SE/30 1.44 MB internal floppy failure

[Turaiel]

Hey all!

This is my first post here on the forum. The rules document link is dead, so I'll do the best I can!

I acquired an SE/30 back in April, and I've been gradually working on repairs since then. I managed to clean the logic board and replace all the caps, and I've replaced the PSU with a repaired one of the same model from eBay. I also managed to get the 800k external floppy drive working, and I can boot into the Utilities disk I have. Unfortunately, my 1.44 MB internal floppy drive isn't giving me as much luck.

I thoroughly cleaned both floppy drives with denatured alcohol (including the heads), and applied lithium grease to all the appropriate locations. I did pull up on the head once or twice before I found out that was an issue. The head spring looked okay and I moved it up a notch to increase the tension just in case. The head seems to be making adequate contact with the disks I insert. Also, the ejection motor is oriented correctly and not having any issues. When I insert a disk at boot, the head moved across the disk once and then the disk is ejected. I've had similar luck with inserting a disk while in an OS (see video attached).

I don't know what else to try at this point. I have a SCSI2SD ordered and it'd be a rotten shame to have gotten this far just to be thwarted by a bogus floppy drive. Does anyone have additional suggestions?

Thanks!

Video of the behavior:

 

[Themk]

Here's a link to the rules, but to be honest, I doubt very many people read them anyway.

What an interesting problem, it's good that you cleaned the drive heads and lubricated the slide mechanism.

One thing interesting I noted while watching your video was that you got the single vs double sided initialisation option. If you put in DD media (720/800K), then that is the expected behavior, however, this is a 1.44MB high-density drive, and assuming you used HD media (1440K), then you should *NOT* be getting single vs double sided. I'm going to assume it's the second case, and in which case your high-density media detect sensor is not working properly. I wonder if some other sensor also isn't working right too?

 

[Turaiel]

I was using a 1.44 MB HD disk. Do you think it might help to short the switch to see if that makes a difference? It's the one furthest to the right, correct? What other sensor do you think could be involved?

 

[Themk]

Yes it is the one furthest to the right. That switch is pushed down by DD disks, and left up by HD disks, as the HD disks have a hole in them, which prevents them from pushing down the switch plunger.

There is an optical sensor that is to detect the head position, perhaps that has too much dust on it, or is not working due to some other problem.

 

[Turaiel]

I cleaned the optical sensor (gas duster and alcohol) and nothing changed, so I tried unplugging it. As described in some other threads, the read head kept trying to go forward when it was at the end, so I'm going to say that's probably working just fine. I tried clicking "one-sided" on the format dialog and the head did move forward a little at a time as it appeared to write data. It seemed to collide with the edge of the disk opening, and it stopped and ejected the disk with a failure. The disk is unable to read 800k disks either, which makes me think it's not an issue with the DD/HD switch. Any other ideas?

 

[Turaiel]

I know this is a significant bump, but I've now gotten everything on my Mac SE/30 working except for the internal 1.44 MB floppy drive. Any suggestions you can give are greatly welcomed, since this is the last thing I need to get done before I put the machine back together.

Thanks.

 

[megabyte]

Same problem, very strange situation with SE/30...