[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] Floppy drive problem.

lee@sed170.HAC.COM (John Lee) (05/07/90)

In article <18301@snow-white.udel.EDU> hakimian@cs2.cs.wsu.edu writes:
>This is a plea to anybody out there who knows anything about Commodore
>floppies. I would especially like to hear from Commodore. Help!!!!
[...]
>The problem:
>My Amiga 2000 floppy drives are not working right, they are about 75%
>reliable.
>If df0: is accessed df1: will also spin. If df1: is accessed df0: will
>also spin.
>If I unplug my floppies from the mother board, the system still detects
>them (ie. df0: and df1: show up as bad disks).

On my Amiga 2000 (rev 4.2), both internal drives will spin if either drive
is commanded to spin.  However, the drive light of only the target drive
should light up.

>What has been tried:
>I did an ohm test on the floppy cable, it checks out OK.
>There was a broken pin on the mother board where the floppies plug in.
>It has been replaced.

The pin was not broken.  It is a "key" designed to prevent the plug from
being inserted incorrectly.  No signals are connected through that pin.

[...]
>hakimian@cs2.cs.wsu.edu

There is something else wrong with your drives, and "both drives simulateously
spinning" is normal.

--John Lee
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The above opinions are those of the user and not of those of this machine.

lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (05/08/90)

In <357@sed170.HAC.COM>, lee@sed170.HAC.COM (John Lee) writes:
>
>There is something else wrong with your drives, and "both drives simulateously
>spinning" is normal.
>

Don't think so. He (and you, I think), should double-check the drive select
jumpers, and try the drives jumpered 'both ways'. ie. change 0 to 1, 1 to 0.
They seem to be position and address sensitive. I remember having this problem
with mine, and fiddled with it until it worked.

-larry

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4225_5105@uwovax.uwo.ca (01/26/91)

Both floppy drives in my MAST TwinDrive are dead.

When I put a floppy in the drive the motor steps back and forth
and keeps stepping back and forth until the disk is taken out.

Sometimes when I put a disk in I hear a click and the disk spins.
It then may work for a while but more often the head starts stepping
again, and the I get I requestor that I must put the disk back in 
drive DFx:

Does anyone know why the head steps back and forth?
is the drive supposed to spin before the head does anything
or is the head supposed to move to a certain place on the disk
before the disk spins.

thanks,

john macdonald