A500+ Floppy Drive Failure

22 February 2011, 13:24

I recently purchased an A500+ and a bunch of games out of nostalgia, and have gotten it mostly working. First thing I did when I recieved it was to remove the battery (no leakage, thankfully) and clean the pins on all of the socketed chips to make sure everything ran smoothly.

However the darn thing refuses to boot anything from DF0. I have an external FDD but some of the things I wish to play (Team17 games) require me to boot from DF0, crashing with a Software Failure 8000 0003 or similar error when I try to boot them from DF1.

I've swapped the internal floppy drive with my external and it hasn't changed anything which leads me to think that the controller chip for the internal FDD is defective. Any ideas what I'd need to do to fix/replace it? Thanks in advance.

BrooksterMax · 22 February 2011, 13:27

Did you also change the cable(s) over as well? My A600 had a defective IDE cable which mean't that my HD didn't work, perhaps a similar possibility exists for floppy drives.

I don't know about the controller chip - there are experts here who can advise for that.

22 February 2011, 14:08

Yeah I've tried using a different cable. The Amiga picks up that the FDD is there and it ticks when waiting for a disk, spins up when one is put in and everything. It just refuses to boot from anything. :/

cosmicfrog · 22 February 2011, 15:40

try the external drive on the internal cable, some disassemblely may be required .... also check drive is ds0 for internal FDunit

cpiac64 · 22 February 2011, 18:16

disable internal with diode, search post on this forum

22 February 2011, 18:34

I have tried using the external drive on the internal cable. Same result.

I don't have a Hard Drive attached or diskspare either so I don't think ds0 will help.

I'll try disabling the internal drive though, thanks for the tip. I didn't know that was possible.

pandy71 · 22 February 2011, 18:43

Is there any click hear-able ?

First suspect is CIA - maybe IC socket is bit lousy? Try to press (firmly and gently) CIA's and Paula.

OK, LED light or not - verify Pin 1 on cable and both connectors - usually Pin 1 in FDD is opposite to Pin 1 on HDD (Pin 1 on HDD is close to HDD power connctor, on FDD Pin 1 is on opposite side - very common mistake)

22 February 2011, 18:55

The drive clicks and the LED light is only on when I'm using the External drive, not the internal. There is no HDD and the FDD is plugged into the correct spot. The chips are all in properly and I cleaned the contacts this morning when I was cleaning the motherboard.

Edit: I can't find anything on disabling DF0 through diode. The only thing I found involved bending the pins on one of the CIA chips and I really do not want to do that. :/

kipper2k · 22 February 2011, 19:06

iirc the CIA chips are socketed on that board. Swap the CIA chips and see what happens

22 February 2011, 19:17

I'll give that a try, thanks!

22 February 2011, 23:45

Swapped the CIA chips around. No change. I'm having second thoughts about this FDD being sound. Going to try and fiddle about with it for a while, see if it needs cleaning.

Edit: Cleaned it out. No change. Trying the external again, but the jumper system confuses me. It's a Chinon FX-354, and the jumpers look like this:

Code:

X O O O
|
X X-X O

(X are used, O are not)

However, there's a small etching above the jumpers that looks like this:

Code:

             DS
M M 3 - - - 2
| |     |
D M 0 - - - 1

This shows 6 jumpers instead of 8. I tried removing the leftmost jumper bridge and moving the bottom jumper one space left, but it didn't really do anything aside from making the FDD LED on the Amiga stay on all the time and not much else. Moving the bottom one back to the right while leaving the left jumper out didn't do anything at all. I'm not sure what else to try. The A500+ boot setup says that DF0 is the only one connected, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Google is no help with regards to finding an explanation about the jumpers either. :/

cpiac64 · 23 February 2011, 08:45

stop it, verify +12 (wire yellow) volt on floppy connector and original internal floppy

cosmicfrog · 23 February 2011, 10:36

yes ekk if you don`t know what you are doing you are only going to make it worse

you only need the 6 jumpers in fact never seen a floppy drive configed as ds3 or ds4

looks like drive is setup to be ds0 so thats right unless u have changed the jumpers

22 February 2011, 13:24	#1
ShadowWraith Posts: n/a	A500+ Floppy Drive Failure I recently purchased an A500+ and a bunch of games out of nostalgia, and have gotten it mostly working. First thing I did when I recieved it was to remove the battery (no leakage, thankfully) and clean the pins on all of the socketed chips to make sure everything ran smoothly. However the darn thing refuses to boot anything from DF0. I have an external FDD but some of the things I wish to play (Team17 games) require me to boot from DF0, crashing with a Software Failure 8000 0003 or similar error when I try to boot them from DF1. I've swapped the internal floppy drive with my external and it hasn't changed anything which leads me to think that the controller chip for the internal FDD is defective. Any ideas what I'd need to do to fix/replace it? Thanks in advance.

22 February 2011, 18:34	#6
ShadowWraith Posts: n/a	I have tried using the external drive on the internal cable. Same result. I don't have a Hard Drive attached or diskspare either so I don't think ds0 will help. I'll try disabling the internal drive though, thanks for the tip. I didn't know that was possible. Last edited by ShadowWraith; 22 February 2011 at 19:05.

22 February 2011, 18:55	#8
ShadowWraith Posts: n/a	The drive clicks and the LED light is only on when I'm using the External drive, not the internal. There is no HDD and the FDD is plugged into the correct spot. The chips are all in properly and I cleaned the contacts this morning when I was cleaning the motherboard. Edit: I can't find anything on disabling DF0 through diode. The only thing I found involved bending the pins on one of the CIA chips and I really do not want to do that. :/ Last edited by ShadowWraith; 22 February 2011 at 19:12.

22 February 2011, 23:45	#11
ShadowWraith Posts: n/a	Swapped the CIA chips around. No change. I'm having second thoughts about this FDD being sound. Going to try and fiddle about with it for a while, see if it needs cleaning. Edit: Cleaned it out. No change. Trying the external again, but the jumper system confuses me. It's a Chinon FX-354, and the jumpers look like this: Code: X O O O \| X X-X O (X are used, O are not) However, there's a small etching above the jumpers that looks like this: Code: DS M M 3 - - - 2 \| \| \| D M 0 - - - 1 This shows 6 jumpers instead of 8. I tried removing the leftmost jumper bridge and moving the bottom jumper one space left, but it didn't really do anything aside from making the FDD LED on the Amiga stay on all the time and not much else. Moving the bottom one back to the right while leaving the left jumper out didn't do anything at all. I'm not sure what else to try. The A500+ boot setup says that DF0 is the only one connected, so I'm not sure what's going on. Google is no help with regards to finding an explanation about the jumpers either. :/ Last edited by ShadowWraith; 23 February 2011 at 00:38.

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22 February 2011, 13:27	#2
BrooksterMax Registered User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Norfolk UK Age: 43 Posts: 433	Did you also change the cable(s) over as well? My A600 had a defective IDE cable which mean't that my HD didn't work, perhaps a similar possibility exists for floppy drives. I don't know about the controller chip - there are experts here who can advise for that.

22 February 2011, 14:08	#3
ShadowWraith Posts: n/a	Yeah I've tried using a different cable. The Amiga picks up that the FDD is there and it ticks when waiting for a disk, spins up when one is put in and everything. It just refuses to boot from anything. :/

22 February 2011, 15:40	#4
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	try the external drive on the internal cable, some disassemblely may be required .... also check drive is ds0 for internal FDunit

22 February 2011, 18:16	#5
cpiac64 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Italy Posts: 1,136	disable internal with diode, search post on this forum

22 February 2011, 18:43	#7
pandy71 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: PL? Posts: 2,888	Is there any click hear-able ? First suspect is CIA - maybe IC socket is bit lousy? Try to press (firmly and gently) CIA's and Paula. OK, LED light or not - verify Pin 1 on cable and both connectors - usually Pin 1 in FDD is opposite to Pin 1 on HDD (Pin 1 on HDD is close to HDD power connctor, on FDD Pin 1 is on opposite side - very common mistake)

22 February 2011, 19:06	#9
kipper2k Registered User Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Thunder Bay, Canada Posts: 4,323	iirc the CIA chips are socketed on that board. Swap the CIA chips and see what happens

22 February 2011, 19:17	#10
ShadowWraith Posts: n/a	I'll give that a try, thanks!

23 February 2011, 08:45	#12
cpiac64 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Italy Posts: 1,136	stop it, verify +12 (wire yellow) volt on floppy connector and original internal floppy

23 February 2011, 10:36	#13
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	yes ekk if you don`t know what you are doing you are only going to make it worse you only need the 6 jumpers in fact never seen a floppy drive configed as ds3 or ds4 looks like drive is setup to be ds0 so thats right unless u have changed the jumpers

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