mjw@aluxp.UUCP (Michael Weber) (11/22/87)
Has anyone noticed any problems with thier 1581 "floppy" disk drive? I've owned mine for about a month and found that it managed to trash a disk while I was using it during a heavy download session on Quantum Link. In particular, it looks as though any files written past track 40 were completely corrupt! Further investigation on one of the Q-Link discussion areas showed that others have also encountered problems with this drive but I could find no official or unofficial comments from CBM in reply. One person mentioned that a service technician in his area had bought a 1581 and proceeded to replaced each IC in the drive to isolate the problem. In his particular case, it was the WD1770 drive controller at fault. Also mentioned was that Commodore will issue a bulletin in the (near?) future describing the problem and its solution/resolution to all authorized service centers. One message described that the WD1770 drive controller should be replaced with a WD1772 controller chip (a real pain, the 1770 is NOT socketed). A 47 ohm J1 jumper resistor would also be necessary. Please note that I am only repeating the messages I encountered on Q-Link, they are in no way supported or recommended by myself and definitely did not come from CBM! I've only used three disks in this drive to date and the only one that had enough data written to it to pass track 40 (there are 80 total tracks) ended up trashed. With this kind of track record, I'm wondering if I will ever be able to trust using this drive for anything more than a paper weight? Statistics on my 1581 (obtained using X-ray glasses, of course! I'm hoping something official happens before the remaining 60 of the original 90 days expire): Serial number: JA1 011854 (Does this mean over 10K produced?) Drive Controller: WDC '82 WD1770-PH 00-02 8644 DOS ROM: 318054-01 (EPROM) Disks used: SONY MFD-2DD Does anyone from CBM care to comment (Fred, Carolyn)? Given that it appears my drive was not an 'early production' unit, and that all produced before it may have the same problems, is Commodore stalling for time to allow warrantees to expire? I thought I was purchasing a reliable, high density disk drive (with over a year of development inside CBM it should be!). Even with all the (now) know bugs in the 1541 and 1571 drives, I personally NEVER lost a disk to these models! Let's clear the air on this device. Is it a reliable, high quality design or is there a large number of field returns currently being evaluated? The drive is extremely quick and (in my opinion) should be the primary drive of any C128 owner but until the data corruption question is resolved I cannot recommend it to anyone. BTW, before I'm flamed for not taking it to a repair center, I called one up and they mentioned that unless I could duplicate the problem, they would not look at it. I've spent at least two hours trying to cause a failure with no success (save with replace, anyone?). Also, the corrupted disk DID format correctly before and AFTER the problem. -- Michael Weber ...!ihnp4!aluxp!mjw AT&T Bell Laboratories Allentown, Pennsylvania (215) 770-2732
wjt@wp3b01.UUCP (Bill Taggart) (11/23/87)
In article <937@aluxp.UUCP> mjw@aluxp.UUCP (Michael Weber) writes: >Has anyone noticed any problems with thier 1581 "floppy" disk drive? I've >owned mine for about a month and found that it managed to trash a disk >while I was using it during a heavy download session on Quantum Link. In > ... >One message described that the WD1770 drive controller should be replaced >with a WD1772 controller chip (a real pain, the 1770 is NOT socketed). >A 47 ohm J1 jumper resistor would also be necessary. >-- >Michael Weber ...!ihnp4!aluxp!mjw >AT&T Bell Laboratories >Allentown, Pennsylvania (215) 770-2732 I had this same problem with my 1581, but it only really manifested itself in the CP/M mode. I could duplicate it in the C128 mode by having one of the devices connected to the serial port turned off. Also in the C128 mode I had many "DRIVE NOT READY" errors -- including right after successful disk accesses. I emailed my problem directly to Fred Bowen at CBM and he was extremely helpful and responsive in narrowing in on the cause of the problem. I don't know if CBM has issued an 'official' fix for the problem -- but I fixed it by replacing the WD1770 with a WD1772 and adding a 47 ohm resistor at J1 as described on QuantumLink. The drive no longer trashes the directory in the CP/M mode and the "DRIVE NOT READY" errors are much less frequent -- although they still occur if I have been using the drive constantly for more than two or three hours. After the 'fix' I have never lost any data and find the drive to be reliable. As an aside Michael, would you please email the name of the repair shop in Allentown that said they might look at the problem for my future reference. I called all over New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania looking for a repair shop that would look at the problem -- they all refused, and some were quite nasty about it. That's why I elected to fix it myself -- it took me less than an hour. -- Bill Taggart {uunet | ihnp4}!wp3b01!wjt
cbmbob@pnet02.cts.com (Robert Umfer) (11/29/87)
Michael,
I agree. I now rarely use my 1581, for fear that I will lose more information.
I bought it to save disk space. Now it seems I'm using more 5.25's than ever
to backup what I'm saving to the 3.5's. No one on Plink is satisfied with
his 1581, and CBM doesn't seem to be in any hurry to rectify that. Fred keeps
mentioning another department, but I'm wondering how long they are going to
be on vacation.
Bob Umfer
Plink's CBM*BOB
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd!crash, seismo!scgvaxd!cadovax}!gryphon!pnet02!cbmbob
INET: cbmbob@pnet02.CTS.COM