A1000 drive woes
8 messages in this thread
I have a couple of questions regarding an Amiga 1000 system that we have here
at work.
1. The internal floppy on the 1000 doesn't seem to recognize when the disks
are changed, and doesn't click when empty. I've seen and fixed similar
problems on an MS-Dos machine's 3.5 drive, and it was a feeler that was
stuck. Does this sound like the same problem? Anybody else have this
problem, and fix it with nothing but a screwdriver and their native wits?
Aside from this problem the drive seems to work fine.
2. We've been having problems with the same 1000's hard drive. It's a C-Ltd
case with a Seagate ST-125 drive inside. When we mounted the drive with
FFS the drive would have problems reading certain files, with the drive
stuck continually trying to read. Turning the drive off would then give
us a requester telling us that the read failed. The problems have
seemed to go away since I changed the mountlist to use the old file system
and reformatted the drive. Does this sound familiar to anybody? If so,
what did you do to cure the problem? Also, does anybody know of a PD hard
drive test utility that might work with this C-Ltd setup. Originally I
suspected a hardware problem, but the drive itself is new, and the problem
seems to have gone away now. Any clues?
Thanks in advance,
Robert
I'm not sure about question #2, but if you're running a utility program
like NoClick, there won't be any clicking from the drive (NoClick turns it
off). Also, I'm not exactly sure what you meant…You do know that the
Amiga doesn't really recognize that new disks are being put in and out of
the system, don't you? If you change disks, you have to either CD to the
new disk or refer to the new disk by it's name.
We're not running NoClick, or anything like it, so I'm pretty sure that
that's not the problem.
I've noticed that if I'm running Workbench on my 500 at home that if I swap
disks that the new disk icon appears soon after I insert it. This doesn't
happen on this drive.
Another example: I turn the machine on and wait for it to tell me that it
wants Kickstart. When it asks me for it I put it in, but nothing happens
until I Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga. Then it asks for Workbench, and I put that in.
Again, no joy until I Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga. If I do have to change the disk in
df0: after rebooting I have to be sure and diskchange it, or else I'll get
the requester wanting volume xxxx.
Thanks for the quick response.
Robert
Robert,
on the floppy question, it's more than likely one of two things.
Either one of the 8520 chips is blown in some way (probably the section
around the _CHNG signal) or the drive itself is damaged. The quickest and
cheapest solution to try is to swap the 8520 chip with the other one in the
system (it has 8520 as a part number on the chip). If it's at fault, then
the problem should move to the serial port (these chips do a lot of
different functions). BTW, they are VERY static sensitive, so ground
yourself before touching anything inside the machine.
Now, if that doesn't work, it's a problem with the floppy drive itself
and you have a couple of routes to go. One, get an external floppy and use
the guts of it to replace the internal floppy (verifying that all jumpers,
etc match) or let someone else replace the drive for you.
BTW, forgot to mention something. If it is one of the 8520's at
fault, just get a new one. They don't cost much (right around $20).
Good luck, and I hope this helps.
Brian J. Bartlett
Brian,
Thanks for the tips on the 8520's. I'll try swapping them around if I
can't talk the guy in charge into taking it into the shop. Actually, it
should go to the shop anyway for a memory upgrade; it's probably the last
Amiga in the world with only 512K, and it shows.
As for the hard drive problems, I found the doco right before I left, and
it may offer valuable insight into our problems. Thanks again.
Robert
I'd have a dealer look at that machine if I were you. Sounds like a
hardware problem.
Steve
Yes, that probably would be best. I was just wondering if this was a
common, easily fixed problem, but I guess it isn't. I wonder if the A1000
trade-in offer is still valid; if so, maybe I can talk the powers that be
into replacing it with a 2000. That's doubtful, though.
Robert
It is my understanding that the trade-in offer has been extended until the
end of April. Good luck on the trade-up.
Chow, Cheryl P