30 Jun
2019
30 Jun
'19
2:15 a.m.
Hey all, i'm having a fair amount of trouble with my PS/2's floppy drive...
wanted to back up my BBS and none of the disks i put in would read or
format!
Oddly though, it WILL boot a disk that's inserted on power-on.
I hear it try and hit the disk a few times while in dos repeatedly before
failing with the R/A/F options ... and format tries to read it, then goes
attempts to format it, and can't find sector 0 .....
I'm really confused about those symptoms since it boots the only bootable
disk I had on hand - ironically spinrite 6 (I'm aware of how useful it
is...) - so i'm looking at replacing it ... or figuring out what's wrong
with it that it can boot a disk just fine, but not use one while in DOS ?
.... and by wiggling the floppy a bit I just got it to format a disk while
in the ... drive, and now it's making the noise it did before and stalling
occasionally.
Perhaps the disk just isn't catching fully?
--
Gary G. Sparkes Jr.
KB3HAG
30 Jun
30 Jun
2:32 a.m.
It... seems to be working reliably again now.
I'd still be interested in finding a spare/compatible, even if it's a bare
drive without the card edge connector, but somehow now that i've been
prodding it and doing absolutely nothing different other than booting off
it a few times, it seems to be operating just fine under DOS 5
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 5:15 AM Gary Sparkes <mokuba at gmail.com> wrote:
Hey all, i'm having a fair amount of trouble with
my PS/2's floppy
drive... wanted to back up my BBS and none of the disks i put in would read
or format!
Oddly though, it WILL boot a disk that's inserted on power-on.
I hear it try and hit the disk a few times while in dos repeatedly before
failing with the R/A/F options ... and format tries to read it, then goes
attempts to format it, and can't find sector 0 .....
I'm really confused about those symptoms since it boots the only bootable
disk I had on hand - ironically spinrite 6 (I'm aware of how useful it
is...) - so i'm looking at replacing it ... or figuring out what's wrong
with it that it can boot a disk just fine, but not use one while in DOS ?
.... and by wiggling the floppy a bit I just got it to format a disk while
in the ... drive, and now it's making the noise it did before and stalling
occasionally.
Perhaps the disk just isn't catching fully?
--
Gary G. Sparkes Jr.
KB3HAG
--
Gary G. Sparkes Jr.
KB3HAG
9:27 a.m.
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 5:33 AM Gary Sparkes via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
It... seems to be working reliably again now.
I'd still be interested in finding a spare/compatible, even if it's a bare
drive without the card edge connector, but somehow now that i've been
prodding it and doing absolutely nothing different other than booting off
it a few times, it seems to be operating just fine under DOS 5
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 5:15 AM Gary Sparkes <mokuba at gmail.com> wrote:
It could be that you need to "grease the skids". I'd try a cleaning
and
re-grease moving parts (although there are less because they don't auto
eject like a MAC of the era. Observe the operation of the drive with the
cover removed..
I have to check but I think there is a "regular" 3.5 to PS/2 drive adapter
around, someone selling one? IIRC the PS/2's need a power line (or two)
merged into pin X (?). It may be worth it to investigate the possibility
of buying or making an adapter as these PS/2 drives are becoming hard to
find.
Bill
Hey all, i'm having a fair amount of trouble
with my PS/2's floppy
drive... wanted to back up my BBS and none of the disks i put in would
read
or format!
Oddly though, it WILL boot a disk that's inserted on power-on.
I hear it try and hit the disk a few times while in dos repeatedly before
failing with the R/A/F options ... and format tries to read it, then goes
attempts to format it, and can't find sector 0 .....
I'm really confused about those symptoms since it boots the only bootable
disk I had on hand - ironically spinrite 6 (I'm aware of how useful it
is...) - so i'm looking at replacing it ... or figuring out what's wrong
with it that it can boot a disk just fine, but not use one while in DOS ?
.... and by wiggling the floppy a bit I just got it to format a disk
while
in the ... drive, and now it's making the
noise it did before and
stalling
occasionally.
Perhaps the disk just isn't catching fully?
--
Gary G. Sparkes Jr.
KB3HAG
12:28 p.m.
On Sun, 30 Jun 2019, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
I have to check but I think there is a
"regular" 3.5 to PS/2 drive adapter
around, someone selling one? IIRC the PS/2's need a power line (or two)
merged into pin X (?). It may be worth it to investigate the possibility
of buying or making an adapter as these PS/2 drives are becoming hard to
find.
I might not be remembering correctly (un-refreshed wetware), but I thought
that I remembered from 30+ years ago, that PS/2 drive connector consisted
of 40? pins, of which the first 34 were standard? drive pinout, plus the
added pins carried the power.
If that remembraance is close to correct, then the adapter would consist
of 40 pin connector to 34 plus power.
12:42 p.m.
Ah, just so we're all on the same page here.... The drive i'm looking for
seems to be "extra" special.... mine's got a ribbon cable connecting it to
the card edge connector .... same connector as these two pictured drives
but slightly different configuration. Apparently the drives shown are
compatible, however -
https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/images/2009-09-16-broken-ibm-driv…
Mine is like this one -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Floppy_IBM_PS2_M70_back…
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 3:28 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On Sun, 30 Jun 2019, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
--
Gary G. Sparkes Jr.
KB3HAG
I have to check but I think there is a
"regular" 3.5 to PS/2 drive
adapter
around, someone selling one? IIRC the PS/2's
need a power line (or two)
merged into pin X (?). It may be worth it to investigate the possibility
of buying or making an adapter as these PS/2 drives are becoming hard to
find.
I might not be remembering correctly (un-refreshed wetware), but I thought
that I remembered from 30+ years ago, that PS/2 drive connector consisted
of 40? pins, of which the first 34 were standard? drive pinout, plus the
added pins carried the power.
If that remembraance is close to correct, then the adapter would consist
of 40 pin connector to 34 plus power.
5:24 p.m.
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019, 3:42 PM Gary Sparkes via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Ah, just so we're all on the same page here....
The drive i'm looking for
seems to be "extra" special.... mine's got a ribbon cable connecting it to
the card edge connector .... same connector as these two pictured drives
but slightly different configuration. Apparently the drives shown are
compatible, however -
https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/images/2009-09-16-broken-ibm-driv…
Mine is like this one -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Floppy_IBM_PS2_M70_back…
This looks like an adapter has already been installed possibly.
Bill
6:20 p.m.
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019, 3:42 PM Gary Sparkes via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> Ah, just so we're all on the same page here.... The drive i'm looking for
> seems to be "extra" special.... mine's got a ribbon cable connecting it
to
> the card edge connector .... same connector as these two pictured drives
> but slightly different configuration. Apparently the drives shown are
> compatible, however -
>
> https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/images/2009-09-16-broken-ibm-driv…
>
> Mine is like this one -
>
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Floppy_IBM_PS2_M70_back…
On Sun, 30 Jun 2019, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
This looks like an adapter has already been installed
possibly.
Yes.
Notice that that is a 40 pin card edge connector.
The "standard" (SA400, etc.) was originally a 34 pin card edge, and later,
with 3.5" became a 34 pin dual row header.
IF I remember correctly, 34 of those 40 pins correspond to the 34 pin
"standard" connector, with the other 6 being for power.
Unfortunately, for making adapter cables, MALE card edge connectors for
cables are no longer readily available. 40 years ago, IDC ones with
gold plated fingers were available, and there were very cheap 34 pin and
40 pin entender cables (popular for TRS80 to avoid connect/reconnect
cycles of the non-gold-plated Expansion Interface connectors)
If you look around, 30 years ago, there were readily available adapters
with male 34 pin card edge and female 34 pin dual row header, for putting
the "new" 3.5" drives into machines that had card edge cabling for
5.25".
One of those would work, if you can kludge a power adapter, such as
cutting off 6 pins from a scrap card edge.
And, of course, in those days, there were commercially available
after-market adapters for putting "standard" drives into PS/2.
8:19 p.m.
This is how it shipped from the factory. Note the fact that the floppy
drive has a ribbon cable instead of a regular FDD connection .... this is,
from every picture i've seen, how they came. I
would need another Alps or
similar FDD that has the same ribbon cable connector
instead of a standard
FDD connector in order to replace it using the pre-existing bracket.
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 8:24 PM Bill Degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019, 3:42 PM Gary Sparkes via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
--
Gary G. Sparkes Jr.
KB3HAG
Ah, just so we're all on the same page
here.... The drive i'm looking for
seems to be "extra" special.... mine's got a ribbon cable connecting it to
the card edge connector .... same connector as these two pictured drives
but slightly different configuration. Apparently the drives shown are
compatible, however -
https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/images/2009-09-16-broken-ibm-driv…
Mine is like this one -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Floppy_IBM_PS2_M70_back…
This looks like an adapter has already been installed possibly.
Bill
>
> 
10:07 a.m.
On 6/30/19 3:32 AM, Gary Sparkes via cctalk wrote:
I'd still be interested in finding a
spare/compatible, even if it's
a bare drive without the card edge connector
I would suggest inquiring in the comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware newsgroup.
I fairly regularly see discussions about using regular floppy drives
with adapter cables in PS/2s.
I /think/ the IDE signaling is electrically compatible with PC floppy
drives. The main difference is the form factor and the fact that power
goes over the PS/2 cabling / back plane connector.
If nothing else, you'll likely get three or four "I have a spare I'll
sell for a reasonable price" type responses.
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
2000
days inactive
2001
days old
8 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
billdegnan＠gmail.com -
cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
mokuba＠gmail.com