Home > Amstrad family, Gallery, Retro Computers and other stuff... > Amstrad Monitor PC-CD / Mouse / Keyboard and System Discs

Amstrad Monitor PC-CD / Mouse / Keyboard and System Discs

Amstrad PC 1640 / Monitor PC-CD / Mouse / Keyboard

Autopsy:

The Autopsy of the Amstrad PC 1640 SD (IBM PC-compatible) can be read here

from Wikipedia:

The Amstrad PC1512 was Amstrad’s mostly IBM PC-compatible home computer system, first manufactured in 1986. It was later succeeded by the PC1640.

It launched for £499 and sold very well, as it was one of the first cheap PCs in Europe. It significantly helped open up the European PC market to consumers as well as businesses, and Amstrad’s advertising of the PC1512 was aimed at homes rather than offices. The 1512′s influence was such that the UK PC magazine PC Plus originally targeted itself at the “Amstrad PC 1512 and compatibles”, since home ownership of other PCs at the time was rare.

The PC1512 shipped with 512K of RAM; it could be upgraded to 640K of RAM with an expansion pack. Video output was compatible with the CGA standard, with an extension allowing all 16 colours to be used in the 640×200 graphics mode. The CPU of both the PC1512 and the later PC1640 was an 8 MHz Intel 8086, which was sufficient for playing The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion and Prince of Persia. The power supply was located in the monitor, which made upgrading difficult.

source: wikipedia Amstrad PC1640 Technical Reference

  1. February 28th, 2015 at 17:05 | #1

    There is no “expansion pack” for the PC1512 which extends RAM to 640KB.
    Instead, there is one jumper on the mainboard, and 16 DIL sockets for 4164 DRAM chips.
    And nothing else.

  2. Antonio
    November 3rd, 2019 at 15:44 | #2

    Hi, i need help, please. I have a problem with my resolution screen display in my pc3086 amstrad. I play game called hard hat mack and i press F9 and see the message: Put the stick in the upper left and then press the space bar. Put the stick in the center and then press space bar. Put the stick in the lower right and the press space bar. Please help, my screen has shifted to the left and i cant see completely prompt. ex. A:/> DIR …IR How i can reset vga setings?? Thank you very much

*