Amiga 1200 floppy drive is making me cry

[Nostromo]

I have an Amiga 1200 with a floppy drive I bought some time ago from Amigakit. Today I have decided to write and use some floppy disks, and it is driving me bonkers.

At one point the floppy drive would stop working. Disk??? Error.

Now to solve this I would:

1. Switch off the machine, wait for 2 minutes and switch it on again.

2. Quickformat a floppy drive... and voila it starts reading the drive again like nothing happened. If I soft reset, it stops reading floppies again.

Can someone enlighten me on what is going on please?

Thanks!

[demolition]

Sounds like the drive in my 1200, which has a Panasonic drive. I have a new Amigakit drive underway in the post as I suspected the drive to be bad. When I get it, it'll be interesting to see if it changes anything or if the trouble is related to the 1200 itself.

[Nostromo]

Is your Panasonic drive an Amigakit hack or an original one?

[demolition]

Original ESCOM model. I assume it's a modified PC drive as my 1200 MB is unmodified unlike most other ESCOM boards.

[Nostromo]

Basically if I switch on my Amiga (it goes straight to WB as I have a CF/IDE HDD), and insert a floppy drive it works. If I insert a floppy after maybe 5 minutes it doesnt work (DF0???? error). I would then format it, and it works straight away.

Makes no sense to me!

[demolition]

Ok, that is a little different to my drive. It seems to work when I'm in WB, but if I do a soft reset, it often won't boot from the floppy. If I do a power cycle, it usually boots fine from the floppy until the next soft reset.

[Nostromo]

Hmm I just replaced my PSU (I was using an A500 PSU, now using a proper A1200) and the floppy drive worked first time. I will do some more testing and see how it goes.

[Nostromo]

Aaaand happened again.

[Kin Hell]

Could be the switches sticking. Applying pressure on the edge of the floppy Disk when in the drive might help. If it does, follow this guide.

Remove floppy drive from Amiga.

Get some WD40 & spray the switches. These switches line up with the write-protect hole on the Floppy Disk. There are also switches on the opposite side to write-protect hole for HD 1.76Mb capable drives. After applying a small amount of spray, work the switches with a small flat screwdriver or similar.
Wipe off any excess WD40 (no need to drown them btw) & give the drive a try again.

Hope it works for you.

[Nostromo]

Thanks for your suggestion. When you say apply pressure on the edge of the floppy disk do you mean towards the inside or downwards?

Thanks!

[Turran]

He means press the floppy down more, so the switches press down a bit more.

If that helps, press the switches down as the floppy normally would. When you press them yourself, they go down a bit more then only the floppy does.

Be very careful with the WD-40 or whatever you use though. You do no want that inside your drive. I didnt even think WD-40 (or 5-56 as its called here) was a good idea since it melts plastic. I use a drop of oil ment for locks that say it lubricates plastic.

[Nostromo]

Meanwhile Amigakit have answered and said that most likely it is a system problem. If I send back the floppy drive to them for testing and it turns out to be ok,I have to pay for the testing time and shipping back

I tried pushing the floppy a bit down a bit more but did nothing.

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by Turran

He means press the floppy down more, so the switches press down a bit more.

If that helps, press the switches down as the floppy normally would. When you press them yourself, they go down a bit more then only the floppy does.

Applying pressure down & in @ the same time with an on-off-on-off pressure gesture for a few times.

Originally Posted by Turran

Be very careful with the WD-40 or whatever you use though. You do no want that inside your drive. I didnt even think WD-40 (or 5-56 as its called here) was a good idea since it melts plastic. I use a drop of oil ment for locks that say it lubricates plastic.

WD-40 Multi-Use Product can be used on just about everything. It is safe to use on metal, rubber, wood and plastic. It can also be applied to painted metal surfaces without harming the paint. Polycarbonate and clear polystyrene plastic are among the few surfaces on which to avoid using a petroleum-based product like WD-40 Multi-Use Product.

From here: http://wd40.com/faqs/

Worked a treat for my drive HD A4000 Floppy.


@ Nostromo

Gah! - Bummer.

[Nostromo]

This morning it has read all floppies I threw at it without problems.... The only thing I did was format 1 floppy disk using XCopy - does this make any sense at all?

[Solo761]

It could be capacitor issue :/. My original A1200 drive worked fine and then zap, disk??? errors. At first I thought bad floppy, but it was the same with floppies that worked fine week before (this is the only difference from your case, mine worked fine and it just stopped reading without errors, yours still does, occasionally).

It turned out to be capacitor's fault, look here

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71760

I don't know how old is your replacement drive (not how much used it is, but how long it sat in some warehouse), but it could also be capacitor's fault. It's not hard to change it, and if you think you're up the task and aren't afraid of voiding warranty.

Originally Posted by Nostromo

This morning it has read all floppies I threw at it without problems.... The only thing I did was format 1 floppy disk using XCopy - does this make any sense at all?

Hmm, strange, although I didn't really test mine. Maybe it would be similar, on - off working like yours. I tried formatting a batch of old floppies and when fifth one was all errors I thought it may not be floppies fault. I then modded an ALPS PC drive, put it in A1200 and that one worked fine with all floppies I threw at it. So I didn't really test my original one.
I replaced the capacitor on original one and after that it worked again, although only with floppies it formatted/wrote (before recap it wouldn't even format a floppy) so it needs to be realigned. Also my replacement capacitor isn't really of high quality and voltage rating is different from original one. I'm waiting for better ones to arrive to try it again.

I don't know what to make of your problem. Maybe asking guys from amigakit if it could be capacitor issue? It can be, as it can behave differently in different temperatures, especially if it's flaky.

Then again, have you tried opening your drive and carefully cleaning the heads with cotton swab and alcohol?

[Nostromo]

Heya, thanks for your reply. My floppy drive is pretty new, barely used at all as I have bought it from Amigakit. I will test the A1200 for a few more days see if the problem comes back, hopefully by then I will be able to test with another floppy drive.

As for my A1200 capacitors, I bought it with the caps replaced so they are new as well.

[Solo761]

I meant capacitor on floppy drive, not the ones on A1200 motherboard . There's one that has something to do with reading. If it fails drive can't read, I guess it acts like a filter, and when it fails it's too much noise when reading data. That's why drive works but has problem reading data.

Drive may be new, as in unused, but who knows how long it sat on some shelf in the warehouse before amigakit got it. I doubt new amiga floppy drives are still manufactured. Electrolytic capacitors fail if they're stored for too long, that's why we recap motherboards, same goes for electrolytic capacitors on other electronics (as floppy drives).

[Nostromo]

Ahhh ok - I understand now. Guess it is time to start replacing those floppies with HcX devices then :P

Anyway will see how it goes.

[Nostromo]

Happened again, but I am getting the hang of this, it seems to be going on with floppies that have only been quick formated.

[Bamiga2002]

Try DriveMusic to make your floppy drive cry instead of you :-). Maybe the heads will magically be corrected (worth a try anyway). Couldn't find "el condor pasa" that would have rocked your drive

NAH! here's el condor pasa
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=106402&postcount=40