I have A Apple IIe with the standard Disk II drive card in it. While I was using the Drive one the Led light went out and the drive will only spin. When the computer is powered off and on it just spins and the head does not make the start up chatter. I have noticed for A while the led would brown out while spinning or the head was seeking the track info and the sound of the head chattering started to get real week. I tried A Franklin 10 analog card and the drive started acting like normal but the led Will not go out it burns even when the drive stops spinning.
What are the chances that the analog card blew A chip every thing else looks good no burns scrapes or black spots or bulges. Has this ever happened to any one else. This is the Analog card Dated 1978 and still had the clamp holding the ribbon cable in position. Note this card does not have the square cut out in the center. Can any one help.
Disk II acting funny?
March 11, 2014 - 12:01am
#1
Disk II acting funny?
Ervin,
Is there any possibility that the Disk II cable is not connected correctly to the card?
Steven
The cable was hooked with the red line on pin 1 of both the analog card and the drive card in the Apple IIe. Both times I even tried reattaching the cable in case it was loose I switched ribon cables with a known working drive. I even reseated all the chips on both the apple analog board and franklin ace 10 board. The franklin ace 10 board allowed the drive to work but the in use led stays lit all the time even when the drive is not reading or writing. The apple board worked just fine then in the middle of reading a disk it dimmed and went out. After that the drive will only spin the head will not move or the In use lite will not work . The person I got it from said she used it every day from 1983 to 1994 8 hours a day and the computer had never needed to be fixed just a periodic cleaning. No rust or crosion or dust build up was present when I got it.
Forgot to mention I hooked drive two up to the drive one on the disk control card and it tested out perfect speed 300 rpm and read write passed the dealer diagnostic . The computer also passed the diagnostic test . Then I tried the diagnostic test with the ace 10 analog board and even though the in use lite stays lit all the time it had a speed little fluctuation of 299 - 301 rpm and passed the read write test. But the apple board will not read or write it just spins. All capicitor's look good no hot ones no cracks or leaks the board has no burn marks/spots or any resistors that look damaged. I keep leaning toward the read/write amplifier chip may be bad but the power transceiver makes me wonder?
Have you checked the power supply?
Yep! First thing it tested out perfect . I eve though about trying the new switching power supply that I bought from Stephen Buggy. Even with the HD power supply the computer pulled more load with all cards installed but still drive will not function. I even put the drive on A platinum //e with A diffrent disk II drive card and nothing. No In use light head will not move and it just slowly spins . I figure the reason the franklin analog card works but the in use lite stays on is because the card was old stock from franklins liquidation sale and that card was built for sugart drives and this is A early Alps drive acording to bottom sticker.