Editing Amstrad ALT-286 Troubleshooting Guide (section)

== Reported ALT-286 faults ==

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''ALT-286 faults reported by owners'''
! Symptom !! Finding !! Source
|-
| Will not boot || The hard disk had failed; the owner replaced it. The backup battery, suspected first, was fine after recharging || Video description<ref name="yt286">"1989 Amstrad ALT-286 Laptop Reburbish / HDD Replacement / PC Speaker Repair" (video, 2017), archived at [https://archive.org/details/youtube-GccTF33A5Yo archive.org], description. Retrieved 2026-10-01.</ref>
|-
| No sound from the PC speaker || Repaired in the same video; the description does not give the cause || Video description<ref name="yt286" />
|-
| No +12&nbsp;V from the power supply after a recap, other rails present (+5&nbsp;V, −12&nbsp;V, −24&nbsp;V), measured on the bench || Unresolved in the report; no schematic of the RPS-07 supply is published || oldcrap.org comment, May 2022<ref name="oldcrap">Pawel Pieczul, [https://oldcrap.org/2020/08/24/amstrad-alt-386sx/ "Amstrad ALT-386SX"], oldcrap.org, 24 August 2020, with readers' comments to 2024. Retrieved 2026-10-01.</ref>
|}

On the ALT-386SX a quiet speaker has been traced to a leaking surface-mount electrolytic in the speaker circuit, which is on the peripheral schematic that Amstrad gives for both models.<ref name="oldcrap" /><ref name="smalt" /> Check that part on an ALT-286 with a dead or quiet speaker.