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2012-04-04 by Kirk Keyes
I've got a IIx and Drive 1 has a sticky door latch. Sometimes, especially after running the CMI for a few minutes, the door latch refuses to open. I have to repeatedly press on the latch and with some time, it eventually releases the disk. Is there something that's sticking/catching that is a known issue with these drives? Any suggestiongs on how to fix it? Thanks! Kirk
2012-04-04 by WT
----- Original Message -----From: Kirk KeyesSent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 9:10 AMSubject: [Fairlight-CMI] Sticky Floppy Drive LatchI've got a IIx and Drive 1 has a sticky door latch. Sometimes, especially after running the CMI for a few minutes, the door latch refuses to open. I have to repeatedly press on the latch and with some time, it eventually releases the disk.
Is there something that's sticking/catching that is a known issue with these drives? Any suggestiongs on how to fix it?
Thanks!
Kirk
2012-04-17 by horiprod
Hi Kirk. I have just had the "pleasure" of fixing 7 x 8" floppy drives this afternoon, so may have some insights into your specific problem. First of all, there were several types of floppy drive used in the in I, II, IIX family. The earliest were full width, beige drives that had a mains motor. Since these are region specific, and weigh as much as a couple of bricks, I replace these with later drives at the earliest convenience. The two types of later half width drives are black, and easily identified by the fact they either have a round, or rectangular LED. Most IIXs were shipped with the YE-Data round LED drives, and these in my experience have the most problems. Basically, all the problems I've found on these are mechanical, and are easily fixed if you have a practical mind. The specific problem you describe I've fixed many times today. It's caused by a synthetic rubber "stop" on the eject mechanism, whereby the material has degraded into something like road tar. Because of this, the eject slide gets bunged up, and is reluctant to open. You may be fortunate in the fact that yours is the right-hand drive, and is therefore easier to get to. If you remove the right-hand beige ali cover (4 x screws), you can see it straight away. Just try to insert and remove discs, and you'll hopefully see what I mean. Any sluggishness will probably be caused by a big lump of goo fouling the slide. Just remove all the goo, clean up, and spread a bit of graphite grease around. Works wonders. The other major problem I found, was the drives not accessing floppies properly (error messages: system disc faulty). I traced this to the pull-in solenoid, which again was gummed up. Again, there were synthetic rubber stops that had turned to bitumen, stopping the solenoid from moving freely. I'll post some pictures when I have a moment. Lastly, this was all made much easier by making some flying leads from my IIX, to be able to see the drives operating on a benchtop. There's no way you can see what's going on with the drives in the machine. Hope this is helpful, Regards, Peter Wielk Horizontal Productions in rainy Sydney
2012-04-17 by Joe Sleator
Hi Kirk. I have just had the "pleasure" of fixing 7 x 8" floppy drives this afternoon, so may have some insights into your specific problem. First of all, there were several types of floppy drive used in the in I, II, IIX family.
The earliest were full width, beige drives that had a mains motor. Since these are region specific, and weigh as much as a couple of bricks, I replace these with later drives at the earliest convenience.
The two types of later half width drives are black, and easily identified by the fact they either have a round, or rectangular LED. Most IIXs were shipped with the YE-Data round LED drives, and these in my experience have the most problems. Basically, all the problems I've found on these are mechanical, and are easily fixed if you have a practical mind.
The specific problem you describe I've fixed many times today. It's caused by a synthetic rubber "stop" on the eject mechanism, whereby the material has degraded into something like road tar. Because of this, the eject slide gets bunged up, and is reluctant to open. You may be fortunate in the fact that yours is the right-hand drive, and is therefore easier to get to. If you remove the right-hand beige ali cover (4 x screws), you can see it straight away. Just try to insert and remove discs, and you9;ll hopefully see what I mean. Any sluggishness will probably be caused by a big lump of goo fouling the slide. Just remove all the goo, clean up, and spread a bit of graphite grease around. Works wonders.
The other major problem I found, was the drives not accessing floppies properly (error messages: system disc faulty). I traced this to the pull-in solenoid, which again was gummed up. Again, there were synthetic rubber stops that had turned to bitumen, stopping the solenoid from moving freely.
I'll post some pictures when I have a moment.
Lastly, this was all made much easier by making some flying leads from my IIX, to be able to see the drives operating on a benchtop. There's no way you can see what's going on with the drives in the machine.
Hope this is helpful,
Regards,
Peter Wielk
Horizontal Productions in rainy Sydney
2012-04-19 by Kirk Keyes
Thanks for the reply, Peter - It is the right hand drive, so I took the side panel off. It's a beige, YD-174 drive with a round LED. (My serial number is SNA108050 - I take it this was a Series I or early II? It's been converted to a IIx at some point.) I didn't remove the the drive - is the rubber stop no the "bottom" side of the drive -that is, the side that's not exposed with the side panel removed? I don't see any rubber stopper... So here's what I tried lacking any obvious solution at this point: 1) Without a disk in the drive, I can close the door and the latch releases ever time. 2) I can insert a disk, close the door, press the release button, and the disk pops out every time. 3) When I insert the disk, close the door, press the release button, have the computer access the disk, and sometimes it only takes one disk access to get the release to jam. Sometimes it can access it 4 or 5 times before it jams. One think I noticed is that there is a slight, mechanical click/thud sound when the jam seems to take place. It appears to come from the latch area right near the release button. So do I need to remove the drive then? --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "horiprod" <horizontal_productions@...> wrote:
> > Hi Kirk. I have just had the "pleasure" of fixing 7 x 8" floppy drives this afternoon, so may have some insights into your specific problem. First of all, there were several types of floppy drive used in the in I, II, IIX family. > The earliest were full width, beige drives that had a mains motor. Since these are region specific, and weigh as much as a couple of bricks, I replace these with later drives at the earliest convenience. > The two types of later half width drives are black, and easily identified by the fact they either have a round, or rectangular LED. Most IIXs were shipped with the YE-Data round LED drives, and these in my experience have the most problems. Basically, all the problems I've found on these are mechanical, and are easily fixed if you have a practical mind. > The specific problem you describe I've fixed many times today. It's caused by a synthetic rubber "stop" on the eject mechanism, whereby the material has degraded into something like road tar. Because of this, the eject slide gets bunged up, and is reluctant to open. You may be fortunate in the fact that yours is the right-hand drive, and is therefore easier to get to. If you remove the right-hand beige ali cover (4 x screws), you can see it straight away. Just try to insert and remove discs, and you'll hopefully see what I mean. Any sluggishness will probably be caused by a big lump of goo fouling the slide. Just remove all the goo, clean up, and spread a bit of graphite grease around. Works wonders. > The other major problem I found, was the drives not accessing floppies properly (error messages: system disc faulty). I traced this to the pull-in solenoid, which again was gummed up. Again, there were synthetic rubber stops that had turned to bitumen, stopping the solenoid from moving freely. > I'll post some pictures when I have a moment. > Lastly, this was all made much easier by making some flying leads from my IIX, to be able to see the drives operating on a benchtop. There's no way you can see what's going on with the drives in the machine. > Hope this is helpful, > > Regards, > > Peter Wielk > > Horizontal Productions in rainy Sydney >
2012-04-20 by Kirk Keyes
I pulled the drive last night and I still can't see any sign of any sticky goo anywhere. I see some foam in the disk guide alongside the read/write head, but that looks to be in good condition. So the disks appear to only stick after they have been accessed by the computer. Now that I have the drive out, I notice there is what looks to be a solenoid on the back side of the eject button. What does it do? Is it a lockout so you can't eject while the drive is accessing? If so, perhaps that solenoid is not releasing after the disk is accesses? The eject button does seem to be "stuck" when it has problems - I'm not having problems with the disk not popping out after the door finally opens. Kirk --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "Kirk Keyes" <Kirk@...> wrote:
> > Thanks for the reply, Peter - > > It is the right hand drive, so I took the side panel off. It's a beige, YD-174 drive with a round LED. > > (My serial number is SNA108050 - I take it this was a Series I or early II? It's been converted to a IIx at some point.) > > I didn't remove the the drive - is the rubber stop no the "bottom" side of the drive -that is, the side that's not exposed with the side panel removed? I don't see any rubber stopper... > > So here's what I tried lacking any obvious solution at this point: > > 1) Without a disk in the drive, I can close the door and the latch releases ever time. > > 2) I can insert a disk, close the door, press the release button, and the disk pops out every time. > > 3) When I insert the disk, close the door, press the release button, have the computer access the disk, and sometimes it only takes one disk access to get the release to jam. Sometimes it can access it 4 or 5 times before it jams. > > One think I noticed is that there is a slight, mechanical click/thud sound when the jam seems to take place. It appears to come from the latch area right near the release button. > > So do I need to remove the drive then? > > > --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "horiprod" <horizontal_productions@> wrote: > > > > Hi Kirk. I have just had the "pleasure" of fixing 7 x 8" floppy drives this afternoon, so may have some insights into your specific problem. First of all, there were several types of floppy drive used in the in I, II, IIX family. > > The earliest were full width, beige drives that had a mains motor. Since these are region specific, and weigh as much as a couple of bricks, I replace these with later drives at the earliest convenience. > > The two types of later half width drives are black, and easily identified by the fact they either have a round, or rectangular LED. Most IIXs were shipped with the YE-Data round LED drives, and these in my experience have the most problems. Basically, all the problems I've found on these are mechanical, and are easily fixed if you have a practical mind. > > The specific problem you describe I've fixed many times today. It's caused by a synthetic rubber "stop" on the eject mechanism, whereby the material has degraded into something like road tar. Because of this, the eject slide gets bunged up, and is reluctant to open. You may be fortunate in the fact that yours is the right-hand drive, and is therefore easier to get to. If you remove the right-hand beige ali cover (4 x screws), you can see it straight away. Just try to insert and remove discs, and you'll hopefully see what I mean. Any sluggishness will probably be caused by a big lump of goo fouling the slide. Just remove all the goo, clean up, and spread a bit of graphite grease around. Works wonders. > > The other major problem I found, was the drives not accessing floppies properly (error messages: system disc faulty). I traced this to the pull-in solenoid, which again was gummed up. Again, there were synthetic rubber stops that had turned to bitumen, stopping the solenoid from moving freely. > > I'll post some pictures when I have a moment. > > Lastly, this was all made much easier by making some flying leads from my IIX, to be able to see the drives operating on a benchtop. There's no way you can see what's going on with the drives in the machine. > > Hope this is helpful, > > > > Regards, > > > > Peter Wielk > > > > Horizontal Productions in rainy Sydney > > >
2012-04-24 by Kirk Keyes
I disassembled the door release and there was a bit of sticky goo on the end of the door lock. I removed the center post from the door lock solenoid and cleaned off the rubber goo, wiped out the solenoid and the armature and added a bit of dry graphite lube and reassembled it all. Unfortunately, none of that seems to have helped - the door release still jams. I still suspect it's something to do with the door lock - is there any reason to really need the lock solenoid? As long as I don't release the door with the drive reading/writing, it should be OK, right? Kirk --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "Kirk Keyes" <Kirk@...> wrote:
> > I pulled the drive last night and I still can't see any sign of any sticky goo anywhere. I see some foam in the disk guide alongside the read/write head, but that looks to be in good condition. > > So the disks appear to only stick after they have been accessed by the computer. > > Now that I have the drive out, I notice there is what looks to be a solenoid on the back side of the eject button. What does it do? Is it a lockout so you can't eject while the drive is accessing? If so, perhaps that solenoid is not releasing after the disk is accesses? > > The eject button does seem to be "stuck" when it has problems - I'm not having problems with the disk not popping out after the door finally opens. > > Kirk > > --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "Kirk Keyes" <Kirk@> wrote: > > > > Thanks for the reply, Peter - > > > > It is the right hand drive, so I took the side panel off. It's a beige, YD-174 drive with a round LED. > > > > (My serial number is SNA108050 - I take it this was a Series I or early II? It's been converted to a IIx at some point.) > > > > I didn't remove the the drive - is the rubber stop no the "bottom" side of the drive -that is, the side that's not exposed with the side panel removed? I don't see any rubber stopper... > > > > So here's what I tried lacking any obvious solution at this point: > > > > 1) Without a disk in the drive, I can close the door and the latch releases ever time. > > > > 2) I can insert a disk, close the door, press the release button, and the disk pops out every time. > > > > 3) When I insert the disk, close the door, press the release button, have the computer access the disk, and sometimes it only takes one disk access to get the release to jam. Sometimes it can access it 4 or 5 times before it jams. > > > > One think I noticed is that there is a slight, mechanical click/thud sound when the jam seems to take place. It appears to come from the latch area right near the release button. > > > > So do I need to remove the drive then? > > > > > > --- In Fairlight-CMI@yahoogroups.com, "horiprod" <horizontal_productions@> wrote: > > > > > > Hi Kirk. I have just had the "pleasure" of fixing 7 x 8" floppy drives this afternoon, so may have some insights into your specific problem. First of all, there were several types of floppy drive used in the in I, II, IIX family. > > > The earliest were full width, beige drives that had a mains motor. Since these are region specific, and weigh as much as a couple of bricks, I replace these with later drives at the earliest convenience. > > > The two types of later half width drives are black, and easily identified by the fact they either have a round, or rectangular LED. Most IIXs were shipped with the YE-Data round LED drives, and these in my experience have the most problems. Basically, all the problems I've found on these are mechanical, and are easily fixed if you have a practical mind. > > > The specific problem you describe I've fixed many times today. It's caused by a synthetic rubber "stop" on the eject mechanism, whereby the material has degraded into something like road tar. Because of this, the eject slide gets bunged up, and is reluctant to open. You may be fortunate in the fact that yours is the right-hand drive, and is therefore easier to get to. If you remove the right-hand beige ali cover (4 x screws), you can see it straight away. Just try to insert and remove discs, and you'll hopefully see what I mean. Any sluggishness will probably be caused by a big lump of goo fouling the slide. Just remove all the goo, clean up, and spread a bit of graphite grease around. Works wonders. > > > The other major problem I found, was the drives not accessing floppies properly (error messages: system disc faulty). I traced this to the pull-in solenoid, which again was gummed up. Again, there were synthetic rubber stops that had turned to bitumen, stopping the solenoid from moving freely. > > > I'll post some pictures when I have a moment. > > > Lastly, this was all made much easier by making some flying leads from my IIX, to be able to see the drives operating on a benchtop. There's no way you can see what's going on with the drives in the machine. > > > Hope this is helpful, > > > > > > Regards, > > > > > > Peter Wielk > > > > > > Horizontal Productions in rainy Sydney > > > > > >