mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) (07/14/87)
I lent out my Amiga to a friend of mine that needed it for some work
he was doing. Before it was moved, it would reject the Kickstart disk
when inserted some 25% of the time. Other than that, the disk drive
read and wrote normally. I did have some problems with cheap disks.
This was probably a sign that the drive was out of alignment, but not
enough so to cause a major catastrophe.
After being moved, my Amiga now refuses to accept Kickstart at all.
Apparently moving the computer gave the drive the extra "oomph" it
needed to fail entirely. Contacting the one dealer in Pittsburgh that
still services Amigas, I found that a re-alignment costs $59.95, or a
new drive costs $150-$160 if a replacements is necessary.
My opinion is that $60 for a re-alignment is more than I can afford.
I am seeking a way to perform the re-alignment myself. Does anybody
have any experience with this operation that they'd be willing to
share with me? My Amiga has a NEC disk drive, complete with chain-saw
sound effects. If I had money to spare, I'd buy a new drive
mail-order just to escape the flakiness of this one. Right now,
however, I'll just settle for a working computer. Thanks in advance.
--M
--
Mike Portuesi / Carnegie-Mellon University Computer Science Department
ARPA: mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu UUCP: {backbone-site}!spice.cs.cmu.edu!mjp
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"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now...only much, much better"
--Laurie Anderson, "Lanugage is a Virus"rleyden@pnet02.CTS.COM (Rich Leyden) (07/17/87)
I had a similar problem with my NEC DF0: drive. A temporary solution was to swap with the drive in df1: so that at least you can use your machine while resolving the repair. On my Amiga the connector cables required a half twist in order that the proper pin #'s be connected. I ended up having a new drive installed in df1:($160), the old drive is still sitting on my shelf in a static bag. I could find no where that was willing to undertake repairs on an Amiga NEC drive, at least not with any assurance that after paying $60 for allignment that it would work. Having nothing to lose, I poked around inside the drive. I noticed that the chrome "cam" that positions the heads with chrome belt seemed to have some wear. Replacing this would have required parts, a repair manual, major disassembly, a allignment disk, oscilliscope, probably special tools and that a complete re-allignment be performed. Hey- I was willing to go for it just out of stubborness but I got tired of living with one drive in the mean time. Its best to just readjust your attitude. Since I had the priviledge of being an Amiga pioneer and paid nearly twice the current price for my machine, another $160 is really pretty insignificant isn't it :) .
jdm@pnet02.CTS.COM (John Mesiavech) (07/17/87)
There's a Drive Alignment Kit complete with sillyscope adapter and disk
alignment disk; it markets for abot $70 or so and is available from Golden
Hawk Tecnologies under their ECE brand name. Not sure of the company's
address...saw it at a semi-local computer store (KJ Computers).
John
UUCP: {ihnp4!crash, hplabs!hp-sdd!crash}!gryphon!pnet02!jdm
INET: jdm@pnet02.CTS.COMandy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel) (07/17/87)
In article <1236@spice.cs.cmu.edu> mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) writes: > >I lent out my Amiga to a friend of mine that needed it for some work >he was doing. Before it was moved, it would reject the Kickstart disk >when inserted some 25% of the time. Other than that, the disk drive >read and wrote normally. I did have some problems with cheap disks. >This was probably a sign that the drive was out of alignment, but not >enough so to cause a major catastrophe. > >After being moved, my Amiga now refuses to accept Kickstart at all. >Apparently moving the computer gave the drive the extra "oomph" it >needed to fail entirely. At various times (well, twice anyway). Once it was because I'd shorted out one of the voltages that the disk drive wanted. A new power supply fixed it up. The second time was after a power failure...that time I had to replace both an 8520 and Paula before it would read a Kickstart again. You might try checking your voltages before you do anything else. > --M andy finkel -- andy finkel {ihnp4|seismo|allegra}!cbmvax!andy Commodore-Amiga, Inc. "The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it." Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share. I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.
page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (07/18/87)
jdm@pnet02.CTS.COM (John Mesiavech) wrote in article <970@gryphon.CTS.COM>: >There's a Drive Alignment Kit ... from Golden Hawk Tecnologies under their >ECE brand name. I think it is ECE's, not GHT's ... as far as I know, they are competitors in the MIDI interface market. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@ulowell.{uucp,edu,csnet}