Hello,
I have a problem!
I have a Apple IIe with Apple Diskcontroller and 2 Distar Floppydrives (Floppy Clones).
After I turn on the Computer, the LED of the first Drive is on but the Drive do not boot any Disk. I have changed the Floppydrive with the second, but it is the same. The tock tock sound of the Floppydrive is missing and no booting of the Disk inside. I tried more times with a reset and PR#6 command, no boot only LED´s on after PR#6command. I also tried Port 7 instead of Port 6 for the Disk Controller, but no boot. Could the Controller be damaged or the 2 Diskdrives?
Please help!
SchwindS
I've blown a chip on my Disk ][ drives before by accidentally shifting the connector over by one pin. The behavior is as your describe - drive power, but no booting. Similarly, if your disk itself is blank, erased or if the drive is out of alignment, it'll behave that way too. You might try feeding ProDOS to your Apple over the audio port (http://adtpro.sourceforge.net/bootstrapaudio.html) and seeing if you can get the drive to format a disk. That would let you know whether or not the hardware was at fault.
SO the drive does not spin the disk? The tack tack sound is the sound of head seeking out the boot tracks.
The simplest thing it could be, is oxidation. Turn power off, pull the controler card out. Reseat all the chips on the board. Reseat all the chips on the mother board of the IIe as well. Now clean edge connectors of the card. A number of ways to do this. But an easy one is a drop of tooth paste, Then with a white cotton cloth like t-shirt, Rub the cloth across the conectors. You should see the dark color on the cloth. Then clean with Isopropl Alcohol. Reinsert it a few times in slot 6 to make sure the slot make a goo conection.
If any of the socketed chips leg are black from oxidation, I will write back to tell you how to clean them.
I do have controllers of both types if you are interested. One step at a time.
Take Care
Take Care
All of the above is helpful. I would also look
into getting a spare controller card as these
are readily available and inexpensive. They DO
go bad, as I have had to replace several myself.
As others have said, BE CAREFUL when plugging in
your ribbon connectors as mis-aligning pins can
be fatal to chips in the drives. The chips (if
you know which ones have failed) can be replaced
with new ones usually available through Radio
Shack or Mouser Electronics (a mail order place).
Check your boot disk on another computer to be
sure that it is good. It could be the problem as
they, too, decay with age.
Hope this helps.