Amstrad PCW 9512 with a white screen at boot

[genesis8]

I have the possibility to buy an 9512.


On a photo the screen is on but with a white colour without any text.


As no disk was inserted I suppose an error message should be visible.


Should I buy it or is it a bad idea ?

[robcfg]

Actually, PCWs don't show any error message if you don't insert the disk, as there's no operating system at work, just a small loading routine.


So that sounds as business as usual.


Most probably the drive belt would need to be replaced, but that's to be expected.


If it's not too expensive, I'd grab.

[GeoffB17]

Yes, that sounds totally normal.   No disk, or drive belt rotton so no disk read.

NB the 9512 boots from a CF2DD disk, I'm not sure if it can boot from a CF2.   If you're hoping to test further you'll need a boot disk.

Geoff

[JonB]

I don't think he's bought it yet.

Does the photo show a red light below the screen? That would be the disk activity light? You'd see that if it was attempting to boot from the floppy. Finally, on boot failure the PCW emits a number of beeps which is a code you can interpret. Ask if it does this after a while, and if so how many beeps?

I wouldn't pay more than say £25 for it unless I knew it worked and had a boot disk.

Is it this one? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183764341232

[GeoffB17]

Aha - if it's the 9512+ then I'm sure that needs a 3.5" boot disk, also the drive is not usually suffering from the rotted belt suffered by the 3" drives.

Geoff