bartho@obs.unige.ch (Paul Bartholdi, Geneva Observatory, Switzerland) (01/18/91)
In article <27938.27944332@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, kuento@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: > HELLLLP! here's the situation: I bought a used 1040ST, and when it > arrived, it was soon on the fritz. It looked like head alignment > problems (thanx to those netters who helped then) - I brought it to > a local repair shop, but later found out the guy had never worked on > an Atari. It took him 2 MONTHS to finally say to me "It's a bad floppy > drive. You need a new one." ... I had some problems with my 1040ST (in fact on two machines out of 25 ...) and found that the culprit was the mass contact under the drive. The electrical retuen link is done by a a brass stub that also hold the drive. The contact is done by simple pressure, and with case deformation, it get loose. On my machine, I soldered (!) the brass to the board after careful cleaning. On the other, cleaning (with steel woole) was sufficient. The symptoms (before repare) was that the disk would work some time, then only occasionaly, then not at all, or just for a few second when you try to twist the case. Since the repair (~18 month) NO PROBLEM ! Have you checked for that ? As I have take my drive in and out many times for the repair, I can ashure you that replacing a drive by an other from the same type should be very easy (I would probably get it from a GOOD ATARI Dealer (if this exists in your place) Here in Switzerland, I saw them in my dealer shop, but probably around 140-160$. Hope you can repair your Atari (We use ours 8hours/day as terminal and love them !)very soon and without paying a cent to your UNDealer ! Regards, Paul.