Floppy weird behavior

desantii · 30 July 2010, 03:55

I recntly found a Chinon FZ-357 drive in my stufff that was in storage, has some weird behaviour though.
If I boot with the floppy in the drive it recognizes the floppy and works fine, althogh does not recognize if I eject or insert another disk.
If I boot with no floppy, all I gte is a DF0: Unreadable

Any thoughts? hopefully can be repaired

thanks

Bamiga2002 · 30 July 2010, 05:49

Do you have an Escom A1200 mobo? Does the drive tick like normal Amiga drive (RDY signal)?

desantii · 30 July 2010, 06:03

No ticking, I was trying on a A3000 and A2000

rkauer · 30 July 2010, 06:57

Disk Present sensor of the drive is stuck. Clean it.

breech · 31 July 2010, 07:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkauer

Disk Present sensor of the drive is stuck. Clean it.

Could you point us to a thread or info regarding this?
Thanks

musashi5150 · 31 July 2010, 14:13

Somewhere at the front of your drive there will be a couple of little push switches (usually in black or white plastic). There is usually one for detecting write protect and the other is to detect if a disk is inserted or not.

If you look at these they might be obviously dirty or covered in fluff. Any obvious filth should be cleaned away and then squirt a little isopropyl alcohol on them. Then giving them a bit of a play usually does the trick. You may not even need the alcohol if they are just covered in filth.

Go forth and fettle

pandy71 · 31 July 2010, 16:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by desantii

If I boot with the floppy in the drive it recognizes the floppy and works fine, althogh does not recognize if I eject or insert another disk.
If I boot with no floppy, all I gte is a DF0: Unreadable

Any thoughts? hopefully can be repaired

It is PC drive and this is NORMAL behavior for Amiga - try to modify this FDD to Amiga - some jumper or soldering pads need to be in correct position - if there is no jumpers or solder pads (or microswitches - on some FDD there was microswitches that allow to chance many things) - You probably need to do some wire artwork.

Loedown · 31 July 2010, 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by pandy71

It is PC drive and this is NORMAL behavior for Amiga - try to modify this FDD to Amiga - some jumper or soldering pads need to be in correct position - if there is no jumpers or solder pads (or microswitches - on some FDD there was microswitches that allow to chance many things) - You probably need to do some wire artwork.

I went and checked my A4000 drive, it's a Chinon but a FB-357A, not an FZ-357 what's the difference?

prowler · 31 July 2010, 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loedown

I went and checked my A4000 drive, it's a Chinon but a FB-357A, not an FZ-357 what's the difference?

I could be wrong, but I think I've read somewhere that it's to do with the height of the drive unit. One is 25mm high (if I'm right, you will know which it is) and the other is 30mm high.

rkauer · 01 August 2010, 08:32

Prowler is right: the FB series is the original A500/2000 unit, and have 30mm height while the FZ series used in A1200/4000 is a low profile unit (25mm).

prowler · 01 August 2010, 21:01

Thanks for confirming that and clarifying it, mate!

desantii · 01 August 2010, 21:05

Update, cleaned the pads, same issue. I guess it might be a PC drive? Is tehre a way to check if its a PC drive?

Loedown · 02 August 2010, 01:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by desantii

Update, cleaned the pads, same issue. I guess it might be a PC drive? Is tehre a way to check if its a PC drive?

If it's a PC drive I don't think there will be any harm in plugging it into a floppy drive port on a PC motherboard, leave my comment stand for a day, if there's no howls of protest try it.

prowler · 02 August 2010, 01:22

That's what I would suggest, too, if you have access to a PC with a standard 34-pin floppy drive port.

Loedown · 02 August 2010, 02:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

That's what I would suggest, too, if you have access to a PC with a standard 34-pin floppy drive port.

It's called your local garbage tip or nearest street corner, no I mean the other street corner, the one without the scantily clad woman.

Hewitson · 02 August 2010, 05:37

Theres only one place these crappy new motherboards without floppy controllers or serial & parallel ports belong. The bin.

Loedown · 02 August 2010, 06:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Theres only one place these crappy new motherboards without floppy controllers or serial & parallel ports belong. The bin.

What stops you from using a USB powered floppy?

prowler · 03 August 2010, 01:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loedown

What stops you from using a USB powered floppy?

Disk2FDI (and probably ADFRead) cannot be used with a USB floppy drive.

Loedown · 03 August 2010, 04:29

I would have assumed that Hewitson was talking about PC hardware not Amiga. Or perhaps I am assuming too much?

Konrad · 03 August 2010, 07:14

I had this happen on my old Amiga 4000. Was annoying the hell out of me. And it happend with an original Commodore floppy drive, not one for a PC. The Pins weren't stuck on the drive. I couldn't really find the error, so I swapped the drive and everything was fine.

30 July 2010, 03:55	#1
desantii Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Oswego, IL Posts: 125	Floppy weird behavior I recntly found a Chinon FZ-357 drive in my stufff that was in storage, has some weird behaviour though. If I boot with the floppy in the drive it recognizes the floppy and works fine, althogh does not recognize if I eject or insert another disk. If I boot with no floppy, all I gte is a DF0: Unreadable Any thoughts? hopefully can be repaired thanks

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Weird Science Network Kit Floppy	chocolate_boy	request.Apps	5	14 March 2012 07:32
Weird A500 boot-up behavior	8bitbubsy	support.Hardware	8	25 October 2009 20:10
Very strange SFS behavior.	Thorham	support.Apps	26	17 October 2009 15:04
Weird A4000 floppy problems	mrluff	support.Hardware	9	14 February 2009 15:12
Strange behavior in A4000	Computolio	support.Hardware	8	22 September 2007 12:39

30 July 2010, 05:49	#2
Bamiga2002 BlizzardPPC'less Join Date: May 2004 Location: Finland Age: 46 Posts: 3,210	Do you have an Escom A1200 mobo? Does the drive tick like normal Amiga drive (RDY signal)?

30 July 2010, 06:03	#3
desantii Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Oswego, IL Posts: 125	No ticking, I was trying on a A3000 and A2000

30 July 2010, 06:57	#4
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 58 Posts: 3,482	Disk Present sensor of the drive is stuck. Clean it.

31 July 2010, 14:13	#6
musashi5150 move.w #$4489,$dff07e Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Norfolk, UK Age: 42 Posts: 2,351	Somewhere at the front of your drive there will be a couple of little push switches (usually in black or white plastic). There is usually one for detecting write protect and the other is to detect if a disk is inserted or not. If you look at these they might be obviously dirty or covered in fluff. Any obvious filth should be cleaned away and then squirt a little isopropyl alcohol on them. Then giving them a bit of a play usually does the trick. You may not even need the alcohol if they are just covered in filth. Go forth and fettle

01 August 2010, 08:32	#10
rkauer I hate potatos and shirts Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Sao Leopoldo / Brazil Age: 58 Posts: 3,482	Prowler is right: the FB series is the original A500/2000 unit, and have 30mm height while the FZ series used in A1200/4000 is a low profile unit (25mm).

01 August 2010, 21:01	#11
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Thanks for confirming that and clarifying it, mate!

01 August 2010, 21:05	#12
desantii Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Oswego, IL Posts: 125	Update, cleaned the pads, same issue. I guess it might be a PC drive? Is tehre a way to check if its a PC drive?

02 August 2010, 01:22	#14
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	That's what I would suggest, too, if you have access to a PC with a standard 34-pin floppy drive port.

02 August 2010, 05:37	#16
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,773	Theres only one place these crappy new motherboards without floppy controllers or serial & parallel ports belong. The bin.

03 August 2010, 04:29	#19
Loedown Precious & fragile things Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Victoria, Australia Posts: 1,946	I would have assumed that Hewitson was talking about PC hardware not Amiga. Or perhaps I am assuming too much?

03 August 2010, 07:14	#20
Konrad Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Age: 43 Posts: 743	I had this happen on my old Amiga 4000. Was annoying the hell out of me. And it happend with an original Commodore floppy drive, not one for a PC. The Pins weren't stuck on the drive. I couldn't really find the error, so I swapped the drive and everything was fine.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)