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ScuzzBlog: Diaries November 2017

Entry 27th November 2017: Post: 1


Amstrad PPC 640 - Loadsa batteries

Sister of the PPC 512 manufactured by Amstrad in 1988
Luggable designed as cheap portable made in the UK
102 QWERTY with numeric keypad plus function keys
CPU NEC V30 running at 8 MHz. RAM was 640KB
Screen was monochrome green or external monitor
Has one floppy drive 720KB
Runs MS DOS 3.2/3 and GEM Q-DOS II
And here is the killer .... 10 x C cell batteries

I have studied the schematics for this computer and although a RTC
is discussed I just cannot find it. The thing isn't working but I
cannot find any onboard battery. Hope there isn't one.

Problem with this monitor is the LCD green screen. Sadly degrading
to the one corner. I have seen others on the web going the same
way. The screen is quite visible. Problem is its impossible to
photograph as you do need a light on the screen and sadly that
always is visible in the pictures so I struggled taking images
from the side.

The computer worked no problem. I only had the two disks and one 
is DOS and booted into the system. Typing in ORG provides a menu
driven organiser that is quite cute. Not a fan to be truthful.
But then anything from this era with this type of screen I hate.



OK .. I'm not going hiking. Seriously !!

And no it's not a military field telephone

I was always fascinated as a kid with the
doctor's case when he visited the house. It
was filled with very small compartments and
drawers. Always wanted one. This thing, as
do many of the luggables remind me of it

Note the video port

Phone port

Monitor power... Amstrad !!

Back ports pretty standard

Unusual DIP switches

Just the one floppy drive

Quite a bold design

Well designed case

For me I would have turned the rear
into a tray to carry a monitor. All kinda
gets a bit messy from here on in

The back just plonks down with a
right old thump and then you have
to lift the green screen monitor

I do like Amstrad keyboards. I guess
it's cus I grew up using a typewriter

I guess you could put your coffee
on the tray. No doubt a few machines
were lost to spilled coffee

The ribs find there way inside the unit

Way , way too small

Don't mind the green. Just the size

And there is that damage I mentioned

Gotta say it does look good

All very sturdy and easy to understand

And that is where you switch on

Pocket for telephone cable

Dedicated external power supply

Telling me a I need new batteries

OK .. the 2nd of the disks isn't bootable

First disk is the DOS disk

And there is a full DIR of the directory

Built in PPC ORG organiser
Just type in ' ORG ' and RETURN

Simple little calendar

Portion of bottom left not visible

Last used on 21st March 1999

All done


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