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Mac SE FDHD floppy drive constant buzzing

Hi folks.

I reassembled my SE after retr0brighting it and noticed the 2mb floppy drive wasn’t accepting disks or ejecting properly. A disk got stuck on the way out. I could hear it making normal drive noises though. I realized I had not installed it 100% correctly and it was sitting a bit high. I reseated it, hooked everything up and it then just did NOTHING. No sound, nothing. I assumed I’d connected the ribbon cable poorly. Disconnected and reconnected and now it’s just buzzing non stop and doing nothing useful. Won’t read or write or eject. Nothing I do stops the buzzing. I have tried manually ejecting, reseating cable, etc. many many times.

I removed the drive from its mounting bracket and examined while on to see the buzzing is coming from the Omron eject motor. But I cannot figure out what to do. Ideas?

I have twice damaged floppy drives on other machines while trying to clean them. Don’t want that to happen here … I am considering just ordering a replacement on eBay.
 

CC_333

Well-known member
I removed the drive from its mounting bracket and examined while on to see the buzzing is coming from the Omron eject motor. But I cannot figure out what to do. Ideas?
Maybe someone who knows better can chime in, but it sounds to me like maybe the main drive gear stripped out, which is a very common problem. New replacements exist, and can be installed relatively easily.

c
 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
Third on broken gear. The originals are made to break. The replacements, not so much... But oh well.
 
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