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My first Amstrad PcW (9256)

Started by TJW, 20:51, 05 December 20

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TJW

I have just received my first Amstrad PcW a 9256  :D after winning an auction on EBay. It was advertised for spares/repair, and I thought it would be a nice little project to get it up and running again. It is in absolute mint condition aesthetically and includes its original manual and original 3.5" diskettes. I connected everything up and pushed the power button to on, I can hear a faint hum so there is power but nothing is displayed on the screen and there are no beeps telling me to insert a diskette. Any help or suggestions as to what might be wrong will be very much appreciated.


GeoffB17

Hmm, maybe your first PCW (or PcW) of any sort.

Remember the question about the chicken and the egg.

You should turn the machine on, and immed put the boot disk in.   There is nothing there to do anything otherwise.   Once the disk is in, then something might happen, and there might be things happen on the screen.   Depending on what happens, and how far the boot process gets, then we might need to consider a problem??

Geoff

PCWPIP

I bought my 8256 recently and the 9256 is very similar.  Mine was also in a non-working condition.  The most common problem is the drive belt is petrified.  This prevents the drive from operating and the OS cannot load.  This will result in a bright but blank screen followed by a series of beeps (I think).  Once this belt is replaced then on power up and with a disk inserted you will get a series of lines down the screen to indicate the OS is loading.


If you have a bright screen I would follow instructions to remove the drive, open it up and check the belt.  If it is petrified (lots of little rubber bits instead of the belt) then follow instructions to remove the bits and replace the belt with a new one from ebay.


This is what I did and I now have a fully working PCW.


It could also be a bad boot disk...except I'd expect you to hear seeks sounds from the drive.  It could also be an electrical issue (no power to the drive).


You could consider replacing the drive with a gotek floppy emulator.  These are very convenient.


Of course if the screen is dark or the system has no power its rather more serious...


Best of luck.

GeoffB17

Probably not.

The PcW 9256 has a 3.5" drive, and I'm pretty sure they do NOT have the problem with the rubber band.   No band!

Once OP reports on what happens when he actually puts a disk in, then we'll have some ideas about what to suggest next!

Geoff

PCWPIP

Ah, yes I was thinking of the 9512  :doh:

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