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Hello everyone, hoping you can help with my disk dilemma!

Ronathan2001

Ronathan2001

6502
Hello All,

Great site! I signed up to this forum about a week ago, and I've spent some time going through the previous posts. Although there is a wealth of information here, I couldn't find the solution to my current problem.

I have cleaned and lubricated the floppy drive in my Mac Plus, but I still can't get it to work. I followed the lubrication recommendations in this sites wiki, but still no luck. I did take apart the motor and can confirm that all four gears are fine.

When I insert a disk after the "disk question mark prompt", the question mark goes away. Soon after, an x appears. During this time, I can hear 3 short whirring sounds coming from the disk drive.  The disk will not eject, so this process continues until I turn the computer off or eject the disk manually.

Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Thanks!!!

Ron

 
if it shows the "X" that means it is reading the disc, but you cannot boot from it.  You need to find a boot disk that works I believe. As far as it not ejecting, I am not sure about that.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
miniMOJOman said:
if it shows the "X" that means it is reading the disc, but you cannot boot from it.  You need to find a boot disk that works I believe. As far as it not ejecting, I am not sure about that.
Click to expand...
Could also indicate a disk read error or just about anything. The X icon basically means the bootstrap couldn't find anything it could use on the disk.

During this time, I can hear 3 short whirring sounds coming from the disk drive.  The disk will not eject, so this process continues until I turn the computer off or eject the disk manually.
Click to expand...
There's still something mechanically wrong with your drive. Either the eject mechanism is sticking or out of adjustment.

 
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Thank you both for your help!

What could be out of adjustment that would prevent my floppy from ejecting? I read Mike the Kraken's "Diskette drive in a Plus doesn't even attempt to eject" post from May 2014 (sorry, can't paste the link on this Surface) and it seemed that the motor  that drives the smallest gear needs to be able to  rotate, and if it doesn't that means it seized? Is that right?

Is the spinning noise the sound of a disk rotating? Shouldn't it have given me a screen message asking if I wanted to format it, or is that only possible after system software is loaded?

Sorry, sometimes I get more confused before I get un-confused!!!

 
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Can you eject it with a paper-clip?

I could be wrong (and I can't find that documentation now) but I was under the impression that those three-whirring sounds were actually a debugging mechanism.  I might be thinking of the miniscribe.

 
I had the same problem, for me it was the Finder System files were corrupt, once I replaced them it booted fine.  Just like previous posts said, disk reads fine but its easier missing the System and Finder files or they are corrupted.  Just replace them from another floppy

 
you can hold your mouse button down at boot up and it should also eject.

the other idea i would like to toss into the pot is, could be a bad bourns filter.

 
Yes, that was the lubrication guide I had followed... :)

...and it could easily be those filters, but I'll try everything else I can first.

Easy to check the bourns with a DMM?

 
i would try to bifurcate the debugging process.

I) Does the drive read?

a) I haven't had a plus in a long time but it only had a single sided drive, right?  So are you using a 400k disk (I'm not sure if it'll read an 800k disk, I'd assume it will - but not a 2HD disk).

b ) Are you sure there's valid system software on the disk?

II) If the answer is I) No, a) Yes, b ) Yes, then I'd default on Uniserver or someone more knowledgeable with the hardware.

Do you have another Mac you could test the drive on (one that has I guess a 400k controller; I don't know if the 400 and 800k controllers are compatible); or do you have another 400k drive to try with this machine?

 
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I'm pretty sure the Plus came with an 800k floppy, as its identical to the 800k internal floppy drive in my SE.

Here's an update:

My Mac Plus boots fine with the floppy emu (no surprise here)

I found an old Symantec emergency disk, and the Mac Plus boots fine with this disk when attached  using an external 800k floppy drive.

The Mac Plus behaves as previously described when using the Symantec disk in its internal drive (whirring sounds, non ejecting).

Holding the mouse button down while booting has no effect.

I also attached the troublesome internal 800k drive from my SE, and it just hums (makes no other movement or sounds).

Does this point to a bourns filter problem on both internal drives? Any way to confirm with a DMM?

THANKS!

 
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The stuff I read said the internal is 400k but the Plus is compatible with 800k externals. The only disk I still have from my Plus is a 400k single density disk.

 
Thanks for your reply raoulduke, I would love to read your source confirming the Plus came with a 400k drive (it sure doesn't look like the 400k drive in my 512K. Please send me the link.

 
Great! Now that we have established that all floppy drives involved were 800K, does anyone have any suggestions on how I should proceed. Believe me, I'm open!

 
I'm assuming you don't have an unambiguously working 800k internal drive to swap in?  And you don't have a board that unambiguously works with a working 800k drive you could swap the Plus drive into?

 
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