So, i purchased another 464 last week, both of these machines have been working fine, played games on them..no problems at all.
Turned one on last night, and when trying to load a tape had a message saying string to long or something like that
So i turned one off and turned it back on again and nothing.....tried the seconds Amstrad...and the same thing
Thought it was the monitor, so i got my second monitor out which had worked with both machines, and the amstrads are basically not turning on at all, ive opened them both up and cant see anything obvious...and am now stumped that 2 perfectly working machines...are now dead..and at the same time
any help is much appreciated, where should i star tlooking and what for other than the obvious leaks of caps which all seems fine
afaik caps are rarely an issue in the CPC.
Maybe you can start by measuring the voltage that is coming from the monitor(s)?
i think its time for me to invest in a multimeter then
i cant see any cracks in the traces from the socket to the pic connector thing, off that they both just stopped working at the same time
Maybe there was a virus on the tape!! :o But seriously, that does sound suspect, that they both died in a similar manner. When your multimeter arrives you should definitely check that the first monitor isn't putting out too high a voltage (more than 5.3V) which could be the reason why both died.
Bryce.
Multimeter arrived, tested the monitor and its 5.27v
I assume you measured it with no load attached, so 5.27V sounds about right and definitely wouldn't damage a CPC.
Bryce.
yes, still got 2 broken CPCs though :(
any ideas what i should check for next, broken switches seems the next thing popping up on youtube
The switches are a very likely culprit if the LEDs do not light up.
If they light up, can you press DEL and check if you hear a beep? (make sure the volume is set properly)
Quote from: eto on 17:30, 05 April 22The switches are a very likely culprit if the LEDs do not light up.
If they light up, can you press DEL and check if you hear a beep? (make sure the volume is set properly)
LEDs are not lighting up, i have ordered some contact cleaner as well, that seemed to fix a few issues
So i now have 2 working 464s again, contact cleaner spray did the job
Whats odd is that they are both saying "line too long" when i try and run games
ok, so i have now narrowed it down to my DDI3, it runs games from tapes fine, but on one machine i get the "line too long" error, and on the other some foreign symbols, and basic doesnt seem to load correctly
Both 464s work fine without the DDI3?
Have you cleaned the edge connectors REALLY well? As in when they look really clean, then clean them again! One or two pads might have something preventing a good contact. If you can, use a multimeter to check continuity between each edge connector pad, and the corresponding pin on the interface connector.
Hope this helps :D
yeah, they have been cleaned a few times, i can see the games on the DDI3 and flick between them, im just getting the "line too long" message when trying to load a game
i have been in touch with Poitr and he has advised me to upgrade the flashfloppy firmware, but i cant do that either, it just hangs