SE/30 not reconigizing floppy disks

[Torbar]

Hi all,

I just got myself an SE/30 but it's having an issue reading floppy disks.  If I put a disk in, it opens the shutter, but doesn't seem like it's attempting to read it.  After trying a couple of floppy drives(none of which are guaranteed to be good) and cables, I got it to read a disk once, and then never again.

Here's a youtube video

It seems like sometimes the head is covering the exposed disk, sometimes it's moved back.  The disk inside doesn't seem to spin, but not sure if it's supposed to be spinning or not

When you reboot it the machine it seems like it's trying to read it for a second, and then it ejects it.

Any ideas? 

 

[jack]

It should definitely be spinning, I would suspect the drive motor.

Have you already opened it up, cleaned, and relubricated everything?

 

[Torbar]

Not yet.  I'll probably do that this week and give that a try and see how that works

 

[bibilit]

Should spin.

Try to push down the microswitch on the right, the shorter one, the drive motor should spin and will stop spinning as soon as the switch is up.

 

[Torbar]

If I push it down it spins for a second or 2, and then stops.  Also it doesn't sound totally smooth.  Should it keep spinning if i keep it pressed down?

 

[bibilit]

IIRC, yes, should spin all the time.

But, i am looking at the video, and the drive is on a flat surface, and the motor is in direct contact with this surface...maybe preventing the motor from spinning freely.

Also, did the head was cleaned ? those drives are pretty reliable.

 

[Torbar]

Is the motor on the bottom?  I think I tested it holding the drive from the side but I'll double check.  (It wasn't working while mounted inside the case eather).  I used some compressed air for the head but I'll try some alcohol maybe?

 

[bibilit]

Yes, the spinning motor is on the bottom.

 clean the head with alcohol and Qtips, don't stress the upper head, or it will probably never work again.

A dirty head will prevent a good drive to work, and a dirty head is often the result of a bad/dirty disk.

 

[Torbar]

So I made sure that nothing was blocking the motor and it still only spins for a second.  It is no longer making the weird sound when it spins though.

I gotta get some alcohol but I'll report back when I try it.

 

[techknight]

Well judging by the drive in the video, you haven't actually performed the required 20-sum' year maintenance on the drive itself like your supposed to. 

it struggled WAY TOO hard to eject the disk, and it was very slow on insertion. that thing should literally "take/eat" the disk in, and slam in. So you need to break down that drive and lube it up! it may not be going down far enough to contact the microswitch. 

Need to do this sooner than later (like now), or it will literally shred the teeth on the eject gears trying to force that out... 

 

[Johnnya101]

...Which would also be a good idea to replace now too (The little one)

 

[Torbar]

Thanks, I'll clean it and probably replace the gear.  It's the same gear that's the tiny one on the 800k drive, right?

 

[jack]

Yep.

 

[Torbar]

Cool.  I ordered a set of 2 for my 512ke a while ago so I'll probably replace the one in the SE/30 too

 

[Torbar]

So an update several months later(been busy and haven't had much time to work on this project).  Cleaned the drive, still nothing.  Tried a different drive from a powermac 6100, same thing.  Could it be a logic board problem?

 

[IlikeTech]

Try the SE/30 Drive in the powermac.

If it doesn't work then you have a lobo or cable issue.

 

[Torbar]

The 6100 has that HDI45 connector on it for video, which I don't have a monitor or adapter for.  

Sounds like I'm gonna have to dig up another beige Mac w a floppy drive to know for sure what the issue is.