Re: How do I fix an old 'disk II' 5.25" drive?

["Tom Zuchowski" <tzuchow@attglobal.net>]

First thing to try with those old drives is to open them up, lever all of
the IC's out slightly with a small screwdriver, and then push them back
down. This will scrape any oxide off the pins and re-establish connection.
If you manage to pop any completely out, be sure you know which end is which
first so you don't put it back in backwards.

It was very easy to mis-plug the cable by one pin when connecting to the
Disk II interface card. When you did this, generally you blew the 74LS125
chip in the disk drive. So the next thing to try is to replace that chip.

The "creaking" is most likely caused by the disk pressure pad that rides on
the disk media itself. I know of no fix for this. While most drives didn't
squeak, some did.

"Brian Kendig" <brian-usenet2@enchanter.net> wrote in message
news:40ED7.2838$Le.69705@sea-read.news.verio.net...
> I've got three old 'disk II' drives for an Apple II+.  Two of them
actually
> have Apple Computer asset tags on them; at one point they were owned and
> used by Apple.  :-)
>
> One of them spins but won't read a disk.  I figure this is probably a
common
> problem; is there a simple solution to it?  I took the outer case off the
> drive, and everything appears to be intact inside (no burn marks, no loose
> parts).
>
> The other two creak loudly when they read disks.  Is there a place inside
> where I can apply WD40 to minimize this?
>
> If there's a resource on the web which explains how I can nurse these old
> drives back to health, I'd really appreciate it; thanks!
>
> --
>   ____    |\/|                  Brian Kendig
>   \  /\   / ..__.     brian at enchanter net    You are in a maze of
twisty
>    \/  \__\   _/    http://www.enchanter.net/   little passages, all
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