[net.micro.apple] ][ disk problem and solution

thielges@uiucdcsb.UUCP (10/17/84)

This is an account of an Apple ][ hardware problem and solution.

After loaning my ][ to my mother for a few months, I noticed that most of
my disks would not boot.  The only ones that would boot were my 3.3 system
master and any other disks that were created after the problem occured.
Now based on the above information, what would you think the problem was ?


My hypothesis was that the disk drive was out of alignment.  That seemed to 
make sense because perhaps the system disk had wide enough tracks to be read
by an out of alignment drive (track-wise) and the new disks could be read 
because they were written and read with the same offset.  I almost tried
fiddling with the alignment screws.

Further testing by connecting my drive to another ][ showed that my drive and
controller card were in perfect shape.  I ran a memory test and found that
a 4116 in the highest 16k was bad.  The system master thought that my apple
only had 32k and wrote a 32k dos on all of my new disks.

The moral of the story is to try all of your diagnostic programs before
jumping to a conclusion.
					Bart Thielges
					thielges@uiucdcs