Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms

If you have not replaced the belt in your disc drive within a 5 year period or you have left it unused for ages then there is a good chance that you will be experiencing disc loading problems. I offer below, due to popular demand, symptoms that could point to a disc drive belt failure but do ensure first, where possible, that the disc(s) you use is/are in good order. You will, of course, be using a back-up disc, so go and find your original Master disc and test the machine out using this. With the Amstrad PCW range of machines (not the PcW16) you use a boot disc (start-of-day system disc) to fire up your pride and joy, therefore you can only try it out with either the Master or back-up system discs (Locoscript or CP/M). With the Amstrad CPC and Spectrum +3 range of machines which, of course, do not use a boot disc you are able to use a much wider selection of discs to test out your drive.
If I have not covered the symptom(s) you are experiencing and you do feel it is the drive, then it is only because I have forgotten it/them. I must have, by now, met them all, but if I have not listed it --- do Telephone me or Email me with your symptom(s) and I will confirm your diagnosis, or otherwise, and this in turn will enable me to add to the list below for the benefit of others.

Replacement of the belt in the 180K 3 inch drives, as fitted to following Amstrad machines the PCW8256, PCW8512, CPC664, CPC6128, CPC6128+ and the Spectrum +3 plus the Amstrad external drives the FD1 and the DDI-1, does give in excess of 80% of all cases a complete cure. Sadly the same job applied to the 720K 3 inch drives as fitted to the Amstrad PCW9512 and the 'B' drive in the PCW8512 gives a much lesser success rate, probably only in the region of 30% but for the price of a belt it is well worth a try if they are not working, although if possible leave these 720K drives well alone. Replacing the belt in an Amstrad PcW9256, PcW9512+ or a PcW10 does give a very high cure success rate but fitting is not an easy job and probably best left to the expert.

AMSTRAD PCW8256.

1. With the machine switched on you only have a Green screen despite having a boot (system) disc in the drive and having pressed the space bar a number of times.
2. The disc drive boots the machine but is noisy and/or there is a slapping noise coming from the drive. This shows that the drive belt has stretched and will fail within a short period of time. Any data written upon a disc, with the drive in this state, will possibly be unreadable when a new belt or a replacement drive is fitted.
3. The machine starts to boot up but stops somewhere during this process, gives an error message and will not continue.
4. The machine boots up sometimes and not other times or will only boot up when left switched on for say ten or fifteen minutes before making the boot attempt..
5. The machine seems to boot up correctly but when attempting to read or write upon a previously unused fresh disc, formatted long ago, or a disc written upon long ago, you receive disc error messages on the screen.
6. Will not read or write upon a disc formatted on another, known to be in good working order PCW8256 (or from the 'A' drive of a PCW8512)
7. Will not read certain tracks on a known to be good disc.
8. Does not pass the read/write tests applied to it by the Moonstone programme 'PCW CHECKUP'
9. The machine has been left in a damp place for sometime and although working, the conditions could have perished the rubber drive belt, which in turn will fail just at the wrong moment.
10. Do you wish for a trouble free future for your machine, which could be up to sixteen years old and never had a new belt fitted.

It is possible to transfer data, either way, between the Amstrad PCW8256 and Spectrum +:3 as they both use the same disc format but, of course, it is not normally possible to use programmes designed for a specific machine on a different type of computer. Therefore if you can not read or write data on a disc from one machine on the other --- check the drives!
As the CPC range of machines use a different disc format, to that found on the Amstrad PCW8256 or Spectrum +3, it is only possible to read data discs and not to write upon them --- again if you can not do so, check the drives!

1. For the 'A' drive (the top drive) see the comments for the PCW8256.
2. The 'B' drive (the bottom drive) is only a data storage drive so comments No's 7 and 8 for the PCW8256 only apply, plus the following.
3. The disc drive is noisy and/or there is a slapping noise coming from the drive. This shows that the drive belt has stretched and could fail within a short period of time. Any data written upon a disc, with the drive in this state, will possibly be unreadable when a new belt or a replacement drive is fitted.
4. Will not read or write, in part or whole, to a known good disc from a PCW9512.
5. Will not read a good disc written upon from drive 'A' of PCW8256 or another PCW8512.

1. Most if not all of the ten symptom pointers given for the 'A' drive of the PCW8256 apply the the PCW9512 drive (although, of course, for green screen substitute white screen) plus the following.
2. Will not read a 180K disc formatted and written upon, from a known to be good PCW8256 or PCW8512 'A' drive.
3. Will not read or write upon a known good disc from drive 'B' of a PCW8512.

1. With the machine switched on you only have a White screen despite having a boot (system) disc in the drive and having pressed the space bar a number of times.
2. The disc drive boots the machine but is noisy and/or there is a slapping noise coming from the drive. This shows that the drive belt has stretched and will fail within a short period of time. Any data written upon a disc, with the drive in this state, will possibly be unreadable when a new belt or a replacement drive is fitted.
3. The machine starts to boot up but stops somewhere during this process, gives an error message and will not continue.
4. The machine boots up sometimes and not other times or will only boot up when left switched on for say ten or fifteen minutes before making the boot attempt..
5. The machine seems to boot up correctly but when attempting to read or write upon a previously unused fresh disc, formatted long ago, or a disc written upon long ago, you receive disc error messages on the screen.
6. Will not read or write upon a disc formatted on another, known to be in good working order PcW9256, PcW9512+ or PcW10 and also from a 3.5 inch drive, internal or external, fitted to the PCW8256, PCW8512 or PCW9512.
7. Will not read certain tracks on a known to be good disc.
8. Does not pass the read/write tests applied to it by the Moonstone programme 'PCW CHECKUP'
9. The machine has been left in a damp place for sometime and although working, the conditions could have perished the rubber drive belt, which in turn will fail just at the wrong moment.
10. Do you wish for a trouble free future for your machine, which could be up to 12 years old and never had a new belt fitted.

1. All the same symptom points given for the PcW9256 apply to this machine.

1. All the same symptom points given for the PcW9256 apply to this machine.

It has been noted, from personal observations, that the particular model of 180K disc drive as normally fitted to the CPC664 is much more prone to become defective and replacing the belt does not bring it back to life --- notwithstanding this it must be worth trying a belt first, prior to buying a reconditioned drive.

1. Drive:A disc missing Retry, Ignore or Cancel
2. Drive:A read fail Retry, Ignore or Cancel
3. Drive:A write fail Retry, Ignore or Cancel
4. Failed to load CP/M

1. As for CPC6128

As for CPC6128 but for Drive:A read Drive:B

1. As for FD1 drive.

1. Drive not ready
2. Seek fail
3. Missing address mark
4. CRC data error
5. Unknown disc error
6. Drive not found

Go to Belt Fitting Page.

Go to Help Index Page.

Go to Address Page.