[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] Talking Floppy Drives

drd@wucs1.wustl.edu (Dave Donat) (04/30/91)

I am getting really tired of listening to both of my floppies click every five
seconds, looking for disks that aren't there, and usually won't be any time
soon.  Is there anyway to shut them up?  Is it bad for the mechanism to sit
there and keep looking (should I have floppies in there all the time, even when
they are not being used)?  I have never heard of another kind of drive that
does this, don't most of them have optical sensors or something to detect when
a disk is inserted?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------  | Dave Donat                 | "If you're on fire, avoid gasoline            |
| Interactive Fiction Buff   |  and other flammable materials"               |
| drd@wucs1.wustl.edu        |                                               |
|                            |   - Safety Tips for The Post-Nuclear Existence|  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

s902113@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Luke Mewburn) (05/02/91)

drd@wucs1.wustl.edu (Dave Donat) writes:

>I am getting really tired of listening to both of my floppies click every five
>seconds, looking for disks that aren't there, and usually won't be any time
>soon.  Is there anyway to shut them up?  Is it bad for the mechanism to sit
>there and keep looking (should I have floppies in there all the time, even when
>they are not being used)?  I have never heard of another kind of drive that
>does this, don't most of them have optical sensors or something to detect when
>a disk is inserted?

Try a patch (on a fish disk) called 'NoClick', which shuts it up. You could
also try another hack called 'Tracksalve' which does other stuff (verify
any track write, patch a couple of trackdisk.device bugs, etc) as well as
shutting up _that_ click...

>------------------------------------------------------------------------------  | Dave Donat                 | "If you're on fire, avoid gasoline            |
>| Interactive Fiction Buff   |  and other flammable materials"               |
>| drd@wucs1.wustl.edu        |                                               |
>|                            |   - Safety Tips for The Post-Nuclear Existence|  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 
____________________________________________________________________________
|                                     |                                    |
| Luke Mewburn   (Zak)                |      This side for lease...        |
| s902113@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au        | (No disclaimer, can't afford it:-) |

6600dafy@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (I forgot.) (05/03/91)

I have tried two different programs to stop the clicking. One of
them, (no click, or something like that, I think) stopped the
internal drive from clicking, but generated a nasty noise from
my CA-880 external drive. Now, at tis moment, I am using a 
program called tracksalve, that I found ftping (Maybe at ab20...
I don't remember). It has several advantages... In addition to
stopping the clicking, it is more CPU-conservative than is the
original trackdisk.device (Which I understand it replaces.)
It works great on my system... very stable. Running it on:
3 megs, b2000, 1 internal drive, 1 external, and the flicker-dealy.
If no one knows where it can be found, mail me in a couple of
days, and I'll take the time to uuencode it and post it. I'm forced
to upload using kermit, and it is DREADFULLY slow. If anyone
can post where it can be found, that would save me some connect
time. Good luck; hope it helps. If you have specific Q's about it,
feel fre to mail me. (everyone else seems to. ;-P 

-Duckie
 

dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) (05/04/91)

In article <1991Apr30.064212.13237@cec1.wustl.edu> drd@wucs1.wustl.edu (Dave Donat) writes:
>I am getting really tired of listening to both of my floppies click every five
>seconds, looking for disks that aren't there, and usually won't be any time
>soon.  Is there anyway to shut them up?  Is it bad for the mechanism to sit
>there and keep looking (should I have floppies in there all the time, even when
>they are not being used)?  I have never heard of another kind of drive that
>does this, don't most of them have optical sensors or something to detect when
>a disk is inserted?
>

  There is a very simple way to do this. First, open the case of your
drive. Then, with a pair of pliers, remove the clicker and replace the
cover. However, I suggest the following method.

  Just get NoClick or Silence from an ftp site, and place that in your
startup-sequence. You can also patch the 1.3 disk-based roms permanently
with another program (forgot the name of it). 

>------------------------------------------------------------------------------  | Dave Donat                 | "If you're on fire, avoid gasoline            |
>| Interactive Fiction Buff   |  and other flammable materials"               |
>| drd@wucs1.wustl.edu        |                                               |
>|                            |   - Safety Tips for The Post-Nuclear Existence|  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- 
           David Tiberio  SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481  AMIGA  DDD-MEN   
   "If you think that we're here for the money, we could live without it.
     But the world isn't too good here, and it wasn't always like that."
                   Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.

rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) (05/09/91)

In article <1991May2.000624.806@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au> s902113@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Luke Mewburn) writes:
>drd@wucs1.wustl.edu (Dave Donat) writes:
>
>>I am getting really tired of listening to both of my floppies click every five
>>seconds, looking for disks that aren't there, and usually won't be any time
>>soon.  Is there anyway to shut them up?  Is it bad for the mechanism to sit
>>there and keep looking (should I have floppies in there all the time, even when
>>they are not being used)?  I have never heard of another kind of drive that
>>does this, don't most of them have optical sensors or something to detect when
>>a disk is inserted?
>
>Try a patch (on a fish disk) called 'NoClick', which shuts it up. You could
>also try another hack called 'Tracksalve' which does other stuff (verify
>any track write, patch a couple of trackdisk.device bugs, etc) as well as
>shutting up _that_ click...


I guess MAST did something right.  I have the double floppy add-on, it does
not click.  I wonder what they did.


Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	frog!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP