bbh@whizz.uucp (Bud Hovell) (10/17/89)
I originally posted this problem in unix-pc.general, without response, so..... We have a 67-meg/2-meg 3B1 here that has a weirded-out floppy-drive. Over the past several months, it has suddenly stopped working on several occasions, and each time (until recently) the shop diddled it over and it started working again. Until now. We seem to have a gremlin. Can anyone suggest a cause for why our floppy-drive *will* faithfully load up the diagnostics, but will *not* otherwise read, write, or format discs in normal operations? This applies whether we are using the user-agent, or giving commands directly to the device from the command line, or selecting commands via the diagnostics menu. Is broke! We are assuming the drive itself is ok, since it went to the shop for this problem a time or two before and, on the last trip, it checked out fine on a bench-test by a specialist. (At that time, we got it running again, and it lasted just three days. It appears something is just slowly degrading, but what?) Once the diagnostics are loaded, we get errors each time we try to operate the drive, and a *REALLY* loud CRUUUUUNCHHHING noise when we try to read (if I recall) a disc. I wasn't brave enough to press it any further. This is the current listing on the device-drivers: brw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 0, 32 Jan 1 1970 /dev/fp020 brw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 0, 33 Jan 1 1970 /dev/fp021 crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 4, 32 Sep 12 18:52 /dev/rfp020 crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 4, 33 Aug 13 15:28 /dev/rfp021 I even replaced the WD1010 chip - desperation move on my part: hope springs eternal :-). I'm not sure if this info is complete enough to provide significant clues, and will be happy to get/give more, if someone can just tell me what/where to check for it. Thanks for any help you can offer! We're desperate. (Gil: if I've missed something important to relate here, I'd appreciate it if you'd comment regarding our exchange of information about this little puzzle.) Bud UUCP: ...{tektronix|sun}!nosun!whizz!bbh MOTD: "Don't just `believe' in miracles - *rely* on them!" - anon