3" drive dead?

[Shaun M. Neary]

Hi guys, me again! xD


So the drive belt arrived for the 6128 plus, and fitted it, but now i've run into a world of problems.


Sometimes the disks read ok, sometimes they throw errors, and sometimes they won't even cat. I'm not sure if the disks are just old as hell or if the drive is knackered. Is there anything else I can check here? Sadly I don't have another 3" drive to test this on so I'm out of luck there.


All suggestions welcome, as always. =)

[Audronic]

Do you have a Parados rom Fitted ??
Can you run |CPM, if so then disckit2 or 3 can check disks.




Ray

[Shaun M. Neary]

Do you have a Parados rom Fitted ??
Can you run |CPM, if so then disckit2 or 3 can check disks.

Hi Ray,
No Parados as of yet, strictly AMSDOS for now until C4CPC arrives.
I did run disckit to attempt to both verify and format a bunch of disks, all of them have failed.


Now it could be a bunch of old disks that are just crapping out, but I don't like those odds, lol.

[Audronic]

OOOps forgot.
Is the disk drive head clean.
Speed check on drive .dsk below


Ray

[Shaun M. Neary]

OOOps forgot.
Is the disk drive head clean.
Speed check on drive .dsk below


Ray

Hey Ray,
Yep, cleaned the head twice, there wasn't any traces or black residue on the cotton bud either time.


I'll give that .dsk image a shot now and report back. =)

[Shaun M. Neary]

Apologies for the delay @Audronic.


Nice program by @Bryce. RPM speed is telling me between 296.14 and 296.39 when I flick between tracks.
Not sure if that's standard or not.


Update: 295 and 294 on some of the disks it won't read at all.

[Bryce]

Eh, that program isn't from me.

If your are having problems with the drive slowing too much on "sticky" discs, try adjusting the RPM up to about 305 with a good disc so that sticky discs are still within the tolerances.

Bryce.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Eh, that program isn't from me.

If your are having problems with the drive slowing too much on "sticky" discs, try adjusting the RPM up to about 305 with a good disc so that sticky discs are still within the tolerances.

Bryce.

My mistake, Bryce. Apologies xD
I just adjusted it, it now varies between 305-309 depending on the disk. Is that too high?

[Bryce]

Actually anything between 290 and 310 should be ok, but you have to remember that the RPM tests don't show the real variance, so at 295, it could be dipping to 285 at times and you won't see this.
Have you definitely removed all the gunk from the belt wheels? Blods of gunk cause a sinewave "speed wobble" that the test won't see.

Bryce.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Actually anything between 290 and 310 should be ok, but you have to remember that the RPM tests don't show the real variance, so at 295, it could be dipping to 285 at times and you won't see this.
Have you definitely removed all the gunk from the belt wheels? Blods of gunk cause a sinewave "speed wobble" that the test won't see.

Bryce.

Definitely, went over them a few times until the cotton buds couldn't be blackened. The bigger white wheel didn't have a lot on it, but the gold plated smaller wheel was filthy. I can give it another going over. Some disks seem to be reading better at the higher speed, so I'm guessing I just have a mixed bag of discs...

[Bryce]

I've found that some of the older disks got very difficult to turn over the years and would cause errors even on a perfectly good drive. You can try loosening them up, but I had enough alternative disks so I never really tried.

Bryce.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I've found that some of the older disks got very difficult to turn over the years and would cause errors even on a perfectly good drive. You can try loosening them up, but I had enough alternative disks so I never really tried.

Bryce.

I don't think I even want to know the state of the attic these were stored in for almost 20 years... xD
Not sure how to loosen a disk. I'm assuming it's something like slamming them off a table top or something? Maybe throwing them against the wall... that's where I seem to be headed. 

[Bryce]

I was thinking more in the direction of some lubrication between the white centre disk and the outer casing. Wall slamming is a method I reserve for iPhone "repairs"

Bryce.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I was thinking more in the direction of some lubrication between the white centre disk and the outer casing. Wall slamming is a method I reserve for iPhone "repairs"

Bryce.

Hah, stop! I stopped after the iPhone 3GS once they started making the screws smaller.