stuart@adiron.UUCP (K. Stuart Shea) (09/06/84)
<> While running Microsoft's Multiplan recently, my disk drive seemed to lock up and die. Repeated attempts to load MP sometimes works; other times not. Is this the proverbial head alignment problem that has been so rampant throughout the 1541 that I am experiencing, or it it something new and frightening? Anyway of checking out if my head is out-of-whack. I have run the "test" program that comes on the 1541 Demo Disk and all seems to be well -- there has to be some other way of checking. Other disks load fine, just the MP one dies. Will Microsoft supply a new disk without paying the $10 (required for backup versions). Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this problem? Thanks, Stu Shea duke!adiron!stuart
dunkelbe@ecn-ee.UUCP (09/19/84)
<NO!> I recently purchased a copy of Multiplan, and immediately figured out that it was copy protected by the NASTY sounds it makes as it is loaded. If you listen, after a bootstrap loader is installed, the drive tries to move to track 0. The 1541 controller is not intelligent enough to remember which track it is on when it gets a 'move to track 0' command, so it moves the total number of tracks on a diskette away from the hub, usually resulting in half of the moves beating the head mechanism against the stop. Previous correspondence on this system has proposed that this is the cause of the alignment problem: the constant over-running of track 0. Solution? Load Multiplan as seldom as possible, or be willing to periodically re-align your drive (a 15 minute process requiring only a couple of screwdrivers and a good diskette). Kirk