RetroTechCollection

Amstrad PCW 8256 / PCW 8512 User Guide

The PCW8256 and PCW8512 User Guide and Guide to Locomotive Software's LocoScript is the user manual AMSOFT, a division of Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc, supplied with the Amstrad PCW 8256 and Amstrad PCW 8512 in 1985. The cover calls it the User Guide – CP/M Logo & Word Processor Manual. The hosted scan has 395 PDF pages, image only, with no text layer.

Contents

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The manual is in three sections, each numbered from page 1.

User guide and Guide to LocoScript:

  • Chapter 1, Setting up, p. 1 (mains plug, keyboard and printer connections, switching on, brightness, cleaning)
  • Chapter 2, Your first twenty minutes, p. 11
  • Chapter 3, Keeping your work on disc, p. 27 (disc handling, copying, Start of Day and data discs)
  • A Guide to LocoScript, p. 51, in ten stages (pp. 55–125), and LocoScript summarised, p. 129
  • Appendix I, Troubleshooting, p. 141
  • Appendix II, The printer: loading and maintenance, p. 145 (paper, autoloading, changing the ribbon p. 147, adjusting the print head p. 147, general hints p. 148)
  • Appendix III, Using LocoScript files in other programs, p. 149

CP/M Plus and Logo:

  • Part I, the CP/M operating system: introduction, commands, commercial software, graphics, the built-in commands and utilities; appendices on the character sets, advanced use of the printer, terminal characteristics and error messages (p. 143)
  • Part II, the Dr. Logo language, with its error messages

Part III, Two-Drive Operation, for the PCW8512 or a PCW8256 with a second FD-2 drive: discs and drives, formatting discs for drive B, using drive B with CP/M and LocoScript, and DISCKIT copying and verifying.

What it settles

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  • The UK model runs from 220–240 V 50 Hz mains and needs a 5 A fuse in a 13 A plug (p. 1).
  • The keyboard plugs into a 4-pin DIN socket on the right of the monitor unit; the printer uses a 34-way ribbon cable and a separate lead to the Power Out socket (p. 2).
  • Clean the screen and case with an anti-static foam cleaner, never a spirit-based one (p. 8).
  • The printer ribbon is Amstrad Printer Ribbon PR-1. The print head lever has five positions, and position 2 suits one sheet of ordinary paper. The head can be very hot after printing; paper dust is cleared with a blower or a vacuum cleaner (pp. 147–148).
  • Drive B writes double-density CF-2DD discs using both sides at once, with side 1 nearest the screen. A disc formatted in drive B cannot be used in drive A, and drive B only reads, never writes, a CF-2 disc made in drive A (Part III, pp. 2–3).

What this manual does not contain

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There is no service information: no circuit diagrams, adjustments or parts lists. For those see Amstrad PCW 8256 / PCW 8512 Service Manual.

Pages that cite this document

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Download: Amstrad PCW8256 PCW8512 User Guide (1985).pdf

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