Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

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IIeBoy's picture
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Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

All is going well with my new //e setup, with one caveat. When I try to scan drives in ADTPro, Drive 1 sounds normal, but Drive 2 gives a quick, low, whiz or whirr sound.

I have not yet read or written to Drive 2 because:

A) I don't have any software that needs to, and;
Dirol I cannot remember or find on Google the command to save a file to Drive 2 from DOS or ProDOS (if that's even possible)

Questions:

1) So I can test fully, can someone please give me some commands that should succeed not fail.
2) And is there a most recommended disk drive diagnostic tool (that doesn't require the original disk) that can be found on Asimov and copied over ADTPro?

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

You would SAVE a file to disk 2 by typing "SAVE x,D2" where 'x' is the name of the file.

You can SAVE, CATALOG, INIT, LOAD, BLOAD, etc. anything from either drive with a ",Dx" where x is the drive number. Once you catalog or save to ,D2
you would need to put a ,D1 after a command to switch back to drive 1.

I have used many of the apps HERE AT ASIMOV

MECC Inspector, Aptest, Apple IIe Diagnostics all have disk drive diagnostic tests.
Zan

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

I love this place.

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

On to the testing. Any ideas why I always get the "NO 80 COLUMN CARD" error with the official Apple //e diagnostics disks? I do have the card FWIW.

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

MECC is reporting "The disk drive is having problems" for Drive 2.
The speed test claims 618 RPM whilst it should be 299.
As mentioned, the drive gives a low whirring sound.

What are some common fixes I can try?

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

Hello IIeboy,
like mentioned in several previos threads just read the pages at:
http://www.appleii-box.de/H084_1_AppleIIDiskService1.htm
all common problems related with the drives are explained there...
speedyG

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

IIeBoy, most definitely check out Speedy's page, it gives you pretty much all the information you could need on the Disk ][ drives.

As for doing just a speed adjustment, it takes but a few minutes, a Phillips head screw driver and a small flat head screw driver (the smaller the better, 00 or 01 works fine (3/32" or 2.5mm or slightly larger as well as your diagnostic software.

Make sure computer is off. Disconnect the drive, take the four screws off the bottom, slide the case cover BACK off the drive (towards the ribbon cable, don't try to slide it forwards towards the front of the drive) set the drive down, reconnect the drive, put a blank disk in it, boot your diagnostic software and when the time comes to adjust the speed, turn the speed adjustment screw SLOWLY while the diagnostic software is running.

You should leave it as drive 2 (although not required of course) while testing/adjusting it.

This picture from speedy's site shows you where the adjustment screw is located.

Zan

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

Hello IIeboy,
if a drive has misalignment at speed - i´d recommend besides - after speedadjustment to at least
perform a simple test on trackalignment. Using a Copy Utility Program like Copy II Plus - copy a
bootable disk from drive 1 to drive 2 and try to boot at drive 1 the disk written at drive 2.

This will at least check if there is a missalignment between the 2 drives, that turns out to be that
serious that disk written at drive 2 are not readable at drive 1 or vice versa due to track missalignment.

It´s important to know about such kind of trouble, because it will restrict the usability of the
one drive. In such case it´s recommended to use the better drive ( the one that also reads disks from other
drives written at other computers ) as drive 1 !

speedyG

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

Thanks guys for the advice. Upon opening the drive the problem was immediately apparent:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3641089/Pictures/IMG_20150326_165202.jpg

The drive belt had snapped and I actually originally found it in the top of the drive where it had possibly thrown itself clear to! Or the worm I found in the case had been nibbling at it, as it was nowhere near the right length any more.

I happened to have a ball of rubber bands the perfect size. I wrapped 2 side by side around the motor arm and the center disc, and ran the speed test on MECC. It needed a bit of speeding up, and was very creaky.

I added WD-40 in just the right place (as per the guide), and at 300RPM the creaking stopped.

The read/write test worked perfectly. Drive restored! A very satisfying experience.

Just in case the rubber bands don't last, where could I order the right size drive belt? I see one here but $20 seems a bit steep.

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

This is just removal from other thread where i posted by error.....
its just a repeating from postings made there:

the problem with the rubberband is, that it is too weak for safe speed....
a more stiff band is requested....
several years ago i used belts from tape recorder machines and they fitted the needs perfect....
the problem .... i can´t remember from which tape they were listed as spare parts....
i believe they belonged to a tape machine from Uher or Akai.
the only important thing is that the diameter is about 1 cm less than the length measured with
a string.

reply from IIeBoy:
Thank you. With the speed test on MECC I am getting only a small fluctuation from 299-301. Read/write test works perfectly each time. As it's only my Drive 2, do you see any harm in leaving the rubber band in there? I rarely use that drive, but wanted it to work when/if I do.

my next reply:
I just know that rubber changes rather fast it´s attitude ( for example at difference in temperature )
and ages fast in stretched position....

and other point is that there is difference in time of speed-up.....

so at speedtest it might work due to the time the drive has, to spin up to correct speed.....
but i seriously doubt that time for correct spin up is fast enough for repeating read write operation....
the trouble might be present and detected while normal access after normal write and reading.....
resulting to faulty access of the sectors written in the first 3 to 5 seconds.....

or there might be differences at the results between day with high temperature and night with low temperature

and i believe that after rather short time you will be forced to recalibrate speed ( maybe after 5 to 6 weeks ? )
speedyG

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Re: Drive 2 making a strange low brief whirring

Great advice thanks. I don't have any old tape machine. I'm hoping someone has a solution that isn't as expensive as a new drive itself.

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I I don't think that its

I I don't think that its worth the trouble and possible damage to your computer (or yourself) to "lube" any cooling fans in your computer. ESPECIALLY with a power supply: there's enough current in those devices to kill someone, even with the power off and all cables unplugged (capacitors can hold a charge for a long time). Unlike a car engine, the best course of action in correcting any hardware-related errors in a computer is to replace the failing part. The time and money you'll spend in replacing a part will pale in comparison to the headaches (or injuries) you'll have to attempt to repair a component by hand. Though the rest of your post is logical: machines are machines, and they all break at one time or another. Regards, Epson Error Code 0xEA, should you have any suggestions, please let me know. 

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Apple II power supplies don't

Apple II power supplies don't normally have any fans.  He was working on a Disk II, which has only 12V inside.  Even the Apple II power supply, the shock danger isn't that high because it has no large capacitors like some other power supply designs.  120V wall current will give a person a painful shock and perhaps a minor burn, but it is rarely fatal.  Provided the power is off and reasonable precautions are taken, it isn't particularly dangerous to work on one.  The thing often used with an Apple II where high voltages are present and proper precautions and some education or training is needed would be CRT based monitors.  The picture tube and large capacitors inside of those do contain enough juice sometimes even at power off to kill a person.  But the power supply?  That's something that is pretty safe to work on.  The Disk ][ even less dangerous.

 

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