Amstrad cpc 6128 | Computer restoration and disk drive repair

Welcome back to the basement. Today I'm taking a look back at a system I spent quite a bit of time trying to get to work. Initially I wasn't going to make a video on this because to repair the system I figured I only had to replace a few capacitors, but boy, was I wrong...
I managed to get an Amstrad 6128 on Ebay in Febuary 2020. It was in a sorry state. A cracked and scratched case, missing a key, a load of screws and full of broken ceramic capacitors on the inside. It came without power or video cables and was being sold for parts. The disk drive looked to be in great condition all the same but was missing its drive belt.
In this video I take a retrospective look at what had to be done to make up the cables needed and to get the cpc itself working properly. The disk drive however was another story. It was physically in very good condition but had been "serviced" before. It made strange loud noises and couldn't read disks. Finally after many hours of work, just when I thought that I had fixed it, it threw a curve ball my way.
Most of the information I found in order to fix the drive was at the cpcwiki forums www.cpcwiki.eu/...
Another great source of information was this video from Noel's retro lab • Repairing and Servicin...
Opening big bang sequence : UTOOBASAURUS • Good BIG BANG Animation
Music : bensound.com
Thanks for taking the time to read this and watch the video. Have a great day.

[@starsk13]

Thanks for the video. I am planning to do the same fix on a 6128 I found in the street, in south of France… 25 years ago :)

[@8bitsinthebasement]

CPC's are tough systems, best of luck with your repair / restoration.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

Another repair I watched suggested to change specific capacitors. Caps getting dry may affect the way mechanical parts behave. I will have a go with the caps and if the "no reading" error persists I will apply your empirical methods. Thanks for sharing all those tips.

[@8bitsinthebasement]

Changing caps is never a bad idea in almost 40 year old electronics, best of luck with your repair.

[@007JHS]

The disc drives had a habit of catching or hanging from within a few months of use... I administered a suite of these as teacher of IT in a school in S. Aust... I became quite deft in unscrewing the case, opening it and giving a quick flick on the motor spindle with a small screwdriver... back in operation, no loss of children's work.

[@8bitsinthebasement]

The 3 inch disc drives were (and in many cases, are still) a little temperamental. The thing that amazes me about them and these compuers in general is how it is possible to repair them in a lot of cases without the need for special tools or test devices. I imagine the 6128 would have been a great computer for kids to have learned with at school. Though you may have thought otherwise given you were the one who had to keep the drives ticking over ;) Thanks for watching 007JHS.

[@viditibi]

thanks for the tips to repair the disk drive, about the keys did you bought the key or a complete computer to use their keys?

[@8bitsinthebasement]

I found a guy on Ebay who was selling loose Amstrad CPC keys (they had a system that they had stripped for parts and were selling them). I bought two keys from them as I needed one key and two springs.