A600 - dead floppy or something else?

[Spacefarer]

My dad found a boxed A600 in a charity shop, and I've been trying to get it going ever since. Unfortunately, I really don't know anything about this system so I figured I'd come here before doing anything drastic.


The first time I started it up, I put in the Workbench disk it came with (1.3, if it makes a difference - and a bit weathered, too) and it started to load, but then threw a disk read error. Right, that must just be a dead disk, then. So I ordered some new ones from AmigaForever - who I understand are a little disliked, but hey, new disks innit - and in the meantime, I tried some of my other disks and see if they'd boot.


Now each time I try a new disk, including the Workbench 1.3 disk, the screen goes blank purple, then shows the 'insert a disk' animation again. I've given the floppy drive a proper clean, and blown out some of the dust and echoes, but it still won't have it. This also happens with the new WB 1.3 disks.


I also got some 3.1 disks, but my understanding is that they won't work unless I also have Kickstart 3.1...? Not that they'll work anyway at the moment, but still.



Do I just need a new drive, or am I digging in the wrong place?

[Gordon]

Hi there

I had these symptoms before and the problem was caused by the power supply brick having problems. Do you have a spare to try?

[Spacefarer]

Unfortunately I don't, and since it's a non-standard connector I can't just plug any old kettle lead in there. Anything else I can try to test this theory?

[Nobby_UK]

Sounds like the other disks are not being detected
(screen goes purple, then shows the 'insert a disk' animation again.)
How is the disk detect switch ?

Also Workbench 3.1 will 'Sort of' work on KS 2
But anything that uses 3.1 Libs etc will fail (eg MultiView).

[Spacefarer]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

Sounds like the other disks are not being detected
(screen goes purple, then shows the 'insert a disk' animation again.)
How is the disk detect switch ?

I'll check that out when I get chance. Is that inside the floppy drive? (And is it the thing they're referring to in this thread?)


In the meantime, a slight development: with my Cloanto WB1.3 disk, if I insert it before powering on the Amiga, I get a red and black error saying

Software Failure. Error: 8000 000B Task: 000026D0

As best I can make out, anyway. The numbers may be slightly off because composite leads suck, basically. Left-clicking brings me back to the purple disk animation screen. Also, this doesn't happen at all with my original 1.3 disk.

EDIT: One other thing I should probably mention - when I received it, there was a disk already in the drive. I suspect that disk had been there for quite some time, so might that have caused a bit of damage when it's been moved around, stored, etc.?

[RichardP]

I was in the same boat..
Clean the heads of the floppy drive - (alcohol and cotton swabs) the lid of the floppy drive comes off very easily and swab the heads gently.

put some oil on the worm gears. I got mine working again, but then bought a Gotek Floppy emulator in the end as 25year old media is quite unreliable.

Richard

[r.cade]

The capacitors related to the floppy (and everything else on the board) tend to leak over time and cause floppy and audio problems. I had to recap both of mine with similar errors to this...

[Spacefarer]

Originally Posted by RichardP

I was in the same boat..
Clean the heads of the floppy drive - (alcohol and cotton swabs) the lid of the floppy drive comes off very easily and swab the heads gently.

put some oil on the worm gears. I got mine working again, but then bought a Gotek Floppy emulator in the end as 25year old media is quite unreliable.

Thanks for your suggestion, but I've already cleaned out the floppy drive. It was filthy! As much as I love using original media, a Gotek might be the best port of call...

Originally Posted by r.cade

The capacitors related to the floppy (and everything else on the board) tend to leak over time

Yes, I had a feeling that might be a problem. The capacitors looked okay when I opened it up, but to be honest I wasn't checking all that closely.


Probably have another look either tonight or tomorrow.

[Spacefarer]

Okay, I took another look inside. The capacitors on the main board are basically pristine, there's no sign of bulging or leaking whatsoever. I also opened the floppy drive up and tried to clean up more of the gunk, but there really isn't a lot left in there I haven't cleaned.

I'm a bit wary of opening the drive up further, because...well, I'm not so good at getting things back together again

So, my feeling is still that I need a new drive, but there are that many potential issues at play here that it's hard to tell

[RichardP]

Originally Posted by Spacefarer

Okay, I took another look inside. The capacitors on the main board are basically pristine, there's no sign of bulging or leaking whatsoever. I also opened the floppy drive up and tried to clean up more of the gunk, but there really isn't a lot left in there I haven't cleaned.

I'm a bit wary of opening the drive up further, because...well, I'm not so good at getting things back together again

So, my feeling is still that I need a new drive, but there are that many potential issues at play here that it's hard to tell

Does the machine boot on any disk? The media may be dead and nothing wrong with the drive.

Is there a hard drive fitted to boot from? (The A600 has the internal IDE controller)



Richard

[Spacefarer]

Originally Posted by RichardP

Does the machine boot on any disk? The media may be dead and nothing wrong with the drive.

Nope, every disk I have does the same thing. The only one that does anything different is the Cloanto 1.3 disk, which throws a software error (as mentioned above) and that's only when it's inserted before booting. After that, the same thing happens again.

Originally Posted by RichardP

Is there a hard drive fitted to boot from? (The A600 has the internal IDE controller)

There is not. I have a few 3.5" IDE HDDs knocking around, but they need molex power so that's a no-go. Wouldn't I need to boot into WB for it to work anyway?

[RichardP]

Originally Posted by Spacefarer

Nope, every disk I have does the same thing. The only one that does anything different is the Cloanto 1.3 disk, which throws a software error (as mentioned above) and that's only when it's inserted before booting. After that, the same thing happens again.






There is not. I have a few 3.5" IDE HDDs knocking around, but they need molex power so that's a no-go. Wouldn't I need to boot into WB for it to work anyway?

You would need WB to boot From the sounds of it, a Gotek seems to be the best option to get the system back to running.. Once you have a hard disk/SD/CF booting, you can then invest some time getting the real floppy to work.



I installed a IDE->SD adapter with a 1GB SD card..

[Spacefarer]

Originally Posted by RichardP

I installed a IDE->SD adapter with a 1GB SD card..

Yes, that does seem a wise idea. Sorry for all the questions, but if I were to get an adapter, could I just whack any old SD card in there and format it on the Amiga itself, or do I need to format it beforehand?

[RichardP]

Originally Posted by Spacefarer

Yes, that does seem a wise idea. Sorry for all the questions, but if I were to get an adapter, could I just whack any old SD card in there and format it on the Amiga itself, or do I need to format it beforehand?

I used an old 1GB SD card I had lying about .. the Adapter I got was a "44-Pin Male IDE To SD Card Adapter" from Ebay. (I would link it, but I dont know all the rules of the forum yet) - Using Workbench 2.1 disks, there is an installer for hard disks. (My original WB disks were damaged, so I sourced an online copy in ADF format which I used with the Gotek)

There was a bit of a procedure, but it was easy enough in the end. HDTools to set the drive parameters, then partition and then format. All on the Amiga. I think there is a limit of 2GB on size... I tried an 8GB SD card which didnt work.



Richard

[Spacefarer]

That's good to know. Thanks!

[Honey Badger]

4 GB cards work -- and that's the limit, at least w/o customized scsi.device