rhir_ltd@ur-tut (Bob Hirosky) (06/28/88)
----------Snack Line-------------- Since I bought my A500 last February I've had the internal drive replaced twice. Last week I picked up my machine with high hopes that this third drive might work. But Noooooooooo! The problem is two fold: 1)It only formats about 20% of the disks I feed it; the other 80% or so typically have "bad sector numbers" on the first or last tracks. I've tried brand new Sony, Kodak, BASF, and Nashua disks with the same "success" in each case. 2)It often fails to read disks that were made or even just used with one of my other two drives. Sometimes it replies read/write error when loading a certain file. But what it really likes to do is say "not a dos disk" about many of my disks including the original Wbench. Disk. Should I go back to the dealer and say, "Hey, it's time for #4". Perhaps he should look for some other problem? Is there a chance that he could send it to Commodore to be fixed? If so would I get my Amiga back before Fall? Winter? Next Spring? Thanks for any hints, suggestions, comments, etc. Bob
dca@kesmai.COM (David C. Albrecht) (06/29/88)
In article <2228@ur-tut.UUCP>, rhir_ltd@ur-tut (Bob Hirosky) writes: > > Since I bought my A500 last February I've had the internal > drive replaced twice. Last week I picked up my machine with high > hopes that this third drive might work. But Noooooooooo! > > Should I go back to the dealer and say, "Hey, it's time for #4". > Perhaps he should look for some other problem? > Is there a chance that he could send it to Commodore to be fixed? > If so would I get my Amiga back before Fall? Winter? Next Spring? > I was just reading an article where they stated that many floppy disk problems are due to marginal power supplies not any fault in the drives themselves. This was an article in some electronics mag and they went on to how to test your supply etc.. Given the success you have had with drives there is a good possibility that your problem lies elsewhere than the drive itself and the power supply might not be a bad place to look. David Albrecht
jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) (06/29/88)
In article <2228@ur-tut.UUCP> rhir_ltd@ur-tut (Bob Hirosky) writes: > Since I bought my A500 last February I've had the internal >drive replaced twice. Last week I picked up my machine with high >hopes that this third drive might work. But Noooooooooo! > 1)It only formats about 20% of the disks I feed it; > the other 80% or so typically have "bad sector > numbers" on the first or last tracks. I've tried > brand new Sony, Kodak, BASF, and Nashua disks > with the same "success" in each case. I don't trust BASF or Nashua as far as I can throw them. Sony and Kodak should be ok, though. The errors you're getting are the typical errors for bad disks. Can the other drives format the same disks without problems? > 2)It often fails to read disks that were made or > even just used with one of my other two drives. > Sometimes it replies read/write error when loading > a certain file. But what it really likes to do is > say "not a dos disk" about many of my disks including > the original Wbench. Disk. "Two other drives" - on a 500? Does one of them have it's own power supply??? The A500 only has power for 1 external drive, I believe. Even the A1000 didn't have power for more than one external drive (though it usually works, it can cause flakies due to low voltage.) Sort of like Putting 1.5Meg boards inside a 500 - BAD. Since you may have been straining your power supply, check the voltage to be safe, though it's probably fine (when they go they die). Try removing BOTH external drives and see if the problem persists. BTW: are you certain he actually changed the drive 3 times, and didn't just send it back with the same drive? (Just checking all the possibilities, no insult to him intended.) It seems strange that the exact same problem existed in three different internal drives, when the externals are fine (since the only difference is which select line is on.) -- Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup