A2000: Is my floppy drive controller buggered?

[woody.cool]

Hi all,

I've got a wierd problem.
My A2000 has started doing something strange.
If I put a write-protected disk in any drive (internal or external) it's fine, but if I put a write-enabled disk in any drive, it corrupts the data beyond recognition, even on my known working external drive.

When it corrupts the disk, you don't even need to attempt to write to the disk, it corrupts it upon AmigaDOS reading the disk.

I doubt it's a virus, as I've run several virus checkers and they don't pick anything up.

For information, the A2000 is the following:

- Amiga 2000 NTSC model (unsure of mobo rev)
- Kickstart 1.3 & Workbench 1.3.3
- 2x Internal floppy drives
- A2091 SCSI controller with 2GB SCSI drive

Although not always connected, I've also tried an external drive (as DF2 and that has the same problem, but is fine on my other Amigas

I suspect my floppy controller chip is knackered.

btw. it's not just in AmigaDOS that this happens ..... even attempting to do a CheckDisk in Xcopy Pro on a write-enabled disk will destroy it's contents (and checkdisk doesn't write anything !?!)

[hit]

not sure. did you just booted from a floppy disk, while disabling your harddrives?
try to create a boot disk for your a2000 on your other amiga, and just run the floppy, write enabled.

[woody.cool]

Originally Posted by hit

not sure. did you just booted from a floppy disk, while disabling your harddrives?
try to create a boot disk for your a2000 on your other amiga, and just run the floppy, write enabled.

I think I already booted from a floppy, but will try again, as I can't remember whether I did it from a cold boot.

[woody.cool]

Right, I've tried that
I had the same problems!
Suspecting CIA chips now

[hit]

too bad, just look for leaked capacitors near the chips. cant help here.

Edit: just had a look at a picture of an a2000 board, the CIAs are socketed? if so, try switching them. IIRC just one is for floppy stuff. maybe it helps somehow.

[woody.cool]

Originally Posted by hit

too bad, just look for leaked capacitors near the chips. cant help here.

Edit: just had a look at a picture of an a2000 board, the CIAs are socketed? if so, try switching them. IIRC just one is for floppy stuff. maybe it helps somehow.

Well ... it's all gone completely fu**ing pete tong!

Swapped the CIA chips with a pair from a known working A500 motherboard, then it didn't recognise the drives at all!
Checked everything, checked for bent pins, checked they were the right way around etc. also checked correct CIA chip in correct socket .... nothing.

Swapped CIA chips back to the original (at least they can read disks) .... nothing, wouldn't even recognise a disk!
Turned it off, went to check, made 100% sure they didn't have bent pins, reseated, checked the correct chips were in the correct sockets.
Assembled it all back together.
Plugged in
Turned power on ................. NOTHING!

THE FU**ING PSU HAS FU**ING DIED NOW.

So I've decided, F**K IT! The thing's going on ebay as spares & repairs now, I've had a fu**ing nuff!

Anyway, I have a few A500's, A500+, A3000, A1200, CDTV and CD32 ..... it's not like I'm short on Amigas.

[hit]

*ugh* doesn`t sound that good :/
did the a500 CIAs worked again, taking them back into the A500?
any chance to replace the PSU with an at(x) one? maybe the power-values failed (before it died) - offen the +5V line is mentioned (IIRC), which has to give good voltage but failes offten on older PSUs.
maybe its worth to look into the PSU - take care high voltages even when switched off !! people says, its worth to replace the Caps from the PSU.
I've really no clue. too bad, none of the knowledge people said something more helpfull.

[woody.cool]

Well, a friend of mine has taken it off my hands for 'spare & repairs'
I removed the dloppy drives, SCSI card, HDD & RAM, so left him with a bog standard A2000 which he's now butchering.

[hit]

ah, oh, hmm, ok. maybe another amiga can survive with the parts

[woody.cool]

Originally Posted by hit

ah, oh, hmm, ok. maybe another amiga can survive with the parts

Exactly.
This mate of mine has an A1500 but the case is severly damaged, hence I thought he could use the case from my A2000 to make it look decent!

[hit]

bit pitty, but so what. things wont get better, so its not a bad end