Amiga Floppy Drive strangeness. - Page 2

Anemos · 09 February 2012, 00:16

I use PC PSU years ago,no problem,and is very stable.

chrispoacher · 11 February 2012, 16:45

Hi, tried formatting a HD disk with the tabs covered, just came back with 'can't format cylinder 0'. same for both drives

Anemos · 11 February 2012, 16:50

Fault drive,must change it, try modes one of PC type.. > http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30944

chrispoacher · 11 February 2012, 17:04

but how can '3' seperate Amiga drives all work and read absolutely fine but not write?? or pretend to write but not really write? something doesnt add up..

Anemos · 11 February 2012, 18:15

You mean your Amiga has problem,and no the drives? ye maybe, but only way to know is testing the drives on other Amiga.
The simply way, is the testing way, before to search for hardware faults.

chrispoacher · 11 February 2012, 18:55

I totally agree, but I dont have another amiga [or know anyone who does] to test them. I may have to buy another off the bay.

Anemos · 11 February 2012, 20:13

Better for you, look for A1200 motherboard only, is cheaper, also the posting cost is low..

marcfrick2112 · 11 February 2012, 21:10

Just saying, I don't know for certain, but it sounds to be like it may be a bad floppy controller chip? I had only one similar occurance... my late dad's A600 just up refused to read or write floppies one day...Internal, external, didn't matter...

Anemos · 11 February 2012, 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcfrick2112

Just saying, I don't know for certain, but it sounds to be like it may be a bad floppy controller chip? I had only one similar occurance... my late dad's A600 just up refused to read or write floppies one day...Internal, external, didn't matter...

3X drives 3 controller with same problem? thing no.
It looks like motherboard hardware chip controller bus problem..

chrispoacher · 11 February 2012, 23:02

I'm guessing then the floppy controller chip is not one of the easily removeable socket chips like on the A500? Wasnt GARY responsible for the disk writes? I found this earlier http://techtravels.org/?p=196

marcfrick2112 · 12 February 2012, 05:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anemos

3X drives 3 controller with same problem? thing no.
It looks like motherboard hardware chip controller bus problem..

That was what I meant!

Anyway, just saying my dad's A600 had the SAME symptoms... then the HD 'controller' chip, whatever failed...

I am only trying to help.

chrispoacher · 13 February 2012, 12:05

well I am very grateful for everyone's help

I think I'm swaying towards the floppy controller myself, I have just one more thing to try and thats the stronger 200w PSU which is currently in the mail to me, as soon as I get it I will try it out, otherwise it's possibly a new motherboard.

The annoying thing is that I hardly ever will save to floppy, all I need to do is convert a set of Workbench 3.1 disks I have in .adf format to real disks, after which I will probably never save anything to floppy again ever; all my music files etc are stored on the CF or PCMCIA drives.

now if there was a program on the amiga that could copy an .adf file and write it's contents to the "RAM disk" rather than a floppy I would be be one super happy chap and dispose of said floppydrives in the bin.

:O)

in the meantime, thankyou to all for the help and advice so far. it is very much appreciated.

Chris

chrispoacher · 13 February 2012, 14:24

....or better still allow me to read the contents of an .adf file on the PC and extract/copy all the individual files onto an sd/cf card and pop that into the Amiga. providing it can cope with the long filenames, like the workbench matheeeiiboubas.library or whatever it is. I remember PC's of old trying to copy this with crossdos and throwing a major strop. :P

Supamax · 13 February 2012, 21:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrispoacher

but how can '3' seperate Amiga drives all work and read absolutely fine but not write?? or pretend to write but not really write? something doesnt add up..

Exactly, it's highly unprobable.
I think the drives are fine.

chrispoacher · 15 February 2012, 01:56

scrubbed 2 of the drives with a huge blast of asopropyl alchohol cleaner [servisol] using a disk cleaner mulitple times, booted a disk version of XCOPY and tried format, destroy etc and all said formatted ok and yet the disk is still in the same state before the format after several attempts. I can safely say that the possibility of dirty write heads can now be instantly eliminated. Still waiting for the power supply but I'm about ready to give up if that doesnt work. I must find a way of converting stuff from adf files into normal files. adfview and adf opus reads them fine, just doesnt let me copy or do anything to them unless I want to copy them to ANOTHER adf file, which to me is next to useless.

chrispoacher · 16 February 2012, 23:52

Powered up with the 200w PSU today, no difference to floppy activity. I Give Up..

chrispoacher · 16 February 2012, 23:58

is it possible to mount a real CF card drive using UAE emulator so I can virtually copy the contents of .adf files onto a real compact flash card? would I then be able to pop this into my PCMCIA reader on my A1200 and run the files that way? I would fix one of the two problems at least.

prowler · 17 February 2012, 23:01

When I first saw this thread I thought it was some kind of hoax, because I couldn't imagine what might be causing this bizarre floppy drive behaviour - least of all misfunctioning hardware.

The only explanation I can come up with (although this may sound just as bizarre) is that you have some disk cacheing utility running in the background and it is configured to cache the floppy drive(s) as well has the hard drive(s), and you are forgetting that it takes much longer for the floppy cache to flush and are removing the floppy disk from the drive before this process has even started.

chrispoacher · 18 February 2012, 04:11

No, definitely not a hoax, just very very annoying. I've even tried booting from floppy disks straight into DOS & XCOPY PRO and also from a floppy version of Workbench and it does exactly the same thing, even minus the internal IDE Solid state drive. Firstly had the problem with my 256MB Seagate SSD drive, and no difference with a 4GB CF drive. Have you viewed the video links that I posted earlier in this thread? The HD doesnt run any kind of disk caching software as far as I know, just workbench 3.0 basic install that worked absolutely fine for years until a month ago when all this bizarreness starting happening, I made no sudden changes to the Amiga or it's hardware, just tried to format some DSDD disks one day and then it all went nuts.

Supamax · 18 February 2012, 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

I couldn't imagine what might be causing this bizarre floppy drive behaviour - least of all misfunctioning hardware.

No, not all hardware... I think it's something broken related to floppy control on the mainboard. Probably the CIA chip... could it be?

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09 February 2012, 00:16	#21
Anemos 70X7 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ἑλλάς Posts: 1,078	I use PC PSU years ago,no problem,and is very stable.

11 February 2012, 16:45	#22
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	Hi, tried formatting a HD disk with the tabs covered, just came back with 'can't format cylinder 0'. same for both drives

11 February 2012, 16:50	#23
Anemos 70X7 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ἑλλάς Posts: 1,078	Fault drive,must change it, try modes one of PC type.. > http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30944

11 February 2012, 17:04	#24
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	but how can '3' seperate Amiga drives all work and read absolutely fine but not write?? or pretend to write but not really write? something doesnt add up..

11 February 2012, 18:15	#25
Anemos 70X7 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ἑλλάς Posts: 1,078	You mean your Amiga has problem,and no the drives? ye maybe, but only way to know is testing the drives on other Amiga. The simply way, is the testing way, before to search for hardware faults.

11 February 2012, 18:55	#26
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	I totally agree, but I dont have another amiga [or know anyone who does] to test them. I may have to buy another off the bay.

11 February 2012, 20:13	#27
Anemos 70X7 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ἑλλάς Posts: 1,078	Better for you, look for A1200 motherboard only, is cheaper, also the posting cost is low..

11 February 2012, 21:10	#28
marcfrick2112 Amiga Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA Age: 53 Posts: 179	Just saying, I don't know for certain, but it sounds to be like it may be a bad floppy controller chip? I had only one similar occurance... my late dad's A600 just up refused to read or write floppies one day...Internal, external, didn't matter...

11 February 2012, 23:02	#30
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	I'm guessing then the floppy controller chip is not one of the easily removeable socket chips like on the A500? Wasnt GARY responsible for the disk writes? I found this earlier http://techtravels.org/?p=196

13 February 2012, 12:05	#32
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	well I am very grateful for everyone's help I think I'm swaying towards the floppy controller myself, I have just one more thing to try and thats the stronger 200w PSU which is currently in the mail to me, as soon as I get it I will try it out, otherwise it's possibly a new motherboard. The annoying thing is that I hardly ever will save to floppy, all I need to do is convert a set of Workbench 3.1 disks I have in .adf format to real disks, after which I will probably never save anything to floppy again ever; all my music files etc are stored on the CF or PCMCIA drives. now if there was a program on the amiga that could copy an .adf file and write it's contents to the "RAM disk" rather than a floppy I would be be one super happy chap and dispose of said floppydrives in the bin. :O) in the meantime, thankyou to all for the help and advice so far. it is very much appreciated. Chris

13 February 2012, 14:24	#33
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	....or better still allow me to read the contents of an .adf file on the PC and extract/copy all the individual files onto an sd/cf card and pop that into the Amiga. providing it can cope with the long filenames, like the workbench matheeeiiboubas.library or whatever it is. I remember PC's of old trying to copy this with crossdos and throwing a major strop. :P

15 February 2012, 01:56	#35
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	scrubbed 2 of the drives with a huge blast of asopropyl alchohol cleaner [servisol] using a disk cleaner mulitple times, booted a disk version of XCOPY and tried format, destroy etc and all said formatted ok and yet the disk is still in the same state before the format after several attempts. I can safely say that the possibility of dirty write heads can now be instantly eliminated. Still waiting for the power supply but I'm about ready to give up if that doesnt work. I must find a way of converting stuff from adf files into normal files. adfview and adf opus reads them fine, just doesnt let me copy or do anything to them unless I want to copy them to ANOTHER adf file, which to me is next to useless.

16 February 2012, 23:52	#36
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	Powered up with the 200w PSU today, no difference to floppy activity. I Give Up..

16 February 2012, 23:58	#37
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	is it possible to mount a real CF card drive using UAE emulator so I can virtually copy the contents of .adf files onto a real compact flash card? would I then be able to pop this into my PCMCIA reader on my A1200 and run the files that way? I would fix one of the two problems at least.

17 February 2012, 23:01	#38
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	When I first saw this thread I thought it was some kind of hoax, because I couldn't imagine what might be causing this bizarre floppy drive behaviour - least of all misfunctioning hardware. The only explanation I can come up with (although this may sound just as bizarre) is that you have some disk cacheing utility running in the background and it is configured to cache the floppy drive(s) as well has the hard drive(s), and you are forgetting that it takes much longer for the floppy cache to flush and are removing the floppy disk from the drive before this process has even started.

18 February 2012, 04:11	#39
chrispoacher Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Bridgend / South Wales Posts: 26	No, definitely not a hoax, just very very annoying. I've even tried booting from floppy disks straight into DOS & XCOPY PRO and also from a floppy version of Workbench and it does exactly the same thing, even minus the internal IDE Solid state drive. Firstly had the problem with my 256MB Seagate SSD drive, and no difference with a 4GB CF drive. Have you viewed the video links that I posted earlier in this thread? The HD doesnt run any kind of disk caching software as far as I know, just workbench 3.0 basic install that worked absolutely fine for years until a month ago when all this bizarreness starting happening, I made no sudden changes to the Amiga or it's hardware, just tried to format some DSDD disks one day and then it all went nuts.

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