Amstrad PPC 512 / PPC 640 Service Manual
The PPC 512S / 512D, PPC 640S / 640D Personal Portable Computer Service Manual is Amstrad's own service manual for the PPC portables. 31 printed pages, scanned as 42, with a text layer and searchable.
Contents
[edit | edit source]Amstrad's own contents list, with printed page numbers:
- Technical specification — 2; important notes to service engineers — 2
- FD-5 maintenance and alignment information — 3–11
- Exploded view 1 — 12; exploded view 2 — 13
- Circuit board views — 14; alignment instructions — 14
- FD-5 control board schematic diagram — 15
- Cabinet drawing and parts list — 16
- CPU / switch / battery PCBs; memory / fuse / volume PCBs — 18, 19
- Modem PCB component layout — 20
- Keyboard schematic diagram — 21
- Chassis schematic diagrams — 22–25
- Power supply schematic diagram — 26
- Modem chassis schematic diagrams — 27, 28
- Electrical parts list — 29–31
What it settles
[edit | edit source]Technical specification for the PPC640:
- 8086 16-bit processor at 8 MHz; 640K RAM and 64K video memory
- A compartment for 10 alkaline C cells giving up to 8 hours use, plus an AC mains adaptor
- Integrated display adaptor fully MDA- and CGA-compatible, driving either the internal LCD panel or an external monitor
- 640 × 200 pixel supertwist LCD, supporting all CGA and MDA graphics and text modes, tiltable to six viewing angles with adjustable contrast; grey-scale emulation
- Integral modem supporting V21 (300 bps full duplex), V23 (1200/75 bps), V22 (1200 bps full duplex) and V22bis (2400 bps full duplex), Hayes-command compatible with auto-dialling and auto-answer; serial port included
- Enhanced AT-type keyboard with 102 keys; single or twin 720K 3.5-inch drives; MS-DOS 3.3; Mirror II communications software
- Speaker with volume control; battery-backed real-time clock with scratchpad RAM; 8087 socket; socket for the PPC640 expansion box, which accepts IBM-compatible expansion cards and a hard disc; carrying case with pockets for manual and disks
Three things here matter for repair. The machine has its own power supply schematic (page 26) and a separate fuse PCB documented at page 18–19 — so a dead PPC has a documented fuse to check before anything else. The battery PCB is drawn separately from the CPU board, which is where corrosion from ten leaked C cells does its damage. And the modem is a separate subsystem with its own component layout and its own chassis schematics, so a modem fault need not implicate the mainboard.
The FD-5 maintenance and alignment section at pages 3–11 is a full drive procedure in the same style as the FD-3 sections of the PC1512 and PC1640 manuals.
What this manual does not contain
[edit | edit source]- No LCD panel repair data — the display is treated as an assembly.
- No expansion box coverage.
- No fault-symptom table for the computer itself; the flowcharts cover the drive.
Another copy of this document
[edit | edit source]Amstrad PC and PPC Service Manual (Compendium) holds the same manual in a 32-page scan, under a title that wrongly implies it also covers the PC1512 and PC1640. It does not.
Download here: Amstrad PPC 512 PPC 640 Service Manual.pdf