Well to start, I bought a external 400k Drive for my 512, and first I needed clean and oil the drive to the mechanical parts because the drive had seized. So now I inserted a disk which was already formatted and it asked me if I wanted to initialize it so I said yes and it started to run then spit out the disk. Well hours later the drive had been oiled, the head had been cleaned, oiled again, and so on. IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! I am dumb founded. Why doesn't it work? Any suggestions will be helpful.
thank you
Sounds like it's time has come and gone. However, if you live anywhere near Wichita KS I'll give you another one that does work.
Never give up! (At least, not so easily.)
I oiled mine so that no metal parts stuck to each other. Worked for a while and then the drive stopped working, in the same exact manner you describe. I thought it might be an LED light sensor, so I cleaned those. Nope. I ultimately bought a junk drive (the only way to get one for a reasonable price) off EBAY and swapped out the main board. That fixed it in my case.
Keep in mind it could be the head too. Or it could be the pressure pad (which you WILL destroy should you use a double-sided cleaning disk on your single sided drive).
A list of potential problems that I considered with my drive is as follows:
1) Head (either dead or needs cleaning).
2) Pressure pad opposite the head.
3) Dead circuit board (static will do this easily).
4) Light sensor(s) need cleaning.
5) A mechanical part is misaligned (or the spring on the head needs adjustment).
6) The motor at the back of the drive could be bad (if it's not spinning).
7) Something you should have oiled is still in need of oil (make sure you look at the disk from all sides when you insert it into the raw drive, ensuring the head comes down properly, there is enough pressure from the felt pressure pad, and that the disk ejects smoothly when you press the paper-clip switch at the right/front of the drive).
Good luck.