Back to the 80s: Amstrad PC1512 Teardown, Clean, and Test

In this video, we take a trip back to the 80s with a classic Amstrad PC! Join me as I strip it down to its core components, and put it through its paces. We'll explore the unique hardware, check out the design that made it a household name, and see if it still works after all these years. Whether you're a retro tech lover, a history buff, or just curious about old-school computing, this video is for you. Don't forget to hit the like button, leave a comment, and subscribe for more retro tech adventures!
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[@8BitRetroReFix]

Great video mate 👍. I reckon the slot next to the cpu will be for a second co cpu . Most bigger systems did back then ... even my 1982 commodore pc IBM compatible has one too.. keep up the great work.. 1k subs real soon 😉..

[@Retro4u]

I thought it was for a maths copro. Yeah I’m getting close just ordered a greaseweasal so hopefully soon will have the thing going lol 😂 so close 5 to go lol 😂 thanks for the comment

[@skjerk]

The empty socket is for a math co-processor.

[@Retro4u]

Ahh thanks I though it maybe something like that 😊. Thanks for the comment

[@dan.henderson632]

National trust membership cards are obviously made for cleaning motherboard slots. 😅

[@Retro4u]

Glad you noticed the multiple use for these lol 😂. Thanks for the comment

[@CaptainCommodore]

I briefly saw one of these years ago can't remember if it boots from hd though

[@Retro4u]

Yeah me 2 as I don’t think they have a built in bios to config stuff. I have found the images for the disks online but at the moment have no way of writing them 😂 thanks for the comment

[@thebeardedretroguy2183]

At least it didn't blow up 💣💣 nice video mate

[@Retro4u]

Nahh could have been much worse lol 😂

[@rolandperry]

The hard drive you have isn't original equipment, it will have been added by a previous owner. From the messages you are getting I suspect the floppy drive is working but the media has faded. One thing you could try is swapping the RH drive into the LH slot and booting (or if it will reach just swapping the ribbon cable across). The 1980 date simply means that without batteries fitted in the top since last used, "it doesn't know". One of the DOS utilities will reset the clock .

[@Retro4u]

Hi 👋 good shout on the FDD cable didn’t think of that will give it a try. I agree the disk may well have deteriorated thought time. Yeah the time would set to default as no batteries to keep the time in the cmos. I think 🤔 it said hdd on the label on the back although I may have misread it I’ll have to have another look later 👋. Thanks for you comment and information ℹ️

[@rolandperry]

@@Retro4u I'd like to see that label, because Amstrad's HDD units were fitted in the second floppy slot. This HDDs-on-a-card were quite expensive, and sometimes fitted by owners who wanted to do a field upgrade to hard drive. A 1701 error(not to be confused with USS Enterprise) means "something wrong" with the controller or drive, but it needs the ROM on the expansion board to be working to display that.

[@Retro4u]

@rolandperry I’ll get a pic and post it up later. Like I said I might have misread it. But thanks again for all the info ℹ️

[@Retro4u]

@rolandperry ok so I checked the label it just says bad then list the volts and amps so I had misread it :)

[@Shmbler]

I bought a Schneider PC1512, which is just the usual Schneider rebrand of the Amstrad machine. Originally I got it just for the two 360k drives. No monitor or peripherals were included. But it turned out to be an interesting system once I made myself some adapters for keyboard/mouse/CGA->VGA/PSU. It boots fine with an XT-IDE adapter card. Or a Gotek with flashfloppy firmware. I've insered a 16 bit sound blaster Vibra sound card into one of the 8 bit slots and it works perfectly after initialization with UNISOUND. Although there are not that many XT compatible games that support more than adlib. Eye of the Beholder works nicely with sound blaster support ;-) Oh and btw, I can't recommend using the original mouse. It's a quadrature encoded bus mouse that requires a special driver. And I found those to consume an awful amount of memory. Additionally, the mouse buttons are routed via the keyboard interface and will not work with certain software and games. I found a simple serial mouse driven by an earlier cutemouse driver to be much, much better.

[@Retro4u]

Nice I have a gotek somewhere 😊. Could be a good shout as I’m struggling to find a way to write the 5.25 disks. Nice you made the adapter they are non standard on many things typical of Amstrad lol 😂. Amazing you added a sound baluster as well. Thanks for the comment

[@Shmbler]

@@Retro4u You can probably hook up a 720k 3.5" drive. I heard these should work on the PC1512. Maybe even a 1.44MB drive with a (fake) DD disk. I'm tempted to dig out my 1512 to try that. Meanwhile I made myself a GreaseWeazle. This thing is amazing and lets you read/write about anything to floppies. Prebuilt ones frequently pop up on ebay for 20-30€.

[@Retro4u]

@Shmbler yeah I may make one of those as they can write Amiga disks I understand and well. Shame they don’t take a 5.25 drive or do they lol 😂

[@Shmbler]

@@Retro4u Of course they do! You can even read/write C64 format floppies with a PC 5.25" drive ;-)

[@Retro4u]

Just ordered on thankyou 😊 that’s what’s the retro community is about I’ve never heard of them lol lol 😂 thank again