hull@hao.hao.ucar.edu (Howard Hull) (09/30/90)
In article <4732@crash.cts.com> danb20@pro-graphics.cts.com (Dan Bachmann) writes: >In-Reply-To: message from maniac@cleanhead.cs.unlv.edu > > No, not all IBM 3.5" drives will work. The stock A500 uses a Chinon >drive. Mine was replace with a Panasonic no problem. I hear the Toshiba drives >have been made to work and a simple circuit will allow you to use most any >3.5" drive. One other thing... I just last week got through putting a Bridgeboard in the A2000 I have at work. One of the things I had to do as a part of the installation was to install the 5.25 Bridgeboard drive. The catch here was that I had (gleefully) mounted my Quantum Q80s in the 5.25 drive bay, and so now I had to evict it. As I already had a DF0: and a DF1: in the 3.5 bays, I decided to remove the DF1: and exchange it for a DF2: saved from the A1000 trade-up for the A2000 at home. This required dismantling the entire drive bay platform. Of course, I looked at everything to make sure I understood how all the polarized connectors should be installed. I noted that the drive I was removing was a Chinon, and I didn't check the DF0:, but I think it was a Panasonic or perhaps a Toshiba drive; in any case, other than having to remove the connectors to disassemble the platform, I did not have to unmount the DF0:. After work, I took the Chinon DF1: home with me. When I went to put the DF1: into the home A2000 I saw that it had a Chinon DF0: there. I thought "Gee, that's nice, these two drives will be much the same." Of course I again had to remove the drive platform to add the new drive and also had to unplug the cables in the process of doing this. When I put it back together I noted the position of the "1" on the DF1: aligned with the 1 of the 1 2 3 4 plainly visible in the lateral groove on the power connector. So I got everything right, Right? WRONG. When I turned things on, the buggar put up the hand and the disk, but wouldn't boot from the DF0: floppy. While I sat there, astonished that it would have the audacity to behave in such a way, the odor of self-imolating current-limiting electronic parts began emmanating from the power supply. I quick-like shut everything down, and re-inspected the drive power plug orientation. Nope, looked ok, as I said before, 1 on the cable was to 1 on the DF1: drive. Since I had put the DF0: power plug back on the way I had sketched it before removal, I didn't think that could be the problem, but I decided to check it anyway. Damn. It was on with 1 to 4. I said to my self "Self, how in hell did you manage to do that!?" So I then put it on with the 1 on the cable to the 1 on the DF0: drive, turned things back on, and was treated to the same symptoms except that the POWER LED flashed after some ten seconds or so. "It's WORSE that way!" blurted out my now totally schizo internal mental moderator. So I turned BOTH plugs over so the 4 on the cables lined up with the 1 on the drives. With the power back on, she booted right up, read the DF0: disk, and behaved like there never had been a problem in the first place. And it's that way right this red hot minute even as I am typing this... Now if I weren't a Texas Democrat, I'd swear there was sump'n outaline here. Has anyone else encountered this? > I don't have FTP, but I can mail you the file if you send me a blank >and re-state that you wanted the schemes for a drive. address in .sig below. Somebody ought to take the time to lay out this little chunk of PC and have a local board house pop out a hundered or so of 'em on four 5 X 5 plats. Taken consistently from month to month to a user's group meeting, I bet they'd be gone by Christmas, even at $3.00 apiece unpopulated... > > ProLine: danb20@pro-graphics *************************** > UUCP: ...crash!pro-graphics!danb20 * Dan Bachmann * >ARPA/DDN: pro-graphics!danb20@nosc.mil * Raritan Valley College * >Internet: danb20@pro-graphics.cts.com *************************** >U.S.Mail: 509 StonyBrook Drive, Bridgewater, NJ 08807 Hope this helps someone, but I can't imagine who it would be... Howard Hull hull@ncar.ucar.edu