The Spanish CPC464 that wasn't !!!

[00WReX]

Hi All,
Just received my long awaited Spanish CPC 464 with the Ñ keyboard (I'm in Australia so you do not see these everyday and obviously I had to source one from...well Spain).

Anyway, all excited opening up the package...yep there it is, looks OK, fairly grubby but that's OK...part of the fun is cleaning them up.

Plug it in and switch it on....

What !!!...staring back at me is an English CPC 6128...hit the Ñ key and get  :
Ahh, bummer...I was hoping for a full genuine Spanish 464 and I've got one that's been played with.

Open it up and sure enough, the memory chips have been replaced and so has the ROM, now a 40025 instead of the expected 40037.
Also the following chips have been replaced...IC107 (8255AP-5), IC108 (HD46505SP / HD6845SP), & IC115 (74LS 244).
It's easy to see the difference in the factory soldered chips and the "upgraded" ones, not a bad job but you can tell.

Anyway, what can you do...at least I've got a working machine, "upgraded" even...but just a little disappointed that it wasn't original from a collector perspective.

At least it looks standard 

Cheers,
Shane

[Gryzor]

Well, the key is actually the most important part You can always solder in your own ICs after all!

[Bryce]

Is the 40025 at least in a socket? If so, you could always burn the 40037 to a standard ROM and make it spanish again. Or even just remove it and put a socket there. I wonder why they messed with IC115 and the RAM? The machine was obviously completely dead at one time (and I don't mean when he had removed all the ICs ).

Bryce.

[00WReX]

Yes, my thought was also that it's been repaired.

All the replaced IC's are directly soldered in...no sockets other than the usual Z80 & the Gate Array...think it may be a 4008 as it is the MC0002D PCB. The board is exactly the same as the one on the "mainboard versions" page...and should have had the 40037 like that one as well 
I have not removed the heat sink to see if  the gate array is a 4007 or 4008 though.

The CPC is all in bits at the moment while I clean it up. I only tested it for 5 or so minutes, but from that everything worked...all keys, speaker, the "Datacorder"...loaded up "Harrier Attack"...all works...

I don't suppose it's 128K, that's just reported by the BIOS ROM by default isn't it ?.
The "replaced" memory IC's are SIEMENS HYB4164 P2LH 8728
I'm not sure ?

I'm thinking the only difference between this and a normal 464 is the 40025...does that sound right from what I have indicated ??

Thanks.
Shane

Just having another look over the PCB and noticed a very fine bit of wire were a track should be near the memory IC's.
Definately been a fixup job at some point.

[Bryce]

HYB4164 is a 64K x 1bit IC, so 8 of them are needed for 64K of 8 bit memory. If you can see 16 of them, then it has 128K.

I'd recommend removing the 40025 and replacing it with a socket/EPROM version of the 40037 if you think your soldering skills are up to it.

Bryce.

[00WReX]

Ok thanks for the info...so yes, it's only got the usual 464 8x memory chips so 64K then.

I would love to put a socketed 40037 in there, but getting hold of a 40037 is not easy and I don't have or know anybody with an EPROM programmer. I do however trust my soldering skills, have done some reasonably fine stuff before, and have a fine tip iron.
So unfortunately, it'll have to stay as it is. Like I said, at least it appears to be fully operational an it looks the part 
Just put it back together and loaded up Boulder Dash...no probs, seems to do everything right so far.
At least it's not one of those you hear about where they've shoved the wrong power down it's throat and nuked everything. 
Cheers,
Shane.

[OCT]

Ok thanks for the info...so yes, it's only got the usual 464 8x memory chips so 64K then.

I would love to put a socketed 40037 in there, but getting hold of a 40037 is not easy and I don't have or know anybody with an EPROM programmer. I do however trust my soldering skills, have done some reasonably fine stuff before, and have a fine tip iron.

You don't need to unsolder the 40025 completely I guess, just one pin of it and "piggy-back" the 40037 on, making the two switchable via their enable line.
Many a ParaDOS is similarly taking a ride on top of AMSDOS, left in place for a few programs that require the original.