jmacz
Well-known member
Hmm interesting... I had a 1.44MB floppy drive that I hadn't tested yet. I fixed all the usual eject gear related stuff and then attempted to test it. The eject mechanism seemed fine but there were other issues, namely:
Moved the floppy drive into another computer and had the same issues. Moved a working floppy into the first computer, works fine. So definitely the floppy drive. So I went ahead to check the switches. I compared the switch behavior with a known working floppy and found:
I have a fried floppy drive that I have been using as a parts donor. I grabbed the 3 switches off of it and transplanted them to this floppy drive. The drive works great now and tested fine on all of the above as well as read/write/eject.
Really weird that all 3 switches were bad.
- Drive couldn't tell the difference between a 800K and a 1.4MB disk.
- Drive couldn't tell the difference between a locked and unlocked disk (always thought it was locked).
Moved the floppy drive into another computer and had the same issues. Moved a working floppy into the first computer, works fine. So definitely the floppy drive. So I went ahead to check the switches. I compared the switch behavior with a known working floppy and found:
- Two pins on the disk detect switch were shorted internal to the switch. And it wasn't the pins that were supposed to have continuity when a disk is inserted. Did not match the working floppy (same model #).
- The lock/unlock switch doesn't close when the trigger is depressed with a floppy. You have to really push it in to get it to work.
- The 800k/1.44MB switch also doesn't close when the trigger is depressed with a floppy. Again, you have to really push it in to get it work.
I have a fried floppy drive that I have been using as a parts donor. I grabbed the 3 switches off of it and transplanted them to this floppy drive. The drive works great now and tested fine on all of the above as well as read/write/eject.
Really weird that all 3 switches were bad.