Upgrading a Laptop from 1988 - Amstrad PPC512

This episode is sponsored by PCBWay www.pcbway.com
Support Noel's Retro Lab on Patreon: / noelsretrolab
The Amstrad PPC512 is a fun little CGA MS-DOS machine, but it has a lot of limitations. Now that it's working, let's start upgrading it to turn it into a much more usable machine. After a couple minor restoration improvements, we add a Gotek floppy disk drive emulator to load disks from USB images, and then do a full memory upgrade to 640KB.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:28 CGA on LCD
01:27 Reinforcing the handle
02:00 Door latch
02:43 Sponsor message
03:24 Adding a Gotek
07:04 Bootable Gotek
10:24 Testing the Gotek
12:36 Amstrad PPC640
13:16 Main boards
17:44 Upgrading RAM
19:18 Testing the new RAM
20:09 ROM dump
21:10 Handle results
22:04 Conclusion
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#gotek #RAM #CGA

[@donaldklopper]

When your floppy disk drive's screen is a lot better than the computer's screen...

[@NoelsRetroLab]

So true!!!😃

[@matthiasgalus4287]

And might as well have more computing power

[@donaldklopper]

@@matthiasgalus4287 that's the case for many of these 8-bit projects. Add wifi support, with a powerful cheap microcontroller. Add modern display support, with a powerful cheap microcontroller, add SD card support... you get the idea. A smarr power supply is probably more powerful computationally... Nevermind the projects where problems are solved using an FPGA. That's on a whole different level! Oh well, it's still so much fun!

[@andrewdunbar828]

They thought CPU stood for "corner processing unit" instead of "central processing unit"!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Exactly! 🤣 Although it's true that in systems like these, the gate arrays are probably doing a lot more computing and processing than the CPU itself.

[@chainq68k]

Noel's Gatorade Labs FTW. :D Great vid as always. Really looking forward to the LCD replacement. With something a lot more modern. I hope what you said is foreshadowing a cool project, and not just random thoughts. :)

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! Yes, I already have a replacement right here. It's a matter of figuring out if it's a good fit, and then finding the most economical way of hooking up everything together.

[@richards7909]

@@NoelsRetroLab Pi Pico? Apparently it can be used to output video. And it's a microcontroller that's dual core. I understand none of it. #random

[@morphshag]

I have A ppc 640, its a fun little machine to take to retro meetings

[@NoelsRetroLab]

True. Much more portable than most retro PCs. It would be hilarious to take it to a regular meeting. Pop it out like nothing and start taking notes 🤣

[@RetroTheory]

Awesome work, love these old Amstrads. I added 3 ISA slots to my PPC , I have schematics and gerbers if you are interested.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, I saw that. That expansion looks amazing! We were admiring your job on Twitter just now 😃 I see you added the option to power it with 12V but you didn't really need it for your tests. That's great!

[@RetroTheory]

@@NoelsRetroLab I changed direction, as XTIDE, sound, and lan only consume 300ma, and in the past the Amstrads had internal physical harddisks, I thought I was safe with that current draw to keep it parasitic. It was originally designed for picoatx, with a single 12V input on the pcb to feed only the picoatx, But I am having an issue powering the Amstrad through the bus as described in the reference manual. I disable the onboard regulators and it powers on and sweals, as if its not getting enough power to start the LCD is my guess. I am not sure if its a resistance/voltage drop issue or an error in the manual, and there are a lot of errors in the manual.

[@minombredepila1580]

The mod to 640K is absurdly easy. Thank you, Noel, for another fine video. It cheered up my day !!!!!. Good point removing the Gotec OLED and move it to the upper panel.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, that as a fill-in-the-blanks mod. It's funny that the 512 was even an option. I guess they just wanted two price points.

[@GadgetUK164]

Excellent - really enjoyed that =D

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@planetm68k82]

The PPC512 system disk (available on the net) has a tool called "lcd.com" (a TSR program). Once loaded, it is possible to switch between LCD and CRT with the keyboard (scroll-lock enabled + right CTRL).

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! I actually read something about that recently but didn't get around to trying that. I will now. Cheers!

[@leglessinoz]

Use spray-on vinyl dye if you want to recolour a plastic part. It can be bought at places that sell car-related things. It's used for recolouring vinyl dashboards and upholstery in cars. It won't scratch off like paint.

[@fcastellanos]

Greetings Noel!! Again a great video! I can't wait to see the next chapter and see if you replace the old LCD screen with a modern LCD display connected internally to the VGA output.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

That's the plan!!

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

A great episode. Thank you. It is sad that I figured out the extra DRAM part numbers from the pictures of the PCB? I used to design commercial hardware with old-fashioned DRAM in the 1980's and used most of the x1 and x4 parts from 4k bits up to 1M bit. I didn't have the Amstrad (but I do remember them) - I was more of a ZX80 > 81 > Spectrum and then BBC Micro kind of guy.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Sad? No! Awesome? Yes! 😃 Glad you liked the episode!

[@RetroTechChris]

I am absolutely loving this series, Noel! Great video, as always!!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks a ton!

[@TheMalMeninga]

What an interesting machine this is - nice vid, Noel!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thank you! You're right, it is turning out to be a really interesting machine!

[@hemaskjoe]

Many thanks for your video ! I just received one and have to fix it. You video will definitively helps me a lot !

[@robertpaal]

Thanks for your work and sharing your passion. From Belgium 🇧🇪 with all my respect sir. Hopping you the best

[@_zzpza]

This is awesome, I have a PPC640 and am really looking forward to how you're going to add the HDD. Subbed!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! The HDD will probably be the most challenging of the upgrades, but I have plans... 😃

[@_zzpza]

@@NoelsRetroLab Excellent, I can't wait... also I feel like there's a custom PCB going to be needed for this, can you put me on the wait list for one too? ;)

[@nebular-nerd]

I still have a PPC640, looking forward to the HD mod as well 😁

[@joshpayne4015]

Love your channel, please keep up the good work!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thank you! I will! 😃👍

[@voneschenbachmusic]

Wonderful upgrades - love seeing these old machines get restored and maxed out. Looking forward to the next upgrades.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Many thanks!

[@galier2]

The V30 had the same instruction set as 80186 (which corresponds also to 80286 real mode instruction set). So if you used a compiler that supported 80186 or 80286 (Turbo Pascal v4, MS-C, etc.) it was possible to gain a little bit of performance and code size, in comparison to plain 8086 code. Some of the instructions were POPA, PUSHA to save/restore all registers with one instruction. Shift immediate more than 1. Enter/leave for function calls (was nice for Pascal or C code). BOUND to check array bundaries. PUSH and IMUL with an immediate were nice. INS and OUTS to read/write strings on I/O ports. V30 also had an 8080 emulation mode (not Z80). It could therefore run CP/M if you so wanted, but for that you would need an adapted OS.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Oh cool, I didn't realize it could take advantage of 286 instructions from compilers. I don't think anyone has released a version of CP/M for this machine, but you're right. It could be fun (although not particularly useful compared to MS DOS).

[@freddylq67]

As always, another fun episode. Thanks Noel !

[@NoelsRetroLab]

My pleasure!

[@TheStuffMade]

Nice work! It would be great if someone came up with an LCD replacement kit, but I guess there are not enough of these machines around to justify the effort required.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Not exactly, but there are ways to get a new LCD there. Stay tuned 😃

[@nigec4969]

Great video series Noel I just re-watched and got the details for upgrade of RAM to 640K with my new immaculate Amstrad PPC512 with two disk drives. I will be carrying out your further mods in time. Thank you for your videos.

[@nigec4969]

I have now received from China a new display as detailed by you. Only took a week to arrive here in the UK. I have all the other kit specified by you. It wlll take time. I will get there. Due to your wonderful videos. Thank you. I have even got a Gotek I had before and will now reuse.

[@ElectronGordo]

Bravo, really amazing video :) thanks Noel

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Glad you liked it!

[@Wallygjs]

Interesting video. It will be interesting to see the LCD replacement video when you do that.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! Yes, that will be such a huge improvement!!

[@richretrotech9426]

Excellent video. I have one of these sat in the office. I wish I had the confidence to upgrade the ram like this. The gotek mod though looks within my skillset. Great stuff. Looking forward to the next videos on it.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thank you! Really, there's nothing about the RAM upgrade. You can remove the solder with a solder braid, and since you aren't working directly on any components, it would be hard to screw things up. The hardest thing is opening the computer and getting the boards in a position you can work on them! 😃 Give it a try!

[@antxiko]

Maravillosa explicación para la ampliación de RAM. Gracias por el video!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

De nada. Me alegro de que te haya gustado!

[@Starchface]

Great progress! Even though PCs aren't truly "retro" to me, I enjoy your work and I learn a lot about repair and restoration techniques. It's amazing what can be done with the availability of upgrade parts and information that just didn't exist in ye olden days. What is old is new again.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! I've been having a lot more fun with that computer than I expected to be honest. You're right that it doesn't have the same retro feel as other computers, but it has a lot of potential to be upgraded, so it's really fun (and it reminds me a lot of my first PC, even if it wasn't a portable one).

[@FernandoelChachi]

Nice video !

[@RetroTurbo]

Excellent vid! I cant wait for the screen update now! I cant imagine you would be able to fit color one but something more readable and with backlight would be awesome! I have two floppy drives in mine both workig, that add on you did with yours is such a fantastic idea! Omg, I cang wait to run planet x3 on my LITTLE laptop! So excited about this - feel 35 years younger already!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! Yes, working on the screen replacement now 😃 It is a fun little computer!

Amazing man! RetroShow Time

[@alexwierzbowsky]

Nicely done! Good thing that Amstrad didn't drill through the board 4 times to prevent easy RAM upgrade - Commodore did that on its PET 4008's motherboard.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Whoa! Seriously??? I didn't know that! That's really going the extra mile to screw your customers!

[@alexwierzbowsky]

@@NoelsRetroLab Yep. Took hours to reconnect all traces and upgrade to 32kb.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Nice job Noel, love the gate array joke. The DRAM numbers make sense to me, it just takes some time for my brain to do the math ⚙️⚙️, although I have no idea what the starting 4 is for either

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Haha, glad I'm not the only one. I was ready for a flood of comments telling me how ignorant I was for not knowing what the 4 stood for (so far 0 comments like that 😃).

[@macartm]

I had one of those! I swapped it with a friend for a 9600 baud modem :D

[@moviebod]

Nice job. I can't remember how much more I paid for that extra 128K but a 16K RAM pack for my ZX81 6 years earlier (in 1982) was £100.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, RAM prices back then were crazy! Now you can get even those old chips for cents each. Funny how some things changed.

[@KJohansson]

Amstrad was the kings of injection molded plastic.. Nice job!

[@Shmbler]

When I glue ABS/PVC with Epoxy, I first prepare the surfaces with some Acetone or PVC pipe primer. This softens up the surface for some time and the epoxy seems to make an incredibly strong bond with that. If I rip the parts apart with force, its always the plastic's structure that fails but never the Epoxy/plastic bond itself. I've used that method for glueing in Laptop hinges with destroyed screw holes and none of them failed ever again.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Nice. What kind of epoxy do you use? Any particular recommendations?

[@chriscowey7464]

I had both this and the grey ppc640, I actually did a lot of my college work on it in word for Dos 5 :). Though I did move to a 486, This does bring back fond memories.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I could see it being pretty good for college work. Did you use it with an external monitor, or did you have to suffer that screen? It's pretty painful even for word processing!

[@bennyrogergundersen3040]

Nice video 🙂

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks 😁

[@TanjoGalbi]

I only saw the GoTek showing the track and head numbers, not the track and sector like you said. There would be 8 sectors per track, not 2 like it was indicating. Back in my old days of DOS I used to know every part of a floppy disk layout almost like the back of my hand thanks to playing around with formatting disks on the Atari STFM before I moved to PC. The Atari used the same disk format but with more flexibility, allowing you to squeeze extra sectors and tracks onto disks. The PC could use most of those disks but not create them, great for copy protection of PC software if you fill the disk up completely! I knew more about DOS and disks than even my tutors when I was getting my C programming qualifications 😏

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Right! I saw it afterwards as well 😃 I was speaking out of experience from what it displays with the Amstrad CPC, and then in edit I saw it was only showing track and head. Haha, good eye!

[@mogwaay]

Ooh would be cool to try replacing the LCD!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

It's happening, it's happening... 😃

[@mogwaay]

@@NoelsRetroLab exciting, no pressure I know you have a lot of Projects in the works!

[@Zeem4]

I've always wondered if it might be possible to install a modern battery and charging circuit in one of these. I'd imagine that you could get a lot of power in the space that 10 C cells take up - possibly enough for a few hours of runtime.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Interesting. I've been so focused on other things that I didn't even think of that, but yes, it would be technically possible. At the same time, I'm not really planning on taking it with me anywhere, so I could probably make better use of that battery space for other mods (cough, VGA LCD, cough).

[@renbymon]

I own a PPC640 and though I've put a Gotek in already I am very much looking forward to your conclusion on replacing the LCD, and also what can be done to put a hard drive in this!

[@antoinemichels2488]

Great video. I love Amstrad hardware from the 80ies. Cheap maybe but such nice retro design. I already restored my two ppc512s and added a gotek but now I am in the mood to mod one of them all the way so I ordered ram and a copro for the next step. For the colour CGA hack I was thinking to copy the retrohax mod but the serda mda2cg is quite expensive. I hope you hsve a better alternative in mind. Another mod suggestion: adding rechargeable battery ;-)

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thank you. Yes, that's the starting point and fallback possibility, but I'm looking how to make a similar mod without spending so much money. Stay tuned 😃

[@TranceTrousers]

I've just fitted a Gotek in my Amstrad PPC! Where are you getting your disk image files from please?

[@siamsurf]

At 9:04 the FDD on the left and the Gotek on the right, then you insert the floppy disk into the Gotek drive at 10:14. I know you are a magician when it comes to old computer, but... what magic is this?! :-)

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Good catch! I had originally installed it on the right and realized it was pretty far to see the screen, so I decided to put it on the left. Since that whole exchange was rather uninteresting, I cut it out, but apparently I left the close up 😃

[@CB3ROB-CyberBunker]

they did populate the capacitors for chips that aren't even there :P

[@TheSimTetuChannel]

Ah CGA! Must play Pinks of Percyan!

[@SCwirlify]

The plastic on your emulator might Match if you give it some time in the sun ;)

[@Octamed]

Hah, on your other PPC video I was wondering if the 512k on mine could be updated. A google search sent me straight back to you :)

[@NoelsRetroLab]

And the RAM upgrade is just the start. There are so many things that it can benefit from!

[@RobR386]

Replace the LCD with a colour TFT

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, that's the plan! I have it sitting on my workbench already. The trick is interfacing to it in a way that's not too expensive.

[@williefleete]

I think the internal LCD is on the same pins for the TTL/RGBi outputs, at least according to the schematic, you might need to re route the H and V sync to some of the unused LCD pins (there are at least 2 there) and use the existing LCD cable with the adapter for the replacement LCD

[@NoelsRetroLab]

@Mr Guru Yeah, I was thinking of starting from the CGA signal to keep things easy and then some kind of VGA converter. It's definitely doable, I'm just trying to find a way that's not too expensive.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

@Mr Guru That's one of the options, and the most promising one. I have that board here and an LCD that I *think* fits. I'll still need to adjust the CGA signal for the GBS8200 to process it correctly I think (I think I need to combine the vsync and hsync? I don't remember. The other problem is fitting that board inside the computer. The battery case is large but not as wide! I'll hit you up if I run into some set up problem.

[@TaberBucknell]

The side by side epoxy parts method works great eh? (Yes, I am from Canada 🇨🇦🙂). I saw the “Gatorade ?” funny. 😀 That was a comment from your Producer wasn’t it? I’ve done voiceovers ... I’ve been asked “What did you say? “. 😉🙂

[@NCommander]

So, for making disk images, you really shouldn't use DISKCOPY, it copies the files, but doesn't do preservation of sector data and such. The best way is to use something like a SuperCard Pro (which is my preferred solution), or at least WinImage or similar with a floppy drive. If you want to use DOS specific software, there's quite a bit, teledisk being one of the more common, although you need to convert the images from TD0 (HxC can do this, and it can handle copy protested disks).

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Unless I'm missing something, DISKCOPY copies a full disk, track by track, not file by file. It won't deal with advanced copy protections and weird formatting, but otherwise it should be fine for unprotected disks like the one I did, right?

[@NCommander]

@@NoelsRetroLab github.com/microsoft/MS-DOS/blob/master/v2.0/source/DISKCOPY.ASM - I owe you an apology. I thought diskcopy didn't copy track by track but it appears I'm wrong. I need to find the DISKRD function to be sure, but from the comments in the source, it reads 64k of sectors, and writes them out "as is".

[@NoelsRetroLab]

@@NCommander No need for apologies! You said that in good faith hoping to help. And at the same time I learned that the source code for MSDOS 2.0 is freely available. That's really cool! I didn't know that.

[@olivierdebonne5173]

I recently bought an Intel 8087-1 (rated for max. 10 MHz) from AliExpress (yes, I know) for my Amstrad PPC640. Paid like 3 euros including free shipping and it works perfectly!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Haha, yes I ordered mine last week and paid about that much too. Let's see what I actually get! 😃

[@olivierdebonne5173]

When it arrived, I just quick and dirty checked the resistance between Vcc and GND. When that looked fine, installed it into the machine and to my surprise it works perfectly. Amazing that you can buy those old parts for just a couple of euros... I can’t wait what you will come up with for the LCD screen, I have seen multiple solutions which look amazing. Also, there is a person in the AMSTRAD IBM PC COMPATIBLES Facebook group that is currently designing an expansion board which adds ISA slots for the machine. The way to add an XT-IDE and an Adlib sound card is open!

[@FredBedderhead]

I got the dark gray one at 640K with the modem

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Is it still working? Time to take it out for a spin 😃

[@FredBedderhead]

@@NoelsRetroLab have not turn it on for about 20 years or more

[@WacKEDmaN]

nice addition with the gotek Noel...and cool little fixes too...altho i wouldnt have used a neodymium magnet near a computer! (i know first hand what a loudspeaker woofer magnet does to TVs and old computers!)...i would have just used a simple fridge magnet...would have done the same job, without throwing a huge, strong magnetic field around it.... the shimmering youre seeing on the CGA monitor maybe the video output itself, which is also why its missing lines on the LCD... maybe something to consider...

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Hopefully that magnet is fine, but now that I think about it, it's right over the video out port. I wonder if it could be causing that shimmering effect! I'll investigate a bit more next time.

[@WX4CB]

cool... @9:40 maybe it would be a good thing to mention to the firmware devs about a program you can use or maybe a command that will list and swap images so you dont need the button/oled ?

[@NoelsRetroLab]

One of the really nice things about the Gotek is that it's completely like a floppy disk drive, so the computer knows nothing else about it. If you wanted to have that kind of control, it would need to communicate with the computer at a different level, which would make it much more complex. Having said that, people have been working on on-screen displays for Gotek interfaces, so it's certainly possible to do something like that. Although you always want to retain that interface as well so you can change disks before the computer is working (to select the boot disk for example).

[@WX4CB]

@@NoelsRetroLab don't get me wrong, im not saying dump the oled and the buttons, just make a software solution that's a TSR for example.

[@10p6]

Nice video again. Yes replace the screen with a color one (4K 32 bit IPS) Lol. :-)

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Haha, without going that far, I already have a nice 800x600 VGA screen sitting on my workbench.

[@10p6]

@@NoelsRetroLab I think you mean SVGA Screen, lol. Cant wait to see it installed.

[@elrincondellobezno6726]

Hello, I have an amstrad pc 1512 with a broken monitor, but if the power supply works, there is some way to connect it to another monitor, be it vga, rca or otherwise, just as long as the image is visible, it's fine, thanks

[@Guroth]

Noel I’m about to undertake upgrading a PPC512 with a bust screen. Ram wise does it matter if I use 41464-10 or does it have to match up and be 41464-15?

[@noanyobiseniss7462]

U may have to swap out the memory controller chip as well with the added ram, IIRC we called it the u226 mod back in the day when we did the xt boards. Edit: guess I should have watched the rest of the vid before commenting. :)

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Interesting, I'm not familiar with that mod. Was it for XT computers in general I take it? I guess we were lucky that Amstrad just reused everything from the two models and just left some spots empty.

[@johnsonlam]

Gatorade? Nice drink!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Gatorade? Gatorade? Why are people talking about drinks? 🤣

[@AnotherUser1000]

Nice work, again! I' m glad it had those DIP switches there, for the display' s mode. MDA sucks. If you want to make any other repairs with epoxy, I would suggest you to put some copper braid, or something similar in that glue(a thin piece of plastic, maybe?), in order to provide the broken parts with some more robustness. And if it was a desktop PC, with some ISA slots, I would also suggest you to use an external controller for HDDs, or at least one that hacks and tricks the XT PCs, into believing that they have a HD floppy drive connected.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Thanks! I like the tip of using some material to hold things together with the epoxy. In this case the tube was really close to the sides, so in a way they already have that effect and everything is held together strongly there. One of my long-term goals is exactly that: Create an ISA expansion adapter to plug in anything (8-bit VGA, HDD controller, etc). It stops being really practical, but it seems like a fun project anyway!

[@AnotherUser1000]

@@NoelsRetroLab Yes, this is another project that I saw, once. I don' t remember it exactly, but it is an external ISA port. By the way, if I don 't reply to any comments, it is only because I cannot receive notifications for any new messages. I only see upvotes to my comments(no kidding, I mean it!).

[@20windfisch11]

Would it be possible to put an XT-IDE somewhere in there? The PPC512 has no standard ISA port so it might be necessary to hook into the CPU or something.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, one of my goals is to make an ISA extender. It may not happen right away but I'm already investigating it.

[@markevans2294]

Interesting that the empty RAM positions did have their associated decoupling/bypass capacitors. Which is a little surprising given that board manufacture tends to be highly cost optimised.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

True. I didn't give it a second thought, but you're right. I guess it was more trouble doing two versions of that step of the assembly than just change the IC one.

[@markevans2294]

@@NoelsRetroLab looking at the history of pick and place machines it looks like there were two separate robots. The first doing small components, such as capacitors and the second doing larger components, such as ICs. It's around twenty years ago that a single machine to place everything became the norm.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

@@markevans2294 Although, were these boards machine assembled? I know a lot of the ZX Spectrum ones were assembled by hand in factories in Europe. I guess this is 5 years later and things had became automated. Edit: And the fact that those holes were filled with solder means that yes, it was at least soldered automatically.

[@spudhead169]

Is there a possible backlight mod for that screen?

[@NoelsRetroLab]

It is possible. It would improve the contrast, but the refresh rate and ghosting would be just as abysmal, so I'm looking for a different alternative.

[@stephenvalente3296]

I've got a 640 that isn't giving anything on screen and no floppy drives, plus a 512 that I've yet to test out. Think I'll need to merge them to make one good 640 I hope eventually. Adding the GOTEK as a second drive looks a good idea too.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Is it beeping? Make sure to turn the volume on. That might give you a hint. My donor one is beeping and I think it's bad RAM. But yeah, otherwise combine them to make a functional one and have lots of parts for spares.

[@stephenvalente3296]

@@NoelsRetroLab I think there was a beep, but need to find time amongst my many delayed projects to check things out properly,

[@Guroth]

Noel do you ever have any issues swapping between disks? I've installed a Gotek in my PPC512 today. When I swap between disk images, the computer doesn't detect the change. I'll swap a disk, type DIR and it still lists the contents of the previous disk, not the disk I swapped to. I'm guessing this might be a disk change detection signal issue?

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

Would love to see you put a back lit or OLED color screen in that thing if possible.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I'm going for a straight modern color LCD screen. It should be night and day...

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

@@NoelsRetroLab That's the ticket!

[@captainsemicolon]

Where did you purchase your Gotek from? I would love to upgrade my PPC640 but there are many places to buy them, with various specifications of disk size they emulate, and I have heard stories of "fake" Goteks for sale also.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Just about any Gotek will work I believe. I got them off Ali, so who knows if they're even "original". I always just pick the cheapest one. Just make sure you flash them with FlashFloppy and you'll be fine.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

I think the flickering on the screen may be caused by failing caps that are supposed to filter the video signal.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

That was my first thought too, and why I didn't investigate anymore since I'm waiting for new caps, BUT... I looked int he circuit schematics and it looks like there's no filtering of any kind. They come straight out of the gate array into the video output (through a buffer). Maybe they were omitted from the diagram, not sure, so I'll look into it. Also, I hope it wasn't the magnet I added near the video port!! 😳

[@simongreen9736]

Could it have anything to do with the magnet you stuck to the back being right above the cga socket?

[@JendaLinda]

The interference in the video looks like a power issue. You may try to power the video converter from the USB port of the computer with the capture device.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Interesting. I didn't look much into it, but I'll try that. Thanks.

[@frankowalker4662]

Did you put a Gotek in the PCW-8256? If so, can you boot from it ? I've tried everything to get mine to boot off Gotek and it's not happy, even with just the Gotek attached.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I haven't gotten around to doing anything with the PCW yet! But I was hoping to get that to work. Did you manage to get it working as B drive? Make sure you have FlashFloppy. You may have to configure options to allow for two sides. Also, check with Perifractic (Retro Recipes). I think he got it working.

[@giorgiorosellini670]

Bona feina! ;)

[@TheLemminkainen]

i played Lakesr vs Celtics on my 286 Ega a lot too even i dont like basketball at all :)

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I played a bunch back in the day. So much fun (although I also remember getting really frustrated!).

[@TheLemminkainen]

@@NoelsRetroLab also lots of Gamestars Faceoff !

[@williefleete]

I think if you stick an autoexec.bat on the floppy image (even an empty one) it should stop prompting for the time and date. the 720k DD limit confirmed my suspicions, it wouldnt have worked with HD floppy drives or only read DD disks even if it was an HD drive. If you dont mind the Spanish DOS and BIOS by all means keep it but have you considered changing out the BIOS and DOS to English?

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yeah, I need to customize it to make it better. I was also thinking of potentially using a higher DOS version. I'll probably change DOS to English, but I need to make sure the keyboard layout stays Spanish, otherwise it'll be crazy trying to write anything complicated 😃

[@sgkonfetti]

Muy bien

[@Aruneh]

How did you create the blank image?

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Exactly. In my case I used WinImage.

[@senilyDeluxe]

One of the Parity RAMs is an MT... if the machine starts giving Parity Errors, replace this one, don't look for any bad RAMs...

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Haha, true! I didn't look closely. It's crazy that it's just one of them too, not both! Amstrad seemed to use MT RAMs quite a bit unfortunately.

[@Terkzorr]

When the apocalypse is upon us I want to be near Noel so he can set up our base defenses out of old microcomputers and consoles.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Hahaha, believe it or not, I was thinking about that exactly the other day in the middle of a long run. If there was some kind of massive technology catastrophe, would 8-bit computers be easier to revive and operate than modern ones given super-limited access to new tech 🤣

[@Terkzorr]

@@NoelsRetroLab That actually sounds like a great idea for a future video. ;-D

[@MarcKloos]

I thought the name of your sponsor was pronounced "PCB Waaaaaaaaaaayyy!"

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Perifractic agrees with you 😃

[@redace001]

@@NoelsRetroLab Now Jan Beta's doing it too. lolol

[@Stoney3K]

So the V20 processor is much more like an 80286 than a copy of an 8088?

[@NoelsRetroLab]

It was definitely closer to an 8086 than an 8088 (8 bit data bus). It had some aspects of the 80186 and 80286, but not all of them (like protected mode or extra memory addressing).

[@Stoney3K]

@@NoelsRetroLab Wasn't protected mode a 386 feature? I'm not sure if the 286 had something that you could qualify as an MMU.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

@@Stoney3K It started with the 286, but it didn't see a lot of use until the 386 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80286

[@arimori694]

Wowwwwww

[@CPMG2000]

You were really Dr. Watson (Hacker)?

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Yes, why, did you get some games hacked by me? That would be a coincidence (since I wasn't in any major distribution channels) but it wouldn't be the first time I've seen that either 😃

[@rushglider]

Next a NEC V30 CPU and 8087 coprocesor

[@NoelsRetroLab]

The NEC is already there, but the 8087 should be a fun, easy add-on. I've already ordered one. Let's see if I get a genuine one and if it works 😃

[@the_holy_forestfairy]

Why not a GoEX??

[@WacKEDmaN]

gotek comes with display, and has the USB interface... USB flash sticks are easier to use than SDCards (eg just plug the USB stick into PC, SD card adapter not required) the goex, the display is optional extra, and zero usb...just the SD card slot.... id stick with the gotek.... and use a SD card adapter in the USB slot, if i really had to....

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Honestly, I didn't even know about the GoEX until right now. If I'm reading it correctly, it looks like it's more intended for Amiga so it comes with specific mounting points instead of a floppy drive-like case, so it would have needed something to fit like this one I think. I'm bookmarking that for the future though.

[@the_holy_forestfairy]

@@NoelsRetroLab centuriontech.eu/product/goex_sd/

[@d2factotum]

How weird that the extra 128k of RAM has a completely different physical layout to the base 512! Given the number of actual RAM chips used they *could* have made it the same--8 4464s would give you 256k, same as the 8 41256s do.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Right but the 128K was only 4 chips, not 8. I suppose space was a premium.

[@Bwyan]

paralelo

[@Richard-ys9zo]

I'd avoid modding the case too much.

[@NoelsRetroLab]

I hear you! It's always tempting to start drilling things, but I'm very hesitant to modify original cases. If it was just a button or a switch it's one thing, but a whole screen... I'm not convinced yet.

[@dxqx3794]

Noel I found the issue and some possible solutions! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpyQhmeCnrFnfas Capturing CGA is a pain but if you try some of these fixes I'm certain you'll get it working. Thank you for the wonderful video!

[@NoelsRetroLab]

Interesting! I'm bookmarking that for the next video when I look into it. If that's the case, since it's possible I might have to make a small circuit to interface it to a VGA LCD, I might increase the resistances a bit. We'll see. Thanks for the pointer!

[@agranero6]

Wait, wait, wait a moment. At 09:04 You put the disk emulator on the right side (looking front to the side) and the real disk drive is on the left nearer to the front of the computer; The emulator is the one with two openings, nearer to the back!!! When you boot and insert the floppy at 10:12 you put it on the back one (the emulator). WHHHAAAAAAT!?????? There is a cut at 09:42. Dis you cheanged the arrangement of the drivers between the two takes?