krentz@mentor.com (Ken Rentz) (03/17/90)
I have an Amiga 500 (aprox. 2 years old, purchased used), that just lost
it's floppy drive. I just hooked up an Avatex modem, and within 5 minutes
(before I even had a chance to try to use the modem), I was informed that
the boot disk was bad. After rebooting, there was no response from the
drive at all. The drive light lights up on reset but there is no gronking
or clicking, and the requestor hand is all that will appear on the screen.
I was told when I purchased the modem that the 500 uses a standard serial cable.
This seems true since the modem doesn't use the pins the Amiga wants to put
power out on. Still the timing of the failure seems strange.
I would appreciate any help availiable on this problem. I'd rather not spent the
money to have the shop look at it if the problem is minor, and in any case, I don't
want to have the thing break again if the problem is in the modem.
--
Mentor Graphics Silicon Development Division
Kenneth Rentz work (503) 626-7000 X 3674 home (503) 245-2173
krentz@pdx.MENTOR.COM ...{sequent, tessi, gssc, apollo}!mntgfx!krentzking@motcid.UUCP (Steven King) (03/22/90)
In article <1990Mar16.161433.14948@mentor.com> krentz@mntgfx.UUCP (Ken Rentz) writes: >I have an Amiga 500 (aprox. 2 years old, purchased used), that just lost >it's floppy drive. I just hooked up an Avatex modem, and within 5 minutes >(before I even had a chance to try to use the modem), I was informed that >the boot disk was bad. After rebooting, there was no response from the >drive at all. The drive light lights up on reset but there is no gronking >or clicking, and the requestor hand is all that will appear on the screen. > >I was told when I purchased the modem that the 500 uses a standard serial cable. >This seems true since the modem doesn't use the pins the Amiga wants to put >power out on. Still the timing of the failure seems strange. The 500 does indeed uses standard serial cables, provided that the (non- standard) power output pins it has don't interfere with your modem. You've already checked this, so I don't think it's a problem. Here's a really stupid thing to check (the stupid things are always what we check last, no? :-) While plugging the modem cable into the Amiga's serial port, did you hit the disk drive cable? I recently had a problem where my 500 wouldn't recognize either my internal or external floppy drive. (I've got a hard drive, so I may have had that condition for nearly a week before I noticed it! :-) Anyway, it turns out that at some point I had been playing with the back of the thing and had jostled the external drive cable. The two drives seem to be tied together in such a way that a poor connection on the external can render the internal drive unusable as well. Try re-seating the external drive cable. If that doesn't work, try re-seating all the cables just for the heck of it. And naturally, try removing the modem cable and see if the problem goes away. -- ---------------------------------------------------+--------------------------- broadcast msg from root: The universe is ending | Steve King (708) 991-8056 in five minutes. SAVE ALL FILES!! | ...uunet!motcid!king | ...ddsw1!palnet!stevek