Putting all the screws back before testing I admire your confidence 😁👍

I've never heard a Spectrum sound so good. I like how the audio has a more fuller detailed sound. Nicely done, keep up the good work!

Fixed my cpc 6128 drive belt using a slice of bike tubing. Worked great. And was free.

I fixed my +3 sound this week following your video. Absolutely awesome. Thank you for posting this.

Great work Mark! Keep up fixing stuff!

Never actually watched the channel, just saw you on RMC - Spectrum +3 Refurbishment ordered - nice one mate, I needed that. This Spectrum is already in superb condition, off to Wales it goes:)

Restorations and repairs are like my ASMR. It is so satisfying to see a majestic beast restored to its previous glory.

All over my head but fun to watch. Im sure Dean appreciates you hard work.

Great video mate, always nice to see a machine brought back to life.

superb video - easily the best breakdown of a +3 disc drive - I now feel confident in trying to repair mine - thanks :)

Tip for easier and faster icky sticky belt removal. Use naphtha/benzeen. It dissolves the polymers that came from the rubber a lot better than IPA does. And also evaporates completely. And rotating a motor can have bad results, as you induce a current that can flow the wrong way and kill semiconductors… Don’t ask me how I know 😜

This video is so satisfying to watch!

Mark you done a superb job mate. Firstly it’s now safe to have the volume up and listen to some great AY tunes without any distortion and everything else is working nicely 👍 Thanks again mate!!!

Fascinating video, always enjoy watching your stuff.

Brilliant video. I had a +3 as a kid & loved it. My dad put all my original tape games onto discs so they loaded instantly - well it was instantly back then. I have fond memories of playing those three games you had on your disc, mailstrom was awesome. I also loved Rebelstar II, Chaos, Aliens, Sir Fred, the great escape, Infiltrator, & the numerous text adventure games like Rigel’s Revenge, Gremlins etc. This video has got me remeniscing now lol.

Ian at mutant Caterpillar is absolutely brilliant he fixed my plus 4 done a fantastic job I highly recommend him

Just found you, watched this and subbed. How have you only got 7.1k subs man? :-o

Really enjoyed this Mark, great job. :)

Great video Mark, I'm a Commodore man really, but I very much enjoyed that! 👍

Great job Mark, those hands are looking great as usual.

Thank's Mark .. I know at this point it's an old video .. But still this has helped a lot :) .. All the best Steve

Nice fix mark and it sounds great love your Chanel mate 😁😁😁 Kim 😁😁😁

Your videos are so much fun to watch! 🤩

Nicely and thoroughly done.

Great video, you absolutely need more subscribers

This explains why my +2B displays an RGB over SCART picture properly on one of my (fairly new) LCD telly and not the (older) other one. I thought it was the TV not being compatible with the old scart timings not a manufacturing defect on the speccy! I should have known better given Sinclair's manufacturing history :-) Thanks for this excellent tutorial.

How the hell was I not subscribed to this? I was sure I subscribed when you first appeared on RetroManCave. Never mind, I'm subscribed now - 'cause this is oil for my wounds :D

as much hate as amstrad gets (most of it deservedly), this machine is put together quite well, better than its average contemporaries..

Always satisfying getting another machine restored. My IBM 5150 drives got a full service & clean, if it moved it was lubed, everything elce was cleaned. Did not need aligning, but both drives now work even the one thta sounded more like an angel grinder.

nice work mark, brought back great memories of my +3 :) I never used a scart, back in the day, i bet it is clear as a bell compared to the old RF..

I modded the heck out of Spectrum +3, back in the late 1980's. I installed an Amstrad 2 M.Byte double sided floppy disc drive, which required a boot disc with some machine code, to reset the expanded disc parameter base so that it would format & read both sides of the disc formatted to 320 K.Bytes. I took the part of the manual where it gave info of how one might be tempted to run a hard drive on the +3 as a challenge and managed to run a IBM Type 1 MFM 10 M.Byte hard drive (powered by a sperate power supply) through the drive B slot. The +3 could only format the hard drive to 8.6 M.Bytes though. This required a new boot disc to set both the double sided floppy disc and the hard drive. In the 1990's, work as an electronic engineer required a PC & a Mac so the +3 now resides in the loft. The IBM hard drive was put back into a PC as a Drive D: and reformatted back to PC format. I've mislaid all the notes on connections and the boot disc coding. It took aa lot of frustrating trial and effort to make it work fine. 8.6 M.Bytes seemed massive back in the late 1980's. I often wonder did anybody else ever take up the manual's challenge to install a hard drive on the +3. I know a few people converted the +3 to take the inferior 720 K.Byte 3.5 floppy drive.

Wow that is such a slick looking little computer. It's a shame the Sinclair line was not popular here in the US.

Great video keep up the great work.

Well done!

Great work, just one point, the data cable goes under the main pcb on its way to the drive. Not that it really matters when it's all back together I suppose. Top job.

Great video Mark, that sounds the nuts now... It ain't no SID but as far as AY goes that's proper sorted...

Fun fact: 70% isopropyl alcohol is better for general disinfecting, as it's better at breaking down the cells of bacteria and fungi when the water is there. (This is also why you should not drink it.) The more pure stuff isn't as good at killing microbes (but still decent at killing humans and pets if you drink it!) though it's still good as a general purpose solvent, and the quick evaporation makes it better suited for electronics.

I installed an Amstrad 3 Inch double sided drive on my +3 but on power up it would initially start as a single sided drive until I ran a few bytes of machine code to reset the expanded disc parameter base (refer to Built In Operating System "how to do" info in the +3 manual) to switch the drive A: to double sided. After reading the part in the manual (more of a challenge) that gave the XDPB and info on possibly attaching a hard drive to the +3, I later managed to run an IBM MFM 10 M.Byte HD on the B: drive expansion (with some messy wiring and circuitry) but the +3 BIOS only allowed a format to give 8.5 M.Bytes. It required a boot disc in drive A: to initialise the XDPB to recognise that Drive B: was an 8.5 M.Byte HD. The HD also required its own power supply. Did anyone else have a go at running a hard drive on the +3?? The +3 is now up in the loft in a container full of Silica Gel packets, having been replaced by a succession of PC's and Mac's since the 1990's. The +3's HD ended up back in a PC. I'm kind of tempted dig it out and fire it up again.

. Hi Mark, This is the first time I have seen your channel and have just subscribed as this a really great video with an excellent choice of sound tracks. Could please tell me what you meant by backing out when replacing screws ? Do you mean to turn them anti clockwise upon reinsertion ? Kind Regards, Anthony Matabaro. .

Nice job at some point i need to do the plus 3 i bought ages ago so far all i have done is the dust cleaned out of the keyboard the audio fix makes a massive difference ,my black plus 2 has bens stereo sound mod .

Cool vacuum pump. Never saw one so nice

My brother just gave me a basket full of games and a +3 he found in. Box on the street someone was chucking out. I’ve ordered a rgb cable and no doubt will be referring to your walkthrough to get it all in order. Cheers mark

Good job.

Enjoyed watching this video, thank you Sir! PS Any tips on sneaking Spectrum related items past the better-half as my ratio is one item per year.

Great video, what type of grease did you use at the end?

That's awesome. I have my childhood +2B still (I've checked the motherboard, and it's definitely not the +2A) - is there last problems with the Scart compliance and sound? I know there are mods you can add that give you a better audio balance, but other than that, I don't know what bugs Amstrad didn't clear up, or perhaps introduced. I also need to replace the microswitches on my PowerPlay Cruiser Sinclair-wired joystick, but am not sure what type they need replacing with. Any pointers?

Very nice, that being said, a before/after for the sound would have been helpful to know the actual difference in sound :)

What I usually do is take a photo of the boards I'm disassembling and then when I remove screws I place them on the sheet of paper in the same locations. Then I accidentally smack the piece of paper when I'm not paying attention, flinging the screws across the room.

thank you for posting. new sub. it might be heresy, but i wonder if the 3" fdd could be replaced w/ a 3.5" fdd. waiting for the booing & hissing to die down. take care & stay safe.

Hi, great video. What type of grease did you use in the floppy disk drive.

That keyboard looks so nice. I wouldn't mind having Spectrum +3 styled keyboard for my PC.

I discovered at the time that the sound was far better when I connected the plus 3 to a tape recorder via the audio socket. My friends refused to believe me until they heard it

I rather like the ASMR version of Mark ;) Excellent work, really nicely shot.

Most refurbishes on a +3 generally replace the FDD with a 3.5 inch drive.

Does it matter what way you put a resistor in or do you have to match ihow it was originally on the board?

I've used a normal rubber (pencil eraser) on edge connectors and then a Glass Fiber pencil to clean them and remove all the dark marks from use and age. Now I'm not saying this is better, but it does work, as I had a 128k Toastrack that crashed when putting any joystick interface in. Cleaned it with the above and it then worked fine. Have you tried this? I don't see how Braso would have work though? However there's usually more than one way to achieve the same effect. And Braso does smell nice.

This wasn't the final Amstrad Spectrum, the +2B was produced afterwards. ;)

Hi Mark, nice work. I always wanted a +3 but sadly it wasn't to be. I have a rare ish console and was wondering if you could help with it. I think my Amstrad GX4000 is dead and the power supply has taken a permanent holiday. 🤞

Ooh, it's all gone a bit more "ManCave". lol Good vid, mate. ;)

I always thought the sound capabilities of the Spectrum have always been underrated. Having both the 64 and Spectrum they have very different sounds, but some of the best speech I have heard on the Spectrum, such as Robocop. Blew me away the first time I heard that on my 128 :)

Never seen a RS232 and MIDI in the same port! What was the main MIDI program?

Hi Mark, I have put a completely refurbished working drive in my +3 and its not spinning. Power LED is on but I cant run disks from loader. Is there anything else I can check, cables all in place as should be. Great vid on the sound fix though! Cheers

17:30 I always wondered why nobody ever recaps the drives? Even though they do have some electrolytics on them. Great video though.

Hey Mark dose anybody make a replacement case for a zx Spectrum 128k toastrack?

I lost my write protect pin - do you know where I can get another ?

never had any exposure to the +3 but i had a +2a which i loved. I can't take the +3 seriously anymore since i noticed how much dead space there is on the case and how off-center the keyboard is :-/

E´s are good E´s are good, E´s Ebeneezer goode!

Is that a facom screwdriver? I used to lust over them, can we have any specs? I also have no idea how i wasn't already subscribed.. KZfaq should know better and have your videos in my feed all the time!

I bought a +3 first thing I did with the 3" toaster was put it in the bin and bought a diskiple twin 3 1/2" drives from byte delight...

does this fix apply to a revision 1 board?

@Mark Fixes Stuff Hi Mark love your videos, keep up the good work ;) Can i make a request? please make a video, showing all the different ways to copy a single game or several to a +3 floppy disk, i cant find that kind of tutorial anywhere, not even on video. Im wondering if its possible to do this kind of task with a SD device. Thanks in advance.

do you plan on doing a specrum +2 fix or mod? I need help! I get no picture through the RF, I tried poking it with a sponge finger I had planned on eating later...Having reached the limit of my electrical engineering know how I reached out to the intranet, it recoiled in horror hitching up its petticoat and screaming like a girl, so naturally I watched your lovely vid. Please please can you fix it for me? Update: the sponge finger contained too much Sugar (a bit like the specrum) ;)

Inspired me to dust down my +3 - never occurred to me that drive belt might disintegrate!

Heh. I wonder if +3B Spectrums have ever been spotted in the wild. Many sources say that Amstrad made them (which makes sense, since +2Bs are quite plentiful-I myself own one-and there’s a +2B/+3B service manual), but I haven’t seen a single +3B machine. That would have saved you quite a bit of time you spent modding the audio output circuitry.

Wow haven't seen one of these in a about 30+ years.

Would the Scart fix work with the +2a

I drunk isopropyl alcohol once and I'm still alive.

#24:57 that IDE cable oh my eyes!!!

Why not do a video about replacing the psu with laptop psu?

Had a 48 and 128k (+2?) But never had this one. I think I moved on to Amigas when this came out.

16:22 - Actually IPA is not very poisonous (not much more than ethanol), you won't die after drinking small amount it, yet I wouldn't recommend trying that.

22:00 you do know the disk drive data cable goes under the mainboard to reappear near the floppy drive

Have you ever tried CP/M running on the Sinclair Spectrum ?

Two questions. 1: What soldering iron tip are you using? It looks incredibly black and not silvery from the solder and cleaned. I clean mine constantly and keep it looking silvery. 2: I'm currently using a 1.6mm chisel tip, yours looks nothing like that and quite a lot bigger, but that might be due to the magnification/zoom of the camera. That's a Bevel Tip, why do you use that? From what I've read it's good for holding solder on the tip, but you don't do that in this video. Intriguing. Disclaimer: This is a question from someone who only started refurbing Spectrums in December 2018, so please be gentle and very specific and assume I know very little. I've had three +3's and the first 2 worked fine with the SCART Cable made as per the PDF below. But a current +3 and 2A have issues with major artifacting, whereas three +2 Greys work perfectly with the same cable. Looks like I got lucky before, or they had been modded and I didn't pay attention. www.benophetinternet.nl/hobby/vanmezelf/ZX%20Spectrum%20128K%20video%20fixes%20and%20video%20cables.pdf

21:15 the data cable is routed under the board

I've had lots of problems with the RGB to SCART mod. Replacing with a 680 OHM resistor caused issues on 2 TV's. Then I changed it to a 470 OHM resistor and the problem was solved on one TV but then got worse on the other. So it looks like this fix isn't for ALL TV's. Bloody typical, I'll have to put a note in the box for the sold +2B and +3 that the RGB to SCART isn't guaranteed to work. And replace the 470 with the recommended 680. I've previously bought the RGB to SCART cable (the same one you have in the video) and that has such a disclaimer on it also. The issue is detailed here in Spectrum For Everyone. facebook.com/groups/spectrumforeveryone/permalink/849723738707432/ The cables I've made are as per this document: www.benophetinternet.nl/hobby/vanmezelf/ZX%20Spectrum%20128K%20video%20fixes%20and%20video%20cables.pdf

about this microcomputer the ltd. is it ltd or ltd. ???? thanks on boot up thanks......

I have about 90% of my computer colection restored now =-)

21:36 the data cable should go under the pcb

25:44 (looks good from the back" NOT, the data cable goes under the board not above and loose

One other solution to 128k versions sound problems would be this kit: www.bytedelight.com/?product=stereo-kits-for-any-zx-spectrum-128k-model Also giving stereo sound at the same time. I installed it to my 128+2b. Top Stuff... P.S. Just refurbished two 6128s, interesting to see, that they had a quite different FDD-assemblys compared to this Speccy one... Which brings to my mind, that it seems to be near impossible to find 3" disks anymore... P.P.S. Though I have watched your videos for a long time, for some reason I had not subscribed... "Fixed" now... xD

Drinking IPA does not kill you, but it leaves one hell of a hangover (joking, kiddies, don't try that at home).

Just go buy a CPC 6128, way easier.

I always use vodka for cleaning electronics. Is that bad?

Could u replace the 3" toaster with two 3 1/2"drives please?

Amstrad spring over membrane keyboard, huh? Condolences.

*No tape loading*? That's just not kosher, sir.

Well it wasn't saught after a year or two ago. 😂

This video is 30 years too late.

Its hard to solder because you use shitty solder and a junky tip :) that ground plane is nothing also you better pull out the whole tranzitor not bending it like that. they are not made to du that. and in a old parts like that you even rish to brake the capsule itself. The iron tip must pe super shinny and wet with molten solder to have a rapid transmission of heat between the tip and pcb, put a little leaded solder on the part you want to pull. it will lower the temperature of all the solde, and you will mork faster and safer and don't be afraid yo use some flux.