norlin@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) (09/29/90)
I recently acquired a Tandon full height, 80 track, 96 TPI double sided 5.25" diskette drive for $5.00. At that price it was difficult to refuse. I was told that it was in working condition. When I connected it as drive "a" to my IBM AT clone and booted from my hard drive, I got the error message "Drive 0: Seek failure." The disk drive DID, however, exhibit the usual power-up grind as the head moved from one end to the other. But it just gives me the seek failure at boot time, as well as whenever I try to read a diskette from it. Perhaps I have some jumpers set incorrectly, but I wouldn't know. Does anyone have any information on how to get this drive working? The sticker on the back says: Tandon Magnetics Corp TM 100-4 173012-001 A second sticker says: TOP ASSY 173011001 And the last bit of information is SERIAL NO 81427821 If anyone could help, I would appreciate it greatly. Thanks in advance! -- \ /\/\ /\/\ +-----------------------------+ /\/\ /\/\ /./ \\ /./\\\ /./\\\ /====|Norman Lin/norlin@129.15.20.2|===/./\\\ /./\\\ /./ \\\/./ \\\/./ \\\/./===| norlin@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu|====/ \\\/./ \\\/./ \/\/ \/\/ \/\/ +-----------------------------+ \/\/ \/\/
elec135@canterbury.ac.nz (10/05/90)
In article <1990Sep29.161104.26684@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, norlin@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Norman Lin) writes: > I recently acquired a Tandon full height, 80 track, 96 TPI double sided 5.25" > diskette drive for $5.00. At that price it was difficult to refuse. I was > told that it was in working condition. When I connected it as drive "a" to > my IBM AT clone and booted from my hard drive, I got the error message "Drive > 0: Seek failure." The disk drive DID, however, exhibit the usual power-up > grind as the head moved from one end to the other. But it just gives me > the seek failure at boot time, as well as whenever I try to read a diskette > from it. Perhaps I have some jumpers set incorrectly, but I wouldn't know. > Does anyone have any information on how to get this drive working? > \\ /./\\\ /./\\\ /====|Norman Lin/norlin@129.15.20.2|===/./\\\ /./\\\ /./ > \\\/./ \\\/./ \\\/./===| norlin@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu|====/ \\\/./ \\\/./ i've had similar problems with old drives, and drives that have not been in use for a length of time. quite often the problem is that the oil on the guides along which the read/write heads move dries up and acts like glue, preventing the heads from moving in and out. the solution: put some light grade oil on the guides (usually two polished metal rods, about two 1.5" long, running from front to back of the drive), then, with power removed, move the head assembly back and forth a few dozen times to work in the oil. it might also be an idea to oil the bearings in all the motors as well. to get at all this stuff in the tandon drive, it is necessary to remove the board on the top of the drive; two screws, one on each side, near the front of the board, you only need to unplug the plugs at the front of the board (that go to the heads), and hinge it at the back. good luck. Robert Rozee (ROZEE@ELEC.CANTERBURY.AC.NZ) EEE Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.