ooooh nice things!
I will also order the MegaED-pro tomorrow when the black friday discount will be in effect 😁

Ok 😀 I've scanned the Techinical Manual but realised its too big to attach here (Its 18MB, limit is 5MB). I can do the other two in the coming days.. just wondering how I can get them on here...

@Dioxaz, Would you like to add them to your archive?

@Zalog, Wow! That looks brill! I have an X5 but want a Pro one day 😀 Super easy way to play MCD games on the Mega PC!

BTW, I was thinking of the list you have of currently known Mega PC's in the wild... And thought it might be a good Idea to have some kind of portal to register them... a bit like the one for VIC20 computers... and maybe have all the awesome stuff here collected too, like a Mega resource for this quirky little beast 😀

If anyone is interested there is actually a Mega PC on ebay right now, complete with original monitor

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amstrad-Mega-PC-38 … A8AAOSwQPtfvDRA

Ok, I uploaded the three Manuals to Google Drive Here..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QFURp8tH2Nvj … iew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z3VVaAkS4IgL … iew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WBUcOjex5Yx_ … iew?usp=sharing

phipscube wrote on 2020-11-30, 20:59:

Ok, I uploaded the three Manuals to Google Drive Here.. […]
Show full quote

Ok, I uploaded the three Manuals to Google Drive Here..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QFURp8tH2Nvj … iew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z3VVaAkS4IgL … iew?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WBUcOjex5Yx_ … iew?usp=sharing

thanks for these uploads!!!!!

I've been working quite a bit on my Mega PC the last few weeks trying to repair the damage to my board and get my floppy drive working..

Here's what I found under the Floppy header

After some cleaning I managed to trace all tracks and repair 3 broken VIA's with small pieces of wire, then I took off the HDD header..

It had 1 VIA that was broken too which I repaired.. taking off the caps and ext batt header revealed more mess, this was mainly electrolyte gunk but a small bit of acid residue too, luckily no damage

This is it all repaired ready for new components

And finally all finished with a new Battery (Its an Amigakit adapter with a Diode inline)

It all works great now, no need to reset the BIOS all the time, and I can finally use floppy disks 😀

Good work! 😁👍

@Phipscube
Great work on repairing that machine!
I'm interested in the coin battery holder and whether it's safe to leave the battery in place long term within the case. I removed the old leaky battery which fortunately hadn't done too much damage but have been paranoid about leakage as a result. I've been using a little battery holder that takes 3 AAA batteries and connects to the ext.battery pins on the board without soldering (next to the IDE cable attachment) as per photo. It's ok but I don't like the way I'm having to mismount the ISA cover to thread the cable outside the case just to keep the batteries away from the board so if it's safe to mount them long term within the case as you've done I'd be interested?

On a totally different topic; I wanted to be able to mount the original hard drive and my new CF card in IDE adapter simultaneously just once so I could copy off everything on the old drive for posterity. Both work fine on a single IDE cable on their own but I've had no luck at all trying to get them both online simultaneously with a single IDE cable with master and slave mount points despite pretty much exhausting all the BIOS settings. Am I missing something? Any other methods I can try?

Finally, I'm pretty much ready to reassemble the machine but I've been leaving my case open for a while as I've really enjoyed being able to easily extract the CF card, mount it on my PC and copy DOS files over quickly en masse. I know I'll find it annoying when I'm back to transferring files via floppy disk. Has anyone tried any of the gotek USB floppy drive emulators in the machine or found any other ways to migrate large numbers of DOS files?

@smsdave, the CR2032 is removable so if I decide to ever put my Mega PC in storage i'll just take it out. The diode protects it from being charged whilst running so no danger there either. I had to modify the adapter from Amigakit.com and add a wire to make it fit. Its a nice solution overall, i'd recommend it if you get fed up with the battery box.

I've also had problems with Master/Slave on the IDE... I think the best solution for now is to get an XTIDE or get a CF to IDE adapter that can sit in the spare ISA bay for easy removal and copying from another PC.

Thanks for the tips. I've ordered this XT-CF-Lite v4 card pre-built off ebay so hopefully that'll solve the easy CF access I'm looking for and allow me to copy off the hard drive contents (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313319542874).

I've also ordered the CR2032 battery adapter, do you have any photos more details of the modification you ended up making so I can follow what you did?

@smsdave,

That XT-IDE will do the trick 😀

I took out the two positive pins and soldered a wire to one of the vias... the negative pin solder directly into the farthest of the two points on the Mega PC mainboard, on a slight angle like I have. Put some tape under to avoid shorts. Then solder the wire into the positive point. The battery holder will then just rest nicely in place.

Make sure you can plug your floppy cable in before you finish, if its too close you can heat up the negative point again and twist it a bit

keropi wrote on 2020-09-28, 10:11:

Allright I spent some time on this patch wire so here's my take on this […]
Show full quote

Allright I spent some time on this patch wire so here's my take on this

first of all this is the alternative point in case someone prefers to solder directly to the chipset:

This is the connection for the cpu pin#31 (amstrad's way is also ok since you get more room to make a nice solder connection)

Patch wire goes under the nearby resistor networks and under the kbc socket - with a couple of hotglue blobs to secure it

kbc connection like this

overal

hope the pics help someone in the future 😀

okay, you are the bomb. I think this is exactly why my first attempt at CPU upgrading my NEC SX/20vi failed. it shares the exact same chipset with the Mega PC. I wonder if this is exactly why the snap-on Cyrix I have doesn't let the machine POST. the CPU bus is completely lifeless as-per an ISA diagnostic readout I have... so if that's the case...

phipscube wrote on 2020-11-30, 20:59:

Ok, I uploaded the three Manuals to Google Drive Here..

Just wanted to say a HUGE thanks for posting those manuals. I just bought an Amstrad PC7486SLC33 (would love a Mega-PC but the chances of that in Australia are slim, I know!) and these will really come in handy.

I see you have the ADT desktop software running... where did you find that? Are there disk images anywhere online that you know of?

I have some backed-up software floppies for the Amstrad PC7586 but the drivers disks with the cache utility isn't included; like you, I have been looking for them! I do have the VGA driver disks and AMStart Windows 3.x frontend (different from ADT), though.

Banjo wrote on 2021-03-18, 05:57:

Just wanted to say a HUGE thanks for posting those manuals. I just bought an Amstrad PC7486SLC33 (would love a Mega-PC but the c […]
Show full quote

phipscube wrote on 2020-11-30, 20:59:

Ok, I uploaded the three Manuals to Google Drive Here..

Just wanted to say a HUGE thanks for posting those manuals. I just bought an Amstrad PC7486SLC33 (would love a Mega-PC but the chances of that in Australia are slim, I know!) and these will really come in handy.

I see you have the ADT desktop software running... where did you find that? Are there disk images anywhere online that you know of?

I have some backed-up software floppies for the Amstrad PC7586 but the drivers disks with the cache utility isn't included; like you, I have been looking for them! I do have the VGA driver disks and AMStart Windows 3.x frontend (different from ADT), though.

Hi and welcome 😊,

Always good to meet another amstrad owner - a batch of mega-pc's were sent to Australia in 1993, thus your chances of finding one are better than some parts of the world, so keep your eyes peeled you never know, you might find one!

I assume by ADT desktop, you mean counterpoint? If so a copy of it, kindly uploaded by Dioxaz, can be found here http://dioxaz.free.fr/download/index.php?dir= … egapc%2Fsoft%2F

I haven't seen a disk image of the win3.x Amstart front end on any archive, would you be willing to make a copy and post it here so it could be archived for posterity ?

I am pretty sure Banjo is referring to the "Amstrad Desktop" that gui (if it can be called that since it's just date/time/launcher for counterpoint and user guide for the system)

https://www.mediafire.com/file/1e3s1eld5we55t … ftware.rar/file

I luckily found it installed in the pictured mega-pc hard disk, AFAIK there is no installation media for this and it just came pre-installed in hard disks.
People were looking for it for years apparently and noone was willing to share but this has been fixed 😉

keropi wrote on 2021-03-18, 07:51:

I am pretty sure Banjo is referring to the "Amstrad Desktop" that gui (if it can be called that since it's just date/time/launch […]
Show full quote

I am pretty sure Banjo is referring to the "Amstrad Desktop" that gui (if it can be called that since it's just date/time/launcher for counterpoint and user guide for the system)
https://www.mediafire.com/file/1e3s1eld5we55t … ftware.rar/file

I found it installed in a mega-pc hard disk, AFAIK there is no installation media for this and it just came pre-installed in hard disks.
People were looking for it for years apparently and noone was willing to share but this has been fixed 😉

Thanks! Yes, that's the thing I was asking about. Someone kindly shared that same file with me a couple of years ago since *I* was one of those looking for it for years! I intend to post it to my blog but was waiting until I had time to offer an alternate version I've made which includes floppy images with an installer that works on a real machine.

I was obviously hoping for original disk images but from what you say, those might not ever have existed!

Incidentally, my first PC was an Amstrad PC1512, my second a PC5286. Both are no longer working, sadly, but I finally took the plunge and bought a PPC640 (luggable version of the 1512/1640 XT) in great condition last week, and have also bought (still on the way) the Amstrad PC7486SLC33 that I mentioned, which from what I gather is pretty much a Mega-PC 486 but without the Megadrive parts (or sound card, but I've also ordered a Vibra16 to stick in the machine when it arrives).

Anyone who's seen my blog or my various posts will know I'm still a big Amstrad PC fan, especially since info on them is quite rare (compared to the CPC). 😀

Zalog wrote on 2021-03-18, 07:29:

Hi and welcome 😊, […]
Show full quote

Hi and welcome 😊,

Always good to meet another amstrad owner - a batch of mega-pc's were sent to Australia in 1993, thus your chances of finding one are better than some parts of the world, so keep your eyes peeled you never know, you might find one!

I assume by ADT desktop, you mean counterpoint? If so a copy of it, kindly uploaded by Dioxaz, can be found here http://dioxaz.free.fr/download/index.php?dir= … egapc%2Fsoft%2F

I haven't seen a disk image of the win3.x Amstart front end on any archive, would you be willing to make a copy and post it here so it could be archived for posterity ?

Hi and thanks!

I recently joined the Amstrad Facebook group; to be honest I dislike Facebook and don't normally use it, but I made the exception for this as there are a lot of great people and files there!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/707186099733243
Check out the google drive links there!

Nobody I know has the proper installation media for AMstart (which presumably came on the same disks as Win 3.x when shipped by Amstrad, as I know they did this with Win 2.x that I *do* have floppy images of; see my blog above) but somebody did share their backup floppies here which contains the simple AMstart "addon" that works with Windows 3.11 but (like the above archive of ADT) lacks a proper installer; they're just a backup. I am actually making one this week (a custom floppy image) though for use on a real machine and plan to post it to my blog when done.

Banjo wrote on 2021-03-18, 08:07:

Thanks! yes, that's the thing I was asking about. Someone kindly shared that same file with me awhile back since *I* was one of those looking for it for years! I intend to post it to my blog but was waiting until I had time to offer an alternate version I've made which includes floppy images with an installer that works on a real machine.

I was obviously hoping for original disk images but from what you say, those might not ever have existed!

hah!
what a small world, it was me that contacted you about it following clues from your blog and another forum 🤣
Indeed the pre-installed information seems to be correct - I have spent quite some time looking at what originally came bundled with the system and ADT was never in sight....
This is why it was so easily lost - or plainly not shared to hold up some imaginary "value" among collectors... it was the same bs like the bios of the 486slc upgraded motherboard, people think it's valuable or something 🤣

keropi wrote on 2021-03-18, 08:14:

hah! what a small world, it was me that contacted you about it following clues from your blog and another forum LOL Indeed the p […]
Show full quote

Banjo wrote on 2021-03-18, 08:07:

Thanks! yes, that's the thing I was asking about. Someone kindly shared that same file with me awhile back since *I* was one of those looking for it for years! I intend to post it to my blog but was waiting until I had time to offer an alternate version I've made which includes floppy images with an installer that works on a real machine.

I was obviously hoping for original disk images but from what you say, those might not ever have existed!

hah!
what a small world, it was me that contacted you about it following clues from your blog and another forum 🤣
Indeed the pre-installed information seems to be correct - I have spent quite some time looking at what originally came bundled with the system and ADT was never in sight....
This is why it was so easily lost - or plainly not shared to hold up some imaginary "value" among collectors... it was the same bs like the bios of the 486slc upgraded motherboard, people think it's valuable or something 🤣

As I was typing that, I suddenly thought "I remember the name, I think it was the same person!" 🤣! Huge thanks again for that!

Speaking of BIOSes, after years I finally found someone who could dump the bios of the PC5286 for me since mine is dead (I will gladly share and post them too), so now I can finally pester the PCem community to add it for emulation. I fully intend to dump the bios of my PC7486SLC33 when it arrives too, for posterity and perhaps future emulation as well. 😉

EDIT: Wait... I just read your signature with that "want to buy" link... small world indeed! I used those pics as reference when buying the machine that's now on its way to me!

keropi wrote on 2021-03-18, 07:51:

I am pretty sure Banjo is referring to the "Amstrad Desktop" that gui (if it can be called that since it's just date/time/launch […]
Show full quote

I am pretty sure Banjo is referring to the "Amstrad Desktop" that gui (if it can be called that since it's just date/time/launcher for counterpoint and user guide for the system)

https://www.mediafire.com/file/1e3s1eld5we55t … ftware.rar/file

I luckily found it installed in the pictured mega-pc hard disk, AFAIK there is no installation media for this and it just came pre-installed in hard disks.
People were looking for it for years apparently and noone was willing to share but this has been fixed 😉

Thanks for sharing that Keropi, have just downloaded it 😀 - crazy there is no installation media, nor that anyone else was willing to share it (despite it being fairly Amstrad specific !) .

BTW have just recovered a Amstrad 9486 from a recycling fate - unfortunately its not the 9486i version with PCI, but still a good dos system and with a Pentium Overdrive installed its a good compliment to my 3086 and Mega-PC (perhaps another thread one day). For anyone with Win95 on your Amstrad (which this machine has), I've attached some OEM info files to give your Control Panel the Amstrad Branding (remember they need to go in the Windows system directory)

Banjo wrote on 2021-03-18, 08:07:

Nobody I know has the proper installation media for AMstart (which presumably came on the same disks as Win 3.x when shipped by Amstrad, as I know they did this with Win 2.x that I *do* have floppy images of; see my blog above) but somebody did share their backup floppies here which contains the simple AMstart "addon" that works with Windows 3.11 but (like the above archive of ADT) lacks a proper installer; they're just a backup. I am actually making one this week (a custom floppy image) though for use on a real machine and plan to post it to my blog when done.

Many for info and the links to your Blog that is really helpful source of info. Also really big thankyou for making a custom floppy image for the AMstart - I have been looking for it for a while so will await the upload to your Blog with much anticiplation ! 😀

I wish everyone dumped the BIOS's when they got an old Amstrad, especially the later machines for which so little information exists - I'll be dumping my 9486's when I get chance in the next few weeks, although it's largely a standard AMI 486 ISA/VLB bios with a "Amstrad PC9486" text string inserted into the BIOS - but still worth archiving ! I've been gathering info on the later (6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 series) machines and have just found a few more details on the uber rare 6486 (a 16MHz 486 in a case very similar to the 3086) - the whole late machine story looks very interesting although I'm still lacking a few things about the "professional" range of amstrads that were made at that time - once I have that info (he says hopefully !!) I'll have to find somewhere suitable to post it all.