered a pack of 20 from Poland. It should not take long to recieve and actually also cheaper than getting anything for free from UK. After Brexit I have to pay 25% VAT on anything I recieve from outside the European Union and on top of that there is also a flatrate fee of 28euro.  :o

No problem and good luck, interested to see how you get on.

I started to read THE AMSTRAD CPC CRTC COMPENDIUM and realised how little I know and how much there is to learn  :)

CPC78

Hi all.

Here is my latest update on my CPC adventures. I got some NOS multiplexers from Polandand I assume they work, but then again I have no ship tester, so I can't be 100% sure.

I haven't had time to work more on the Amstrad, but today I decided to set it up and trying to pickyback the new multiplexers onto the machine. But nothing changed.

I tried to pickyback several different of the new chips on all four of the ones in the machine, one at a time and also on all four at once, but it stayed the same.

I tried both with and without the Dandanator in, but it was still the same as previous.

After some time I just left it running with the Dandanator in, listening to the music of some of the games and then something strange happened. After some time just playing the music and have blue screen it sounded like a walkman loosing battery power and the screen went dark. I turned off the CPC and after a bit I turned it back on and it was again working (or not working) as it used to.

I don't know what to try next.

The 40007 chip was very hot, even with the heatsink on.

WacKEDmaN

Quote from: CPC78 on 17:07, 03 March 23Hi all.

Here is my latest update on my CPC adventures. I got some NOS multiplexers from Polandand I assume they work, but then again I have no ship tester, so I can't be 100% sure.

I haven't had time to work more on the Amstrad, but today I decided to set it up and trying to pickyback the new multiplexers onto the machine. But nothing changed.

I tried to pickyback several different of the new chips on all four of the ones in the machine, one at a time and also on all four at once, but it stayed the same.

I tried both with and without the Dandanator in, but it was still the same as previous.

After some time I just left it running with the Dandanator in, listening to the music of some of the games and then something strange happened. After some time just playing the music and have blue screen it sounded like a walkman loosing battery power and the screen went dark. I turned off the CPC and after a bit I turned it back on and it was again working (or not working) as it used to.

I don't know what to try next.

The 40007 chip was very hot, even with the heatsink on.
i wouldnt try piggybacking the mux chips, it wont help, you'll need to remove the chips and put the new ones in (maybe use sockets)..

the 40007 does run very hot..thats normal..

Rabs

Quote from: CPC78 on 17:07, 03 March 23After some time just playing the music and have blue screen it sounded like a walkman loosing battery power...
Wow, would like to hear this. How can that happen? I know the AY uses the same 1Mhz clock as the multiplexers

CPC78

Quote from: WacKEDmaN on 02:59, 05 March 23i wouldnt try piggybacking the mux chips, it wont help, you'll need to remove the chips and put the new ones in (maybe use sockets)..

the 40007 does run very hot..thats normal..

OK, thanks, I have socket available, so I will try that. I just did not have space enough for soldering right now, I  unfortunately don't have a static set up for soldering. As soon as I can find the time I will try this and update again.


CPC78

Quote from: Rabs on 08:57, 05 March 23
Quote from: CPC78 on 17:07, 03 March 23After some time just playing the music and have blue screen it sounded like a walkman loosing battery power...
Wow, would like to hear this. How can that happen? I know the AY uses the same 1Mhz clock as the multiplexers

Maybe if I had image on the monitor I could have more clues, who knows  ;D

Rabs

I just don't understand. So sounds like the CPC is working, except for that "loosing battery power" episode, and what is that about? If I remove a multiplexer from my CPC, I get different symptoms (grey screen with colour noise pattern) but guess it is all down to the type of failure.

Just on the off chance, have you tried a different power source or monitor? Can't work out what is happening but worth a go before you take a soldering iron to it?

CPC78

Hi all. 

Just a quick update here. I really tried my best to revive the machine, but after many frustrating attempts I ended up giving up. I think I destroyed it more than I repaired it, which made me quite sad.

I did not give up on Amstrad though. I bought a working CPC 464 and have been plowing through my cassette games to test the machine and the games I still had to try out. Also Dandanator now works and I am looking forward to find out how to add new games to it.

For the broken machine I have made an arrangement to donate it to a friend who is more experienced in soldering and trouble finding and I hope he can make it work and it gets a new life with him.

Another thing I found was that I apparently bought a faulty new power supply. I bought a powered screen cable to connect the Amstrad to more modern monitors with SCART and a new power supply, but it won't work. If I power the CPC with the original monitor I can easily get a picture to a new monitor though, so the power scart monitor cable is working fine.

Oh well. Sorry about my ramblings. I am just a bit sad about the process that took me here, but I am happy with the help I got and I am happy that I now have a working CPC 464 and the broken one hopefully will get fixed and get a new life too.

- Jonas

Rabs

Sorry to hear your CPC did not make it.

But happy to see you are up and running with another CPC.

Thanks for the update.

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