Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

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AjaxOfQWERTY's picture
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Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

I own an Apple IIe (1984 enhanced version) along with a few cards such as ram expansion, super serial, mouse, and disk controller. The bad thing is that my drive has a few symptoms behind. First thing that shows that it does not go straight to whatever disk is in there and second, is that I open the drive cleaning the under of drive lock and do a boot again. Reads, but crashes certainly. ProDos would display the unable to run PRODOS message, and DOS 3.3 would make the certain drive grinding noise when trying to recalibrate. My dad reseated the card, blew the drive with his mouth. Works, but for a short time before it gets problems again.

Should I clean the drive heads? Smile

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

First are you using the right kind of disks? These are DS/DD not HD disks. The HDs do not have a center metal hub ring. So if you are using the wrong disks clamping (holding) the disk for the proper centering and holding them so they do slip.

Next is the condition of the disks themselves. Some old ones can be shot. Worn out. I have seen bad spots from the manufacture. Like a metal splatter. The bump is a bad spot. I have seen spots where some one poked the disk with a pen or pencil.

Yes cleaning the head can help. But it only takes one disk to foul it out. There are disks that would fail to have their tracks read. Cleaning the head would get me a couple of more tracks. After cleaning and running Copy II+ I could read all the tracks. But it took over ten head cleanings to be able to read and back the disk up.

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

1. Using DS/DD disks.

2. Kinda have one on one of my floppies, but it still works.

3. Then I will have to look closer at that.

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

Hello AjaxOfQWERTY
i see that you just joined the community....
why not prior to posting examine the existing threads for information ???
just for example:
http://www.applefritter.com/content/basic-pages-about-disk-ii-matainance-and-repair
there are links to pages that contain nearly to every kind of trouble the requested information....
there is no need here to write the entire stuff again....
- except your drive really has a NEW issue thats not solved by the info´s covered there....
of course the purpose of the forums is to support the users by solving their problems....
- but thats no excuse to not invest some small time with investigation...
sincerely speedyG

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

The drive is an Apple 5.25 type, not DISK II. It is platinum, so it is not a Unidisk.

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

You need to do three steps 1) open the housing and blow out the dust bunny's with compressed air from a source other than your dad's mouth. 2) Do a proper head cleaning. I've written the instructions on this site several times. Do a search. 3) Using a utility like Copy ][+ do the fine adjustment to the trim pot(entiometer) to get the drives speed back into factory specifications.

Those are the basics. On equipment this old I would also use an electronic contact cleaner on the connector cable plugs and sockets.

If you have disks that you think are low grade/suspect that they're dirty you can also toss/replace those.

In exchange for this help we ask that you report back on how it worked out for you.

Mutant Pie

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

.... and the best joke - it´s the same as explained in those pages.....
and just besides .... the description is about the disk II - but - the explenations
are valid to ANY kind of 5,25 Diskdrive....
so we´re still at the same point - except that mutant pie just repeats again and again and again - just as he tells himself.....
because users are to lazy to checkout threads ... of course that requires some time....
why waste it ? why not just demand again and again the same answers that have been given dozends of time ???

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

Somehow blowing it worked again. I shut the Fantavision disk in (brand new! :mac: ) and it loaded up fine. I will keep it in there as long as it takes until anything happens.

PS: The drive was housed in a propane smell and must have made the drive sick until fresh air came in. That must be why it was not reading. And what is the price for Copy II anyway?

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

Somehow blowing it worked again. I shut the Fantavision disk in (brand new! :mac: ) and it loaded up fine. I will keep it in there as long as it takes until anything happens.

PS: The drive was housed in a propane smell and must have made the drive sick until fresh air came in. That must be why it was not reading. And what is the price for Copy II anyway?

Copy ][ hasn't been sold since the 1990's.. I guess it is Abandoned Ware, now..

Download the last DOS 3.3 version I know of or one of the later ProDOS versions from ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/.

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

Hello AjaxOfQWRERTY,
it´s highly recommended not only to pull down the image of CopyIIPlus ( Vers. 9,1 or 8.2 ), but also at least also Locksmith 6.0 and probably also Nibbles Away. Quite a lot of original former Apple II Disks had vatious copy protection schemes used on them... downloading the images from asimov is one choice.... probably you must search the so called "Apple Web Ring"....
there are several Mirror servers availiable which can be found by Google.....
then of course it´s also recommended to pick up ADT for transferring the images from PC to the Apple and generating usable disks... ( the instructions are also at the downloadsite of ADT at sourceforge.... see links at left side...)
and i advise to search for software images, where also the instructions / manuals are availiable....
sincerely speedyG

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

I have an Apple FTP site that I can give you access to. It has everything I've collected so far (a lot). All you need to do is PM me and I will send you the information.

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

I cleaned the heads a few times, the disks work again. What might be the problem is an issue with the ground power used in the drive. However it's solved... for now.

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

Thanks for the update, and good luck. From this post I'm assuming that you are using a "cleaning disk" with the fluid. This provides a minor cleaning of the heads, and is therefore more of a temporary solution. If you ever do the full head cleaning, it's like getting a new drive, as far as Read/Write reliability is concerned.

BTW, Fanatavision is one of the all time great and under appreciated software packages for the 8-bit Apple II line. Have fun!

Mutant Pie

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

but - the explenations are valid to ANY kind of 5,25 Diskdrive....

Not always a good assumption. There are lots of direct drive beltless clone drives out there.

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

Hello sfahey,
excuse, - but thats not valid .....
first of all : in basic its regardless if the drive works with direct drivemotor or belt - the cleaning of the heads will be the nearly the same..... second : the trimming of the speed will be the same too - the only difference will be the location of the trimming resistor.... and ... last not least - also the calibration of the track zero is very similar too.... for the track calibration there is only one exception: those which detect the position of the track zero with a light barrier.....
the DISK II was just taken as basic example because it´s the most common one.... i´ve serviced hundreds of drives and compared with the DISK II in basic functiones there are just minor changes - except one other fact: those drives which don´t use a positionng disk but instead use a steppermotor with a steelribbon .... mostly this kind of positioning was used in the so called halfhight drives.... they became common from the early 80´s starting in ´83 to ´84. But also in this drives the adjustment of speed and the task of headcleaning is similar to the DISK II.....
so where is the bad assumtion please ?
sincerely speedyG

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Re: Disk drive is now going CUCKOO

Thanks for the update, and good luck. From this post I'm assuming that you are using a "cleaning disk" with the fluid. This provides a minor cleaning of the heads, and is therefore more of a temporary solution. If you ever do the full head cleaning, it's like getting a new drive, as far as Read/Write reliability is concerned.

I did do a full head cleaning. I don't use cleaning disks.

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