bigben@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Benbuck Nason) (02/18/91)
My A1020 5 1/4" external floppy is misbehavin'. The head doesn't seem to move correctly. After I mount it, if the head is located in the middle (track 19 or 20???) there is nothing I can do to get it to recognize a valid DOS disk. I have tried cd, dir, diskchange. It only works if I move the head by hand to the outside of the disk (track 0???), then do any of those commands. To make sure it returns to that position after I'm done, I have to execute a diskchange with no disk in before I turn it off. This works fine, but if I ever forget or if some unexpected GURU were to visit, I have to take the thing all the way apart to reset the head. So why isn't the head resetting? (Any educated guess would help) Should it reset automatically on power up or diskchange? How should the jumpers be set? Please email me any help you can give. Thanks, BigBen -- =============================================================================== bigben@ucscb.ucsc.edu Benbuck Nason bigben%ucscb@ucscc.bitnet "It is fate, but call it Italy if it pleases you..." -A Room With A View "I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything..." -Bart ===============================================================================
erk@americ.UUCP (Erick Parsons) (02/24/91)
>In article <12509@darkstar.ucsc.edu> bigben@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Benbuck Nason) writes: >My A1020 5 1/4" external floppy is misbehavin'. The head doesn't seem to move >correctly. After I mount it, if the head is located in the middle (track 19 >or 20???) there is nothing I can do to get it to recognize a valid DOS disk. I reproduced your problem by blocking the homing IR sensor inside the drive. >So why isn't the head resetting? (Any educated guess would help) Should it >reset automatically on power up or diskchange? How should the jumpers be set? The head should retract fully to the sensor and stay there whenever you remove a disk. Either the sensor is blocked by dust or it could be bad. When I worked on office machinery a few years back the new machines were using the heck out of these sensors and I can't remember ever seeing one go bad, so it might just be dirty. The best way to clean the thing is to hit it with a blast of compressed air. Camera shops sell a product called "dust off" for cleaning lenses that would work just fine for your purposes. >Please email me any help you can give. Thanks, >BigBen No sweat.. -- -------------------------------------------------//------------------------- (ames att sun)!pacbell! ----> sactoh0!pacengr!americ!erk Multitasking, ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac! --/ // Never leave uunet!msac! -/ Erick Parsons \Sacramento Ca Home Without it --------------------------------------------\X/----------------------------- Please Don't Wait...