Tag: 1992

Amstrad Notepad NC100

What the listing said:

Amstrad Notepad NC100+ Vinyl Case 

Not working not powering on, the vinyl case has some marks and scratches.

EBay

Amstrad NC100
Screen Vinyl peeling

I’ve been after one of these for a little while, I’ve just been awaiting one at a good price and this one became available, post included at £30GBP, they retailed for £199Gbp back in 1992. It says it is not working but that’s good in my eyes as it makes these posts more appealing, as it gives me something to repair. I don’t know what the issue is off hand as the post didn’t state that, but I do know these items have suffered with capacitor problems over time, but that is not necessarily the case here. We will just have to wait until we do the assessment on its arrival. And as it comes from around the early 90s it fits right in with my modus operandi. And this little cutie dates from 1992.

Here’s a little history behind this unit courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Amstrad NC100 Notepad is an A4-size, portable Z80-based notebook computer, released by Amstrad in July 1992. It featured 64 KB of RAM, 256KB of Rom, the Protextword processor, various organiser-like facilities (diary, address book and time manager), a simple calculator, and a version of the BBC BASIC interpreter. The computer’s design, evocative of the TRS-80 Model 100, features a screen with 80 character columns by eight rows, and not backlit, but this let the NC100 run for up to 20 hours on four standard AA cellbatteries. There was an RS-232serial port, a parallel port for connecting a printer, and a PC card socket, by means of which the computer’s memory could be expanded up to 1 MB.

Assessment

The unit has arrived and cosmetically it is in very good condition apart from the peeling plastic screen cover. A little bit of dust and grime, all keys in good order and no dinks or dents. the vinyl bag is a little tatty but that’s not a problem, it’s obviously done it’s job over the years due to the good condition of the unit.

The unit on its arrival, generally in good condition

So down to testing. First thing I’ve done is check the power supply is giving a 6.5 v output and this is ok.

Power supply doing what it should.

Secondly I’ve put 4 AA batteries in place and turned the unit on but then it abruptly stops, displaying a lithium battery issue.

Lithium battery warning

The lithium battery is an old CMOS type battery, a CR2032 coin battery. This is the battery that keeps the info in the system when you turn it off. I thought I’d run this through the multimeter and was surprised with the voltage I saw, the battery seemed fine to me at 2.8v, so I replaced it with a new one measuring 3.4v. And the issue came up again…..head scratching time!

Old battery
New battery

Looking on line it seems there is an issue with the lithium cell battery contacts on these units when they are being resurrected to modern day usage, time has not been good to them. The coin contacts have now been cleaned and slightly bent to ensure a better contact and hey presto it’s operational with no further issues.

Battery contacts needed cleaning and repositioning

The main AA battery contacts are fine and the external supply is doing what it should. Now let’s look at sorting that screen issue.

Quite simply there were two options, use a bit of heat to try and stick the plastic down, but I decided against this as it would not lay flat, it had too many kinks in it. So the only other option was to remove it and this is what I did, it peeled off with no issues. In time I will see if I can get a suitable replacement but to be honest it isn’t really required as I’m not going to be using it that often.

Let’s get that screen cover off
Looking good
After screen cover removal

I’ve tried every function and keystroke of the board and all is good there are no issues and I now have a perfectly acceptable unit for my collection. It looks like i have had a second win against the “Untested” brigade who sell on EBay. This was the simplest of repairs and the issues are readily available to research on line. There is no excuse for not looking into the issues, when a good unit like this can now sell for up to three times the amount that I paid for it.

Your loss my win. Another one kept from landfill.

I’ve given the unit a good polish and I think you’ll agree that the project has come up good.

Pouch
Front view
Rear view
Working as it should
Profile
Look at that screen

Now to just go and read the user manual on line to see if I’ve missed anything. Thanks for passing by, as always it’s most appreciated.

Tiger “Sonic the Hedgehog” handheld console

What the listing said:

Console is sold as nonworking, shows no sign of life. Item is in good physical condition but there is a lot of corrosion in the battery compartment

Ebay

I’ve decide to look into what seems to be the “New Antique” sector of retro gaming. The prices being commanded for 1980s/90s old school gaming is crazy with many small handheld items that would have cost a couple of pounds being sold into the hundreds. Absolutely nuts!

Sonic – Tiger console

My decision making process on this was simple. I love hedgehogs, we have plenty of hedgehog visitors to our garden, so what better game than “Sonic the Hedgehog?”

Anyway, at the cheaper end I managed to bag this for £9 GBP. If I get it working, those units are selling between £20 – £45 so I should at least get my original outlay back, pending on what work needs doing.

So here we go….

Well, it’s arrived and cosmetically it looks fine.

Looks good cosmetically

Now I opened the battery compartment and could see no corrosion, on opening further I noticed some of the screws had been threaded so I guess someone has been in here before me. And I was right. The corrosion can be quite clearly seen on opening the unit.

Bad corrosion and detached wire
Cleaned, broken but going to repair

Where the corrosion is on the negative terminal, a wire is also disconnected, hooray I thought, an easy fix. Hold on tiger, it’s not that simple. it appears the corrosion has leaked down the wire to where the negative wire joins the circuit board, in fact all four wires at this point are holding on by threads of wire. These will need re soldering.

This game appears to be from 1992 according to the stamp on the main board.

Loose wires circled
Corrosion

The negative terminal connector is broken, i have some replacements on order but I’m going to repair this one.

I’ve taken the corroded rivet out that held the spring. I’ve found a small screw and have used this to connect to the plate. I’ve cleaned the whole lot with wire wool and have cut off the excess screw and filed it all down. It now looks as good as new and no cost involved. I will finish it off with a dab of solder on the back to ensure good contact is maintained.

Rivet removed
First a screw
Now to cut off the excess
Filed down
All polished and good to go

Peering underneath at the board it all looks ok, needing just a good clean with IPA. However, I’m not really going to be able to confirm this until I’ve re soldered and checked continuity from the batteries.

Signs of light corrosion under board

There could be some damaged tracks, again I’ll know that when all the basic setup and tests have been done. There is also a possibility the speaker could be damaged as the corrosion has reached there. I’ll test with the multimeter in the meantime. That all checked out ok and the speaker is fine.

I’ve given a good overall clean with some IPA and the entire unit inside and out looks as good as new.

Cleaned shell
Cleaned board

I’ve replaced both the power cables from the battery unit as one had fallen off and the negative one had looked as if it had been crushed. I was changing so it made no odds to change the other.

New power cables

I ran some checks with the multimeter and everything is fine, all tracks are good and it looks as if the corrosion was localised, this unit has dodged a bullet.

Batteries in and it’s now working well, see this video short:

When you don’t know what you’re doing

However, as I’m not a gamer I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, it makes a lot of noise and appears to work but god knows what I do. It certainly does a lot more than it did when I received it.

Another one saved from landfill.