A3000D problem with dual floppies

[brett71]

Greetings, all....I hope you can help me out with this one.

I have a 3000D that I bought off eBay. The machine originally had an Chinon FZ-354 floppy drive, but I bought an FB-357A high-density drive from the same seller and asked him to configure it as DF1:. When I received the machine, the drives worked as expected, however, whenever I used one of the drives, both activity LEDs would light up. I'm told that this is normal and that it's some sort of quirk in the A3000 when it has dual floppies?

Anyway, the high-density drive soon failed, so I bought 2 identical units off eBay that had normal faceplates, like for a A2000 or A4000. I removed the faceplate, checked that the jumpers were set right, and plugged the drive into the space where the bad high-density floppy was.

I booted the machine, and got a DF1:???? on the screen, and of the two floppies, only the FZ-354 works. At first, I thought a loose power cable was the culprit. Turns out the power cable WAS loose, but it didn't fix the problem. I did some tests with the drives and confirmed that both drives do work properly if they are the only drives on the floppy cable, and they are both recognized as DF0:. In fact, it doesn't matter which floppy connector I connect them to (either before or after the twist), the drive is always identified as DF0: and works properly. But when I connect them both to the floppy cable, only the one before the twist works. I also confirmed that jumper J351 was in the position to enable a DF1: drive.

Through trial and error, I finally discovered that even though the twist in the floppy cable is supposed to deal with the DS0/DS1 jumper settings on the drives, the only way I could get the second floppy to work was by jumpering it DS1, which flies in the face of everything I've read about A3000's and dual floppy configurations.

Now, I am back to the issue of both activity LED's lighting up whenever one of the drives is accessed. It doesn't seem to cause any problems, it's just plain odd. Does anyone know if there is a fix for this? Could I have a faulty floppy cable?

[prowler]

Hi Brett,

Have a look is this thread about similar problems with dual floppy drives on an A2000HD:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53398
IIRC, the twist in the cable which reverses the conductors 4,5 and 6 is connected to the drive activity lights, so if your cable doesn't work correctly with a twist, try one without.

[brett71]

Any good suggestions on where I might find the right cable without the twist?

[prowler]

There is also some relevant information is this thread, which I couldn't find earlier:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53947

Originally Posted by brett71

Any good suggestions on where I might find the right cable without the twist?

You could always prise apart the connector with a jeweller's screwdriver after the twist and reassemble it with the twisted wires reversed back again.

[brett71]

Originally Posted by prowler

There is also some relevant information is this thread, which I couldn't find earlier:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=53947



You could always prise apart the connector with a jeweller's screwdriver after the twist and reassemble it with the twisted wires reversed back again.

Or, if I have a PC floppy cable around here somewhere, could I pull a floppy plug off it and attach another female plug onto the Amiga's cable before the twist, just as a test (or permanent fix if it does the trick)? I doubt that would cause any problems unless I was stupid enough to try to use all three drive connectors at the same time.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by brett71

Or, if I have a PC floppy cable around here somewhere, could I pull a floppy plug off it and attach another female plug onto the Amiga's cable before the twist, just as a test (or permanent fix if it does the trick)? I doubt that would cause any problems unless I was stupid enough to try to use all three drive connectors at the same time.

Yes, I was going to suggest that too, but I wasn't sure if your original cable was long enough or whether you would have another cable from which you could remove a connector.

The connectors are fairly easy to assemble onto the cable by pressing them together so that they grip the cable and then closing them in a bench vice, being careful to keep the cable perpendicular to the connector to avoid shorting the wires.

[brett71]

OK, I was able to get the floppy connector off after the twist just enough to undo the twist. Both drives still seem to work OK. Now when I put a disk into df0:, only the activity light for df0: lights up, but when I put a disk into df1:, both drive activity lights come on. What am I doing wrong?

[Jope]

Can you double check which wires you twisted?

[brett71]

I've double-checked and it's definitely wires 4-6.

[Jope]

Interesting. And the drive jumpers are set uniquely, meaning that one is DS0 and the other is DS1?

[brett71]

Yes. DF1: kept showing DF1:???? if I left it jumpered as DS0.

[AndyLandy]

OK, things you need to check (some have been said before)

• Check the motherboard jumper is set for 2 floppy drives.
• Check the drive on the end of the cable is set to DS0
• Check the drive in the middle of the cable is set to DS1
• Check the cable is undamaged and has the twist in the right place (Pins 4-6 should be swapped round, some A4000s were shipped with incorrect ribbons, you might have mysteriously wound up with one of those)

Hopefully some of this will give you some clues. I'm about to fit a second drive to my A3000 myself. I'm hoping it's going to be straightforward! :-)