Old Questions and Answers

Previous Q & A

Home
Page

These are questions and answers that were previously posted to the Q & A page but have been archived here to keep the latest Q & A shorter and more manageable for download.

Integra	Trying to start machine
PC3386	Restoring DOS/Windows software
PC2386	Mouse problem
Monitor	Using 2086 monitor on new PC
PcW16	Information requested
PC3386	Memory parity error
PPC	Trying to send fax
Monitor	1512 monitor on VGA?
PC3286	Floppy drive problem
NC100	Programming question
PCW	Transfer files to PC
Monitor	PC14M39 refresh rates
NC100	Transfer to PC with Lapcat
PC3086	Various questions
PcW16	Want magazine support
General	Wot jury service gets yer!
General	Betacom telephone problem
NC100	Lithium battery problem
PC2386	Format after low level format
PC1640	Trying to make hard drive work
PC1512	Using Keytronic keyboard
General	Transfer data between PCs
PC4386	Trying to upgrade processor
Integra	Restoring original software
PCW9512	Daisywheel printer problem
PDA600	Pen won't work
PC5286	Making soundcard work
PcW16	Need rescue disc software
PC9555	Need CD support software
PC2386	Trying to make SCSI work
PC3086	Need system disc
PcW16	Adding a hard disk
Integra	Clearing the CMOS
PCW	Essex based support?
Year2000	Looking for information
General	A very general question
General	Need anti-virus software
PcW16	New OS version won't work
PC1512	Reconnecting battery lead
PC7486	Trying to add a CD drive
PC3286	Adding large hard drive
PC1512	Using Windows 3
PC1512	Monitor cable cut
PC1512	Using 720K drive B:
PC9486	CD/IDE stopped working
PC2086	VGA starts in mono
PCW10	Using printer on another PC

adrian chadwick in WARRINGTON UK at 9:43:23 Wednesday April 15 98
HOW DO I CONNECT A PCW10DM PRINTER TO A MODERN PC. IS THERE A CONNECTOR AVAILABLE FOR THIS.
Amstrad answers: Guess you didn't read this then?

Robert Laight in Framlingham, Suffolk at 20:0:20 Monday April 13 98
My father has an Amstrad 2086 for word processing. Recently the display has started to occasionally boot in black and white rather than colour, with the PC working in all other respects. I have checked the DIP switches and tried to change the video mode, but to no avail. It seems that the video driver IC is not resetting properly. Is it possible to swap the offending chip or should I just fit a seperate ISA VGA card? I would be grateful of any advice. Thanks very much.
Amstrad answers: The way a VGA card knows whether to start up in b/w or colour is that it looks at the cable form the monitor and if pin 10 and 11 are connected (think it is) then it thinks it has a colour monitor. Otherwise it thinks it's black and white. This explains why you get black and white if you start a PC without a monitor connected then later plug the monitor in once it has started. My guess is that your pins 10/11 in the 15 pin monitor connector are not making a good contact. Try bending the pins a little and pushing the connector on as firmly as possible (use the retaining screws). I'd guess that should fix the problem. Course the other possible reasons are that the connector on the motherboard has a bad joint or the monitor really is faulty. In those cases you need to have it looked at by a professional engineer.

Kevin Gillespie in Leicester, UK at 8:37:2 Saturday April 11 98
Help. A friend of mine has an Amstrad PC9486i. He has added an Evergreen processor and now has 32mg ram. There was not a problem until he installed a 24 speed Creative CDROM. All was working ok for a week until the CD dropped out of the system and there was an IDE controller clash. Now when you reboot, you get as far as autotyping adapter 0 Master: ok and the thing just stops. On the odd occassion when the previous boot was incomplete, you can boot from the boot disk when given the F1 to resume option, but the next time you reboot you end up back at square one. We have checked all the system settings and everything seems ok. Any help greatly appreciated.
Amstrad answers: Well for a start physically disconnect the CD in case that is affecting the IDE interface. Then boot the PC but press [Del] during boot to get access to the BIOS. Rather than setting the drive type to "auto-typing" I'd set it to user defined so that the machine is tempted to try and retype the drive at boot every time (I'd always do that anyway). Try that and see how you get one. If you need to know the head/tracks/sector figures for the drive you'll probably find them printed on a label attached to the drive. If not I can email you an ASKIDE program that will interrogate the drive to find out what they are. As a precaution I think I'll add that to my file download archive.

Ricky Humby in Southampton at 10:9:25 Thursday April 9 98
Hi Cliff, another question for you with regard to an Amstrad PC 1512. I have a second disk drive, 3.5" 720kb external. I have included the relevant DRIVPARM statement in config.sys - also tried the dos\driver command. Still unable to read disks. I have used a genuine low density disk - properly formatted to 720k (is readable on another machine), but my Amstrad doesnt read it - error "not ready reading drive B: Abort, Retry, Ignore?". I think possibly the drive is dead/dirty? Any info appreciated.
Amstrad answers: Fraid you've got me there as I used to have a 720K 3.5" drive connected up to my 1512 for several years and never had any problems. The only thing I can think of is whether the step rate that the drive has is compatible with the 1512 BIOS. I think one thing you should try is connecting the drive up to another PC just to try and isolate whether the problem is with the drive or the PC.

Bill Harris in Aucland New Zealand at 12:27:5 Saturday April 4 98
I have just been given a 1512 with colour monitor. My problem is this some kind chap has cut the cables to the monitor , and also the keyboard cable, where can I get a pinout diagram for these cables. thanks in advance for any help . harri@ihug.co.nz
Amstrad answers: Sorry but while I can do you a list of signals on pin numbers I don't think this is going to help much as you've presumably just got a collection of coloured wires and don't know which pins they should go to. I don't think the assignment of signals to colours in the cable is documented any where so I can't offer much help. If you'd like to know the pinout then email me and I'll dig it out of my library.

Ricky Humby in England at 12:6:13 Thursday April 2 98
I have just acquired a PC 1512. I have a 360k 5.25" and an external 720k 3.5" drive. I have downloaded your drivers from this site, copied them onto 360k disks, then installed them. Now, I have a question: Can I install Windows 3? I have heard that the 1512 can run this. I have a colour monitor if that helps.
Amstrad answers: Well the box for Windows 3.0 did say it would run on an 8086 so you should be able to get that going (as long as you have a hard disk) but from version 3.1 onwards they stated that it needed a minimum of 80286 and the 1512 is just 8086. However you have to realise that the only video mode you could possibly run Windows 3.0 in is 640x200 in 2 colors (it doesn't know about the 1512 special 640x200 16 colour mode). Also, I have actually run Windows on an 8086 and I have to warn you that it is not a pretty site. In even a small program such as Windows Write it can take a minute from clicking a menu entry before the menuactually appears. I'd have said it was totally unusable. If you are looking for a WIMP GUI to run on the 1512 I'd suggest trying to get a copy of GEOS from GeoWorks which WAS designed to be used on 8086 systems and in many respects is actually better than Windows.

Vincent Timmermans in Netherlands (or do you mean: Home?) at 20:43:2 Tuesday March 31 98
Hello, I'm trying to fit a 365MB hard disk into a 3286 (vs 2.1). Have got the setup.exe program and it is working.
What hard disk number do I configure to use as much as possible of the 365 MB drive (parameters: C 976 H 12 S 61)? Kind regards, Vincent
Amstrad answers: Bad news I'm afraid but the BIOS in the 3286 does not support such a large drive size and it doesn't have user settable heads/tracks/sectors like modern BIOS.
There are two solutions. The expensive one is that there is a version of 2386 BIOS that DOES support settable parameters (v2.4) but I think this is only available from www.cpc.co.uk and would probably cost at least £50 for the chips. A cheaper solution is to disable the on-board IDE interface within the 3286 by removing link 27 then fit a new IDE card into one of the slots. You can get "intelligent" IDE controller cards that have their own settable drive parms that would replace the function of the 3286's on-board BIOS. I think such a card may only be about £25.

Andy Brown in Liverpool UK at 22:30:31 Monday March 30 98
Forgive the lack of info in this question, but a friend of mine has an Amstrad PC with a 486 processor (don't know model). We have been trying to put a cd drive on the machine, but the BIOS doesn't have that option. Can Amstrad PC's have their BIOS upgraded ?

The machine in question looks like it is a 7486 because on the BIOS startup screen it has PC7486SLC v1.0 Can a CD drive be fitted to this machine (I know it cannot be fitted internally, the PC is too small)?
Amstrad answers: You most certainly can fit a CD to that machine but I don't really understand the question about BIOS support for it - what on Earth would the BIOS have to do with supporting a CD drive. Even if it's an IDE drive then you don't set anything in the BIOS about it (just leave the drive info "not fitted") and then the DOS or Windows drivers will find it - it is those, not the BIOS that provides support for a CD.

Frantisek Brazdik in slovakia at 13:8:28 Thursday March 26 98
I'm owner of pc1512 for only three weeks, and I have problem with it. It is Cmos or what it have. Every time I started my computer, it invite me to set the standart einstelung and so....I controled the batteries but it was ok. Then I opened it . There was a blue wire from batteries but it wasn't connected to anything. So my question is where it must be connected.
Amstrad answers: I've just had a quick look at the service manual and the blue wire from the battery compartment should connect to the connector CP103 that is positioned almost exactly in the middle of the 1512 circuit board.

Paul Mckeen in Glasgow, at 19:26:39 Monday March 23 98
After installing the latest version of the operating system for the PCW16 (downloaded from Amstrads own site) It locks up trying to adjust fonts after the printer section and I have no access to the floppy drive. How can I cure this as the computer is now useless.
Amstrad answers: I guess that the copy you have downloaded must have been corrupted during the download. I'd suggest you try to download it again. If that still doesn't work then send me a blank floppy to the address shown here.

Cliff says: Would the William Mitchell who emailed me please note that his email program is not putting any form of reply email address in the headers of the emails he sends. Therefore I just hope you might read this. On the question of PPC DIP switches I suggest you read this but please note that the problem you described probably goes deeper than errant DIP switch settings. My guess is that it may be a RAM fault that is probably insoluble.

sally bateson in brighton at 14:6:9 Sunday March 22 98
how do i remove a virus from my amstrad pc9521, i can not seem to locate a virus scanner on the www
Amstrad answers: I don't want you to take this the wrong way but I kind of wonder how hard you tried looking. There are HUNDREDS of virus scanning/fixing programs on the internet. Some of the most widely known, used and respected are Symantec, Norton and Dr Solomons. I just type "PC virus scanning software" as the search phrase into www.metacrawler.com (my personal favorite search engine) and the top page it pointed me at was www.hitchhikers.net/av.shtml which appears to have links to all those companies I just mentioned and a whole host of others.

In future, when you want to find something on the internet I'd highly recommend you try visiting either www.hotbot.com or www.metacrawler.com and type in a few words that describe the subject you are looking for. A good place to start searching from is my own search page that is here - you might like to even consider setting this to be your home page in your browser software.

One other thing that struck me was that you say you need antivirus software - what makes you think that if you don't already have some. Just because a computer behaves oddly it is only about 1 time in every 1,000 that the cause is a virus.

A OMAR in LONDON at 13:27:33 Friday March 20 98
I HAVE SOME TECHNICAL PROBLEM WITH YOUR PROUDACT OF 1988 PC CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME INFORMATION HOW TO INSTALL SOFTWARE
Amstrad answers: Your first problem would appear to be that the Caps lock key on your computer is stuck. The second one is that you didn't say which computer, which operating system, which software - it's a bit like phoning a local garage to ask them to repair your car over the phone without telling them what model it is or what's wrong with it! Suggest you might be better off emailing me directly by clicking here.

Leona Hackett in Dublin, Ireland at 13:11:50 Friday March 20 98
I'm compiling a website (with a link to your site) on the Year 2000 issue. I would also like to include a link to your Y2k information (I couldn't find any - sorry if it's there). If you have anything, could you let me know? Many thanks
Amstrad answers: I haven't actually bothered to put anything up about Y2K as (for PCs) I consider it to be a mountain built out of a mole hill (though I agree that it is a big problem in the world of mainframe MIS computing). However I have written a few words in Word for Windows 7 and I'm emailing you a copy of that. If anyone else wants it just send me a blank email with the "Subject:" set to "Y2K" and I'll set something up to auto-mail it.

beth in UK AVELEY at 23:42:1 Wednesday March 18 98
Please oh Please! Does anyone in the Grays/Ockendon or near surrounding area have a 8512 pcw? I despirately need to go through all my disks for some important info. Of course my PCW has given up the ghost on it A drive.. no more allowing me in! Please can sombody help... be a friend, l;et me use your PCW for an hour or two? I'll treat you to a box of chocolates?
To the William in Orpington? Can you email me please... have you got rid of your pcw yet? If not.. can we talk Oh and btw - Is there a PCW club in or near the RM SS or CM postal areas? Beth Beth@gates.demon.co.uk
Amstrad answers: How about the South Essex PCW club? You can reach a gentleman called David Lalieu on 01702 551618 (his postcode is SS7 1RD - that's Thundersley). I picked this gem from the "Club scene" page in the latest issue of "PCW Today" magazine.

Ian MItchell in Kent England at 20:52:1 Tuesday March 17 98
Following my last enquiry (10/2/98)relating to overiding the BIOS setup password on an Integra, I am waiting with bated breath for your visit to your parents house, where the exact detailds of this proceedure is held. Ican only assume that you have forgotten, or you dont get to see your parents much! I have tried in vain to reset the bios and the best i could see was a jumper marked "normal/clear" on jp6. Regards Ian
Amstrad answers: And? What happened when you put the jumper on JP6 to clear the CMOS - did that not work for you? With any luck I'm going to be able to get a look at that manual tonight so I'll update this if there's anything more to it than just putting the link on JP6 for a few minutes to clear the CMOS.

Later: I have now had a read through the Integra manual and for the 486 based Integra it is jumper 49 while for the Pentium based Integra it is jumper 6. All you do is with the machin switched off put a jumper across 6/49 for a short while so that the CMOS battery is temporarily disconnected and it will loose it's current contents. Remove the jumper then restart the system. It should now let you set the values in the BIOS as if brand new.

GOLDING in barnstaple 01271 372208 at 9:49:9 Tuesday March 17 98
PCW 6. CAN AN EXRENAL HARD DISK BE ATTACHED. CAN YOU SUPPLY A COPY OF OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR A DOUBLE DECKER VIDOE. I HAVE LOST MINE
Amstrad answers: Did your CAPS LOCK key get stuck? Normally text written all in upper case is the internet way of SHOUTING AT SOMEONE! I presume you meant PcW16, not PCW6? If that's the case then the answer is no, a hard disk cannot be attached (although it does actually include component sites to be upgraded with an IDE interface but it would also need an operating system update and that has not been developed to support a hard disk yet (and probably never will be).
To get the manual for any Amstrad product such as that double deck video you should contact www.cpc.co.uk.

Anon at 13:55:3 Sunday March 15 98

Amstrad answers: So good - he said it twice!

Anon at 13:55:3 Sunday March 15 98

ray in uk at 20:55:26 Saturday March 14 98
Can I download a system disk for an amstrad pc3086 1990 v1.2 640k if so where? please help
Amstrad answers: Nope, I'm afraid not because a) I don't have a copy to upload and b) even if I did there'd be very little point as the machine is just a bog standard PC and the system disk is just a standard copy of MS-DOS 3.3 anyway. If I were you I'd get a copy of a better version of DOS such as the latest MS-DOS 6.22 and use that. The only proviso is that it MUST be on a 720K disc. Not a 1.44MB one.
Having said that, for completeness, if anyone out there reading this has a "real" 3086 system disc then I'd really appreciate it if I could have a copy - email me and I'll arrange how to get it from you.

Niall Brady in dublin, Ireland at 10:16:6 Thursday March 12 98
My friend now owns my old amstrad 2386 but lateley the hard drive has kicked the bucket. I got hold of an adaptec 1542b scsi card and 535 mb hard drive which work fine on a 486 but when i put it into the Amstrad nothing happens (the scsi hd spins up, the adaptec card led flashes on then off but no adaptec bios messages on screen). Any ideas ??????
Amstrad answers: BTDTWTTS (Been There, Done That, Worn That T Shirt!). Back in the mists of time Microsoft decided that they'd issue all copies of MS-DOS and Windows to PC manufacturers on tape cartridges so I bought a SCSI tape drive and an Adaptec 1542 SCSI card to use on my own 2386. I tried everything under the sun but never managed to make the Adaptec card work so I returned it and bought a QIC interface and tape drive that worked first time. The moral of this story is that it probably doesn't matter what you try, you are never going to get that SCSI interface to work in a 2386. Wouldn't it be possible to get an IDE drive and controller which are bound to work?

Tom Donohue in West Yorkshire, England at 19:41:14 Wednesday March 11 98
Help! I have a PC9555i which I bought a couple of years ago, but now, after reformatting my hard disk, I find that I wasn't provided with a CD-ROM driver! I forgot to check this before I reformatted, and now I need to install Windows 95, which I only have on CD. Can you point me in the right direction as to where I could find a CD-ROM driver for the drive (which was installed when I purchased)? There appears to be no reference to where to obtain a driver in the manuals, and the freephone support line is constantly closed! Help!!
Amstrad answers: Unless I'm very much mistaken the CD drive in a 9555 is a Sony CDU-55E (you'd better take the lid off and have a look to check that I'm right). In that case you need to visit - www.sony.com to get the latest driver.

paul twiss in Edinburgh at 9:56:25 Wednesday March 11 98
How can I gethold of a rescue disk for a pcw6 amstrad computer
Amstrad answers: Did you mean PcW16 perchance? If so then you need this 837K file as listed on my file download page..

Chris Ryburn in Sydney, Australia at 10:28:6 Tuesday March 10 98
My son owns a 5286 he picked up at a garage sale. You answered a question for me before and I now have the computer working fine thankyou. However 1 further query. It came with a sound card, which has the numbers Amstrad PLC 1991 and 3100-015p-4 and ssb-3. Question, what is the card, and what drivers should be used
Amstrad answers: Well that card is an Adlib compatible soundcard so you should be able to use the "Adlib" support in either Windows or most DOS based games to drive it but before you get too excited remember that Adlib was the predecessor to SoundBlaster (that is now considered the "standard" for sound cards) and the difference is that Adlib cards only provide FM music synthesis (just like SB) but they don't have digital to analogue and analogue to digital converters so cannot be used, for example, for playing or recording WAV files in Windows. As you can now buy a basic sound card which is fully SB compatible for the price of a four pack of decent beer I'd recommend discarding that old dinosaur and fitting something a little more modern.

Frank Sanders at 13:3:25 Sunday March 8 98
AMSTRAD PEN PAD PDA 600 I had not used my pen pad for a while. The battery's were so low that I had no display. I changed the battery's while the pen pad was still on. I deleted all information. Un top of that I could not calibrate the pen/display right. I could not click the calibrate box at he right lower corner. In an attempt to reset I took out all battery's in the calibration mode, when the pen pad is reset and the first thing asked is to calibrate. Now I can't even trigger anything. It does not respont to my pen anymore. I think that the calibration is of the scale. Can yoou help me? Yours sincerly, Frank Sanders.
Amstrad answers: Sounds a lot like a fault in the digitiser which is the plastic/glass sandwich that overlays the LCD display. It could be as simple as it's four wire cable having come loose from the PCB connector in which case simply disassembling the PDA and re-seating it should fix the problem but if it is actually faulty then there's nothing you can do but replace it. There's a German company that used to stock spar digitisers who may be able to supply a replacement. Have a look at my penpad page for the link.

Allistair Lomax in Fritchley, Derbyshire at 17:55:12 Saturday March 7 98
I have been given a PCW9512, hardly used, very good nick. Problem is the printer. Hammer head, that strikes the daisy wheel, that strikes the ribbon, does not seem to travelling far enough to make an impression on the paper. Some use and lubrication has improved things, but still not enough to make an impression. Will this improve with use or is this a sign of some hardware failure? Would appreciate some help or directions to a suitable FAQ page.
Amstrad answers: The classic way that all PCW daisy wheel printers die in the end is that the striking hammer cracks near it's base (you'll see the micro-crack if the head is partially disassembled). The solution is to access www.cpc.co.uk and order a whole new print head which should then work fine.

John in Buckinghamshire at 22:13:53 Friday March 6 98
I have an INTEGRA P75 which I upgraded to 32meg, runs great now, thanks a million for the TV.zip on file archive as I blitzed the hard drive, only problem is how do I install or detect the TV card ? not sure what it is called and dont have any drivers, also can the CPU be upgraded ? noticed a few jumpers inside.Thanks again.
Amstrad answers: Ah well that's what TV.ZIp is supposed to be for but unfortunately it is currently left as an "easy exercise for the reader" to try and work out what goes where from that .ZIP file. If you PKUNZIP it with the -D option from the root directory it will put most things in the right places but you then have to build your own .LNK files for the Start Menu to invoke the various .EXE files that should then run the TV application just as before. I'm currently trying to come up with at least a better documented (if not automatic) way for people to re-install the software and will shortly update the .ZIP file here so watch the downloads page and when TV.ZIP shows a change in size from the current 450K you'll know that I've updated it. In the meantime it SHOULD be possible to get the stuff going with the current TV.ZIP but you need to fiddle about making .LNK files etc.

Ludwig Guenther at 21:32:17 Thursday March 5 98
I use an Amstrad PC 486 SX . Now it is to fast. I want to take an another Procesor in it . The first Procesor is kaanot be changed but on the topside thei is an empty socket. Can i take their un upgrade or another PC and what jumper must be sat? The Serial NR is 92510154 . The latest numbers from start are UMC 480A-F . Who can help me? thanks Ludwig
Amstrad answers: You said it was a PC486SX but I think you really meant that it is PC4386SX and is, therefore a computer based on the Intel 80386SX processor. It is not possible to remove such a processor and the socket is for a 387SX mathematics co-processor and cannot be used for processor upgrades. However it IS possible to upgrade the processor using a 386 to 486 upgrade that clips on top of the existing 386SX. The only problem is that now that things have moved on to 586-II that kind of upgrade processor is SO old that you probably won't be able to find anyone selling them any more. Probably your best hope would be to try and find one second hand.
As I think you may be German I took the precaution of translating this answer into German (babelfish.altavista.digital.com)...
Sie sagten, es ein PC486SX war, aber ich denke, daß Sie wirklich, daß es PC4386SX ist und ist, folglich ein rechnergestütztes auf dem Prozessor INTELS 80386SX bedeuteten. Es ist nicht möglich, solch einen Prozessor zu l�schen und die Einfaßung ist für einen Co.-Prozessor der Mathematik 387SX und kann nicht für Prozessoraufsteigen verwendet werden. Jedoch IST es möglich, den Prozessor mit einem diesem Aufsteigen 386 bis 486 auszubauen Clips auf das vorhandene 386SX. Das einzige Problem ist daß, nun da Sachen sich an auf 586-II bewogen haben, daß Art des Aufsteigenprozessors SO alt ist, daß Sie vermutlich nicht in der lageSIND, niemand zu finden, sie irgendwie zu verkaufen mehr. Vermutlich würde Ihre beste Hoffnung eine zweite Hand versuchen und finden sollen.

Jamie at 19:39:33 Tuesday March 3 98
Thank you for your help last time with my troublesome hard drive. We took it apart, cleaned it a bit, switched it back on and it worked! Thanks for your help. Now I have got my Amstrad 1640 working again, I wondered whether I could possibly connect it to my Amstrad ALT286 laptop computer, to send files etc. I have many files on the 1640 that I would like to transfer to the ALT286, but the 1640 has a 5.25 floppy drive, and the ALT286 has a 3.5 floppy drive, so I cannot simply copy disks. So I have been alble to send files from another Compaq PC to my laptop using a program called 'PC Fast Linker', which I downloaded off the Net. It needed to use a 'special cable which is known as a parrallel or laplink cable, and connected to the printer ports on each computer. The program did the rest and I could send files to each. I then coupled the cable from my ALT to the 1640, but I had to use laplink as that was the only program I had on 5.25 and 3.5 disks. I was unable to use the 'PC Fast Linker' program as there was no way to put it on the 1640. The laplink program is I think version 2.xx and it does not connecrt the computers. Do I have to get another program or can I use the printer ports in some way on both the 1640 and the ALT to send files etc. Thank you very much for your help last time and i hope you can shed some light on this problem. Thank you in advance. Jamie
Amstrad answers: Well transfer programs don't generally get any better than Laplink but the one that I almost always use (with the same sort of parallel to parallel cable as used by those other programs) is actually built into MS-DOS (versions 5 and 6). It's called Interlink and if you type HELP at the MS-DOS prompt it will tell you all about it. Basically on one machine you run INTERSVR which ties up that computer so that it can't be used for anything else then on the other computer you put a DEVICE=INTERLNK.EXE line into it's Config.Sys file and all of a sudden it has some new drives (D:, E:, etc) which are actually the drives on the other computer then you just use normal sort of DOS-like COPY and XCOPY commands to copy files between the two machines. It really is very simple and works very well. 'Course this does mean that you are going to need to get a copy of DOS 6 on both 3.5" and 5.25" disks.

Bob Leslie in Weymouth at 9:39:42 Tuesday March 3 98
I have resurrected my PC1512 (upgraded to 640k) but bootup has stopped at the keyboard check level. I no longer have the original Amstrad keyboard and have used a Key tronic KB102UK Professional Series, which is an AT class 102 keyboard upgrade provided by Ceratech Electronics Ltd. Since then, the keyboard has been used on another machine and the switches changed accordingly. I have lost the Keytronic manual so cannot reset the switches on the keyboard to the correct settings for Amstrad use. Ceratech do not hold out much hope of getting the correct information from Keytronic; Keytronic's website is at best basic; so before I go to the trial and error stage and put my PC1512 under the stress of successive boots, I wondered whether you might be able to help. Enjoyed very much reading the information on your site, but was unable to find the information I wanted. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Amstrad answers: I've never heard of that make of keyboard so I fear that you will either have to go for the repeated reboots or try and contact Keytronic.

Jamie at 13:53:58 Sunday March 1 98
I have a Amstrad 1640 When I boot up it says: "Hard Disk drive not ready" I have replaced the batteries, run the "NVR" program but to no avail. Is it a hardware fault? Please can someone help me? Thankyou in advance.
Amstrad answers: Bad news I'm afraid, it's a hardware fault. A lot of people don't remember this but back in the PC XT days machines like the 1640 did not keep hard disk details in NVR/CMOS. Every hard disc had a matched controller which had it's own on-board BIOS so there was no configuration necessary. You just plugged in, switched on and it always worked. If you plug in and switch on and it doesn't work then it implies a hardware fault. Suggest checking all cables (inc. power) to the controller and mechanism and make sure that the controller card is well seated and that it's contacts look clean. Also note whether the drive sounds like it is spinning up to speed and the head moves OK (it will do all that and make th approrpriate noises when power is applied even if the cables/controller are faulty). If you don't hear the right noises then its probably the mechanism that is at fault.

Lewine Rush in Surrey at 11:13:3 Friday February 27 98
PC2386/65. The Hard Disk has been Low Level Formatted is there anything I can do to get it to keep a normal DOS Format now
Amstrad answers: Sure, a low level format is just the first step in the normal preparation of a hard disk. The complete process is to
a) perform an LLF,
b) re-enter the entries from the bad track table,
c) run FDISK,
d) create a primary DOS partition,
e) if not the entire disc then mark it active and then create an extended partition and logical drives,
f) exit FDISk which will reboot,
g) FORMAT C: /S to DOS level format it and put the MS-DOS bootable system files on it.
So far you have completed a) and just need to do b)..g)

Anon in Lancaster, Lancashire, England at 10:32:58 Tuesday February 24 98
I have an Amstrad NotePad (NC100). The lithium battery only seems to last a couple of weeks, not 5 years as manual suggests. I always have the NotePad connected to its mains adaptor & a Canon BJ30 printer, both switched off on the machines, but with the socket switches on (because they're difficult to reach). Am I doing something wrong or is the NotePad dying? I hope it's something easy to resolve ....
Amstrad answers: Unfortunately NC100s are notorious for the clip that holds the lithium battery in place to be loose causing spurious "lithium battery low" messages. It almost certainly isn't low and it just needs you to remove it, bend those central "wings" upwards a bit and that "arm" that comes in from the side in towards the centre so both take a firmer hold of the battery. In 99 cases out of 100 that will solve the problem you are seeing.
However, It is just vaguely possible that there is a fault with the static RAM in your NC so that it is draining milliamps rather than microamps while in standby which would quickly deplete a lithium battery. If, after bending the contacts, the problem persists then you'll need to get it looked at by an engineer and ask him to try and measure the standby current drain from the lithium. It should be of the order of about 50-100uA. One thing you should definitely do is disconnect the PSU and printer when the machine is switched off as either could be causing a high level of drain from the lithium. Again an engineer with a multimeter could probably identify if this were the case and which thing was the problem.

Az Mohammed in Newcastle upon Tyne at 8:30:46 Tuesday February 24 98
I have a Betacom Choras 5000 tel/ansa machine. I have lost the instructions and it is now doing a funny thing. The green LED for indicating the ansa phone is set is now flashing and I cannot seem to get it to stop flashing. When someone calls it plays a very small part of the OGM then cuts off. I have tried disconnecting the power, pressing all buttons etc without success. Any help appreciated as I am losing a lot of calls.
Amstrad answers: Sorry but I don't know a whole lot about TV, VCR, satellite, fax, telephone products. For questions about those things I'm afraid you have to resort to phone, fax or snail mail to the address/numbers shown here. In your case mark it "FAO: Betacom telephone support".

George (Butcher) Hardcase in /room at 16:40:50 Monday February 23 98
Why did you find me guilty last week? I'm gonna have you when I get out. GBH
Amstrad answers: Yoiks!

James Garber in Darlington at 13:28:3 Monday February 23 98
Dear Mr Lawson, I recently bought a PCW16 from my local branch of Dixons. I was wondering whether there are any commercial magazines available that could possibly provide me with some support for the machine ( as I am having trouble getting to grips with it). I have scoured my local branch of WHsmith's but have not yet been able to find a magazine specifically fro the PCW. Can you help? Yours faithfully James Garber.
Amstrad answers: Unfortunately an ironic twist of fate meant that the one remaining PCW magazine (PCW Plus) printed it's very last copy in November 96, the exact same month that the PcW16 became available. However all is not lost as the following excerpt from the "Questions & Answers" document on the supplied OS Rescue Disc shows...

Q: Is there a magazine specifically for the PcW16?
 A: Unfortunately there is no longer a magazine available in the high
 street dedicated to the PCW but there are a few independent Amstrad
 user groups who produce  club magazines that have information relating
 to the PcW16 and other Amstrad computers.  Contact details are as
 follows:

 PCW Today
 150 Oxford Road
 Middlesborough
 Teesside
 TS5 5EL					  Tel: 01642 816903

 8 Bit
 Harrowden
 39 Hight Street
 Sutton-in-the-Isle
 Ely
 Cambs.
 CB6 2RA					  Tel: 01353 777006

 The Disc Drive
 10 Sheridan Avenue
 Thundersley
 Essex
 SS7 1RD					 Tel: 01702 551618

 In addition to these national support groups there are a number of
 local user groups for PCWs. You will find lists of these in the above
 publications.

Also it is well worth looking at the news:comp.sys.amstrad.8bit newsgroup as there is a lot of PCW oriented chatter there.

Ampon Chumpia in Brisbane, Australia at 5:29:23 Monday February 23 98
Dear Cliff, I have an old XT (PC3086) which I am now using to teach myself 8086/8088 assembly language. I read your answer to Peter Warr (October 3 97) and learnt that you can change the 720k 3.5"FDD to 1.44M if you have a program DEVICE.COM. My question is where can I get a copy of this program? Do you have it in your archive which I can make a copy of? I also have some other questions:
1. What is the use of the female DB9 on the lower left corner of the front panel (adjacent to the volume control)?
2. The machine I own comes with 31M Western Digital HD. Can I change this to a bigger IDE drive? If yes, what is the procedure?
3. Can you change the 360K FDD to the 1.2M?
Amstrad answers: I have had a hunt through my hard and floppy disks but I'm afraid I'm unable to locate a copy of the 3086 DEVICE program so if anyone reading this has a 3086 can they PLEASE email a copy to me! In answer to the other questions:
1. That D9 is for connection of an "Amstrad" mouse. If you don't have one then don't worry (it was pretty awful anyway) you can just connect a bog standard serial mouse to COM1 and it should only cost about a fiver.
2. Sure you can add a different hard disk but because the machine is an XT not an AT type of computer you will have to replace both the mechanism AND the controller. To use IDE drives you are going to need to locate an ISA 8-bit IDE interface card which could be tricky as they are rarer than rocking horse droppings.
3. Nope the 5.25" cannot be a 1.2MB as the data separator in the FDC doesn't have a fast enough data rate.

Klaus Debel-Hansen in Denmark at 12:45:11 Saturday February 21 98
Hello. 3 years ago I bought a Amstrad Notepad NC 100 computer, and last summer I started to study on Aalborg University of Denmark, so now I need to transfer text-files from from Nc 100 to my Pentium PC. In owners manual is the program Protext mentioned, but where can I get it?? I can't find it on the internet. Thanks for help, Klaus Debel-Hansen
Amstrad answers: I think you are confused. "Protext" is the name of the wordprocessing program that is built into the NC100. You already have a copy of that! I think the thing you probably mean is called "Lapcat" and that is a parallel transfer cable+software but it is no longer available as the company who produced it, Arnor, have gone out of business. However all is not lost as you can just use a standard serial "null modem cable" to do serial transfers between the NC and a PC as described starting on page 102 of the NC100 manual.

Frank Woolrich in Hull, UK at 9:17:58 Friday February 20 98
I have a Amstrad SVGA Monitor (Model PC14M39) and I have a Video card That can have higher resolutions upto 1024x786 but i need to know what The refresh Rates are for this monitor, I did a web search for this product But no luck in finding it. could you help (Either a web page that has details on this product or the refresh rates for 1024x786 as well as 800x600.
Amstrad answers: 'Fraid that I don't think anyone here ever knew the refresh rates of those monitors. They were just bought in to be compatible with the VGA cards in the PCs that we originally shipped them with and unless the manuals shipped with them happens to mention the refresh rate then I fear it is an unknown. Personally I use UniVBE from Scitechsoft that allows one to just fiddle your VGA card output to any refresh rate you choose until you get a steady picture output on the monitor you are using.

Simon Mighall in England at 11:47:57 Thursday February 19 98
Is there any way I can convert my old files written on a PCW to enable them to read in Word on a PC
Amstrad answers: "Locolink" from www.locomotive.com does all that and more.

Michael Damm in Bremerhaven, Germany at 14:53:58 Tuesday February 17 98
Hy Cliff and all others, I am using an NC100 for automatic data aquisition with external hardware at printer and serial port. To reduce the power consumtion I am looking for a basic procedure which is able to set a new alarm time and then let the NC asleep. If the alarm occurs the basic programm should run for a while until the procedure let it asleep again. Is it possible and who can give me tips about?
Amstrad answers: Well there is a firmware routine called padsetalarm that is documented here that you can use to set an alarm that will wake the NC out of standby but at first glance I can't see a routine to force it into standby but I guess you could just rely on the timed power off. To call padsetalarm you are going to need to get into a bit of Z80 assembler but this could be POKEd into memory and CALLed from the BASIC program.

S.J. Hannahs in Durham, England at 11:59:13 Tuesday February 17 98
Dear Cliff, I've read through stacks of your questions and answers and am really impressed with the quality of interaction. Thanks. My question is this: I have a PC3286 (v2.1) that I can't boot up. It was working fine till the other day. While reviewing the Setup options I inadvertantly made the hard drive invisible (by specifying something other than 17...). Thinking I'd just boot up from a system disk in a:, I tried that and got the message 'Non-System disk or disk error Replace and strike any key when ready'. Although the a: drive had been working perfectly before, I got the same error message with three different system disks, including the originals that came with the 286 (all the disks were readable on another machine, so it doesn't look like faulty disks). Having run out of ideas before opening up the case and seeing if anything was loose, I tried one last time with a system disk I'd created on my Pentium at work, running DOS 6.22 (the other disks were older versions of DOS, 3.1 and 4.0). This time, instead of getting the 'non-system disk' message I got 'Starting MS-DOS...', I held my breath, and nothing further happened. I tried it a couple more times with the same result. Any suggestions you could give would be *very* much appreciated. Many thanks! S.J. Hannahs
Amstrad answers: Well whatever you do with the CMOS it isn't possible to get the floppy into a situation where it can't boot a DOS disk so I think the only possible explanation is that the floppy mechanism really is physically faulty. Is it possible for you to "borrow" a floppy mechanism from some other PC and test that out. If a replacement drive DOES work then obviously it confirms that the existing one has a physical fault and must be replaced.

Darren Lawton in Uk, Middlesbrough at 15:23:43 Monday February 16 98
I have an old monitor from a Amstrad 1512. Is there an adaptor avaidable for me to use this in a modern system (486) ?
Amstrad answers: Well I don't think you are going to like this answer but there IS an adaptor you can get for your 486 that will allow it to drive the 1512 monitor. It is called a Color Graphics Adaptor and is more normally referred to as CGA. It was the very first graphics adaptor fitted to the IBM PC when it was launched in 1984. The resolutions it supports are either 320x200 in four colours or 640x200 in two colours. It can never display more than 200 scan lines (and the 1512 monitor, because it is CGA compatible also has this limitation). It cannot even show the EGA 640x350 in sixteen colour modes and the VGA 640x480 in sixteen colours is more than double the maximum resolutuion it can display. If you could still find a CGA card and fit it to your 486 then be warned that you will only be able to use MS-DOS or one of the very earliest versions of Windows. Windows 3.1 requires a minimum of EGA and I think Windows 95 needs a minimum of VGA. One other thing you may be interested to know is that a 1512 monitor is only worth about £5 so I'd use it as a doorstop and the money you might have used to buy a doorstop can then be used to buy a VGA monitor. You can pick up bottom end, second hand VGA monitors for as little as £10-20 at junk shops and computer auctions, etc.

Paul Foyle in London, England at 22:26:29 Sunday February 15 98
Congrats on your excellent work here Cliff. I have looked (not exhaustively) but here's my unanswered Q's.
1 Is there a disk prog that will work with the PPC640 to send faxes, or send/get email.
2 It would make it very easy if you could put a search facility on these Q&A'a. I know it would take some doing, but I think it would be v useful. Thanks. Paul.
Amstrad answers: 1. Well the PPC is just a bog standard IBM compatible PC that runs MS-DOS so any fax/email program that you can get that is DOS based (and would run from a single 720K floppy) will work with the PPC. It's internal modem is data only so you'd need to add an external fax modem if you want to do fax as well. (I have a feeling you may have a job finding a DOS based fax program, they all tend to be designed for Windows and there's now way you could run that on a PPC). For email there are definitely DOS based TCP/IP and PPP stacks available that will allow you to connect to the internet, then you'll need a DOS based email program that can do SMTP and POP�. For that I don't think you'll find a better program than the DOS based Pegasus mail (aka Pmail).
2. Well great minds think alike, As the amount of data here is getting a bit large even I forget which file things are in and I wrote it all! I have wondered how I could add some sort of search facility as it's the first thing I always use when I visit other's sites. The problem is that searching involves running CGI scripts on the web server's machine and UKOnline who host this site do not provide that facility so the best I can hope for is better indexing and mapping of the pages which IS something that I'm working on. My first task is building a structured index of all these questions and answers but it's proving to be a much longer job than I had first envisaged!

M.Alejandro Pacheco at 17:22:36 Thursday February 12 98
I've got a problem with my 80386 SX 20 MHZ when I put in a OAK VGA adapter with 1MB memory. There appear an error message: Faulty memory (parity error) What can i do?
Amstrad answers: Well that message is pretty self explanatory. It means there is a fault with teh memory. Often this is just caused because the chips/SIMMs are loose in their sockets (which is often exacerbated if you were inside pushing VGA cards into slots). Just try re-seating the memory in it's slots - perhaps also cleaning the contacts. If all else fails, SIMM memory is so cheap these days that I'd consider replacing the existing memory with a larger quantity of modern SIMM.

Peter Lunn in Bournemouth (but e-mailed from Salisbury) at 12:35:40 Thursday February 12 98
I have a friend, an 80-year old lady, who has one of the early Amstrad dedicted word-processors with dual 3" floppy drives. The machine is sadly on it's last legs. She would like to buy one of the latest Amstrad word-processing machines with 3�" drive but doesn't want to lose many valuable years work saved on her 3" floppies. Is there any way of copying these easily? Also, does the latest WP software support the earlier document format? Finally, she may possibly considering changing to a PC (sorry!) although another Amstrad is her preferred option. Is there any way her WP data can be copied into a suitable ASCII or similar format? Thanks in anticipation of your help?
Amstrad answers: I guess you'll be pleased to hear that the very latest word processing machine (the PcW16) can happily understand old documents from the previous PCW models so that won't be a problem. The only problem you face is, of course, that your existing stuff is on 3" discs while the modern computer has a 3.5" disc drive but fear not, we have catered for that as well. There is a cable and piece of software called Locolink that is available from www.locomotive.com that you can easily use to connect the old and new PCWs together (the new PcW16 already has the supporting software built in) and when this is used the new PcW16 can treat the 3" drives in the old PCW just as if they were directly connected to the PcW16. At the present Dixons are selling the PcW16 for £130 which is a lot less than the £900 that a PC would cost but if she goes for a PC then help is at hand for that too as there is also a version of Locolink from Locomotive to wire a PCW and PC together and it will copy across the documents and even convert them into one of several popular PC word processor formats so that you even retain some of the formatting information - it's not necessary to drop back to ASCII which would mean losing most of the formatting.

kuntz at 9:27:52 Thursday February 12 98
I should like use amstrad 2086 monitor on a pentium (hold) 66MHz system; but the connection it's different on my video board .Can I find a adapter? if not Can I do-it
Amstrad answers: I'm afraid I haven't got the first idea what you are talking about. The 2086 monitor is a totally standard VGA monitor with the normal 15 pin D connector that will fit every VGA card ever made. I can only assume that the video adapter in your Pentium is not a VGA card (which seems extraordinarily unlikely in this day and age) but if it is a CGA, EGA or MD adapter then maybe it just has a 9 pin D connector. In that case you are going to need to by a CGA, EGA or MD monitor as a VGA monitor cannot be used on those old fashioned types of video adapter.

George in uk at 22:17:27 Wednesday February 11 98
First thanxs very much for the advice and I have done that and it has set all dos and win 3.1 but I do have any other prob if you could help there is no mouse and it says it is not "installed" how do I go about this one ?? thanxs (I does have a mouse)???
Amstrad answers: You didn't actually say which model of 386 it is that you have. I'm taking a wild guess that it may be a 2386 and in that case it may suffer from the standard mouse problem that is described here along with the solution.

george at 1:41:15 Wednesday February 11 98
My niece has a 386 amstrad but has formated the c drive and wants to put windows 3.11 on it. It did have it on it before she has got the windows start up discs but that is it what does she need to reset her computer(dos system dics???) Please reply in lay mans terms tearms because i and not that clued up on these things nor is she!!!! If you could pint us in the right direction? I'm soory I havn't got any mors info on poter please advise on right plan on action. thanxs jackruss (George big uncle)
Amstrad answers: When the PC was purchased it should have come with some "System discs" that are floppy disks containing a copy of MS-DOS. You need to locate those disks or get a "bootable" copy of MS-DOS off a friend or from a local computer store and insert that disk into the PC and switch on. MS-DOS should load and you'll finally see a prompt that looks like A:\> where you should first type SYS C: followed by MD C:\DOS and then Copy *.* C:\DOS and repeat the COPY command for each disc in the set. Now the computer will have MS-DOS on the hard disk so you should be able to remove the floppies, switch off and then on again and MS-DOS should load from the hard disk and display a C:\> prompt. You can now insert the first Windows 3.11 disk and give the command A:\Setup which will start the process to install Windows. If none of this makes sense or you try it and it doesn't work then I'm afraid you probably need to call in someone who can either do it for you or watch over your shoulder while you do it. I've found that children between the ages of 10 and 16 are probably best for this sort of thing!! (Sad but true).

Ian Mitcell in Kent England at 21:54:25 Tuesday February 10 98
I have an Amstrad Integra that I bought second hand, the 3.5 inch floppy drive does not work and the bios is password protected. It is running W95 and in device manager it shows the floppy drive controller as not working but with no conflicts. I have removed it from device manager and with all expantion slots emptied rebooted. If i place a disc in the A drive even at boot up, despite the drive activting no message appears with "inset boot disc" as would normally be expected. I have swapped the A drive and ribbon with no sucess. Is their a bypass to the bios password by means of a jumper? Can you help "Brains"? (well you started playing thunderbird theme music) Regards Ian Mitchell
Amstrad answers: Well, Gee Mr Tracy, I-I-I don't know...
If you undo those two knurled screws at the back of the Integra and whip out the system tray you may be surprised to find that it's actually a pretty "bog standard" sort of AT motherboard in there (though there is that bit of jiggery pokery that feeds the VGA output into the telly card). However one common feature to most of our PC motherboards is that there is a jumper near the CMOS chip that can be made to clear the CMOS. I don't have exact details to hand but on virtually all our other PC motherboards this is somewhere in the top right and has a legend silk screened onto the PCB. The idea is that you just make the jumper for a few minutes to clear the CMOS contents which should then get rid of the password. One of the BIOS settings (that I always have set on most of my PCs) is "Boot sequence" that can be set to the traditional "A: then C:" or, to my mind, the far more useful "C: then A:" or even "just C:". My guess is that the previous user has it set to one of those C: first options but you obviously can't check/change this until you can "get into" the BIOS. One thing you could do to check that the floppy drive is actually a goer even before resetting the BIOS is to take the IDE cable off the HD.

Back to the main Questions page
Back to latest Questions & Answers page
Back to the Amstrad home page