17 Aug
2013
17 Aug
'13
9:24 a.m.
On 08/17/2013 01:48 AM, Tothwolf wrote:
Hmm, that could be. I made the possibly-incorrect assumption that "diskette
controller error" meant that there was a problem with the FDC, rather than
with the attached drives, but maybe it does throw that error out if the
drive heads don't seek to track 0 within a certain time at boot-up.
I'd already checked and cleaned drive heads, but you're right and maybe the
grease for the head positioner has dried up. I'll clean it all out and
re-grease it...
On Fri, 16 Aug 2013, Jules Richardson wrote:
:)
On 08/16/2013 09:40 AM, Tothwolf wrote:
It's in there, somewhere... Eventually I plan to recreate a full index for
this stuff, assuming Jim doesn't beat me to it ;) The archives there go all the way back to the
first 8086 Deskpro. I've
used them to make the 360k diagnostics disks.
Doh - I didn't appreciate that there was more to it than what was in the
descriptions. I'll do some more digging. Having said
that, the floppy functionality in the machine seems to have
gone pop, and it's now issuing a diskette controller error on startup. If
it's the 765 itself, at least that's socketed on the controller board,
but it's too early to say if that's the likely problem or not.
I had similar issues with an 8086 Deskpro not that long ago. Both floppy
drives turned out to be completely gunked up and couldn't seek properly. One other thing to be careful with is that these
drives should not have the
diskette lock lever locked without a disk in them. They have a flimsy
interlock that is supposed to prevent turning the lever 90 degrees to lock
the drive without a disk in it, but it is so weak that it is easily forced
and broken. Once it breaks, you can't lock the disk at all.
I remember that from some models of drive certainly - although the 5.25"
unit in this system isn't of that design. It's a HD "1.2MB" unit -
Mitsubishi MF504B-362U - and quite possibly non-original (I'm not even sure
if the system came with a HD drive as standard; maybe that was an option
and a DD 360KB drive was normal?)
You may find
yours are already cracked. I've not yet come up with a way to repair these,
but maybe someone else has?
If it's the bit I'm thinking of, it would probably be possible to make a
replacement by suitable drilling and carving of some scrap plastic.
cheers
Jules