6128 Drive read error

[tazzman]

Hi All,
Needing a bit of help with my 6128 disk drive (again ) Posted here a few months ago and got help in getting a new write protect pin fitted and general cleaning and repair. Disk worked great loading and saving games and loading and saving data files. I have not been able to use cpc for a few months, but set it up yesterday and got "Drive A: read fail"prompt.checked the disk and cleaned read/write head and all seems ok. I have shot a video which hopefully shows the problem better than I can describe it

[Badstarr]

It's unusual that it's started having problems again after you fixed it, I was tempted to believe that maybe the disk wasn't spinning but its clear that it is in your video. There's a variety of reasons that you get a read fail, the two main ones I suppose would be the ones you've ruled out- the drive belt and the heads. It could be the disks too though. Have you tried formatting a disk and then checking if you can read and write from/to it? Also, when you replaced the belt did you clean the residue left by the old belt on the motor etc? I'm just wondering if the belt might be slipping a bit or running inconsistently.


Have you checked the IDC ribbon connector between the main board and the FDD is in good condition and fully pressed "home"? If the read errors aren't due to something mechanical they maybe due to a loose connection at some stage. I myself had the exact same symptoms on a machine I'm working on and it turned out to be the Data Separator IC not fully seated in its socket. Do you have another drive that you can swap in to just rule out a problem on the CPC side of things?

[tazzman]

Hi All, Very long absence on my part in replying . Still having trouble with this drive, I have disconnected the cables and put back and still no joy. The one thing I did forget to mention last time was that I had the main unit sitting on top of the monitor could I have somehow done something to the drive (you know how you could wipe tapes if you had them to close to the TV)
On a good note I have got the 3.5" drive working (I had the cables on the back of the drive the wrong way round )
Thanks again
Simon

[Gryzor]

Sorry to hear you're still having problems...


having disks on top of the monitor is certainly not the best idea - disks are magnetic storage media just like tapes. But, it's not that destructive as to wipe your disks at once.