Flashing question mark floppy while booting

[MontanaMac]

Hi all,

I'm new here and to the hobby. I have a color classic that was gifted to me. It didn't work at first so I recapped the logic board. That got it to boot and function great but only after leaving it plugged into the wall for a few hours first. I just finished recapping the analog board and when i put it together it no longer boots properly. I get the chime and then a flashing question mark on a floppy disk. Is it possible I damaged the hard drive while opening it up?

What are my next steps?

Thank you for any help you can provide
patrick

 

[luRaichu]

By now it's more than likely that the rubber bumpers inside the hard disk drive have turned to goo and the head assembly is stuck in place now. It happens after 30 years. Sorry

 

[Byrd]

Welcome MontanaMac,

I've had many early SCSI HDs die hard after years of inactivity (even if they were good for a short moment). Often they can't come back but search for the HD model and you might find a fix as luRaichu noted usually requiring you to open the enclosure and tape back, remove goo inside. If you open up the HD and the platters are scratched and the heads dicey, it's gone. Do all this in room with minimal dust and try to keep the platters protected during inspection.

If no good, ZuluSCSI, BlueSCSI or another HD.

 

[cheesestraws]

Unlikely you damaged the hard disc, one of two things are more likely:

1. The edge connector between the logic board and the wiring harness is dirty or not seated properly; I had this a couple of times while servicing CCs and it was the connector.
2. The hard disc might just have died through age.

Since this happened after you took it to bits and put it back together, I'd suggest checking that all the edge connectors are mated properly and are clean before you give up on the HD, and make sure that the ground loops under the logic board are making contact with the shielding.

The physical design of the CC is unfortunately a little half-baked, and it's not uncommon (at least for me) for it to be troublesome after disassembly.

 

[MontanaMac]

Unlikely you damaged the hard disc, one of two things are more likely:

1. The edge connector between the logic board and the wiring harness is dirty or not seated properly; I had this a couple of times while servicing CCs and it was the connector.
2. The hard disc might just have died through age.

Since this happened after you took it to bits and put it back together, I'd suggest checking that all the edge connectors are mated properly and are clean before you give up on the HD, and make sure that the ground loops under the logic board are making contact with the shielding.

The physical design of the CC is unfortunately a little half-baked, and it's not uncommon (at least for me) for it to be troublesome after disassembly.

Thanks! I'll start here and see if I can troubleshoot it furthe

 

[MontanaMac]

Welcome MontanaMac,

I've had many early SCSI HDs die hard after years of inactivity (even if they were good for a short moment). Often they can't come back but search for the HD model and you might find a fix as luRaichu noted usually requiring you to open the enclosure and tape back, remove goo inside. If you open up the HD and the platters are scratched and the heads dicey, it's gone. Do all this in room with minimal dust and try to keep the platters protected during inspection.

If no good, ZuluSCSI, BlueSCSI or another HD.

Appreciate it. It's been a fun project so far, but I'm always on the verge of being out of my depth. Luckily there is lots of knowledge in places like this

 

[MontanaMac]

Welcome MontanaMac,

I've had many early SCSI HDs die hard after years of inactivity (even if they were good for a short moment). Often they can't come back but search for the HD model and you might find a fix as luRaichu noted usually requiring you to open the enclosure and tape back, remove goo inside. If you open up the HD and the platters are scratched and the heads dicey, it's gone. Do all this in room with minimal dust and try to keep the platters protected during inspection.

If no good, ZuluSCSI, BlueSCSI or another HD.

I opened it up and manually spun it and put it back together and it worked. Not sure if I actually did anything but it's currently working.

 

[Byrd]

I opened it up and manually spun it and put it back together and it worked. Not sure if I actually did anything but it's currently working.

Nice one! If a really old SCSI drive you might be able to lubricate the bearing not from inside but outside the bottom of the drive - might be visible

 

[Callan]

I've had to lubricate the bearings on a number of seagate drives. I would, however, recommend backing up your drive. Especially since you opened it. You can use a modern scsi drive replacement solution ( zuluscsi or bluescsi) in initiator mode to copy/backup the drive to an SD card. That way you have a drop in replacement ready to go when the drive dies. If there isn't anything important on the the drive you can always worry about that later and just do a fresh install if / when that happens.

 

[adespoton]

Is the drive the original Quantum 80MB?

 

[MontanaMac]

Is the drive the original Quantum 80MB?

I believe so. I got it to work once and now it's back to showing the error. Rubber is melted. I'm sure it's a lost cause and needs replacing but I'm tapped out on this project so I think I'll try and sell the cc. It's been fun though! Satisfying getting it to work even for that short amount of time