Trying to fix an Apple II...

[Jeronimo Pellegrini <jeronimo@dcc.unicamp.br>]

Hi;

  I have an old Apple II clone (I believe it's an unenhanced IIe clone
  - not sure), and I'm trying to make it work again. And I did that,
  but I have a few problems with my disk drive (half-height 5.25"
  148k, made in Korea, I guess). 

  When I first tried, it just wouldn't work - the led was on, but the
  disk wouldn't spin. I opened it, and after checking everything, I
  tried again. It worked. But it fails sometimes...

  Also, I can only read 30% of my floppy disks. With the others, all I
  get is an I/O ERROR.

  I also checked its speed (with Locksmith 6.0 and with another
  utility I don't remember the name). I remember (I haven't touched
  this computer for almost 10 years) there was some place inside the
  drive where I could regulate the speed. Well, I found only one
  possible place (is it a capacitor? I don't remember), and tried to
  do that. But in nothing changed in the screen - the same speed was
  being reported, no matter how much I turned that thing...

  So, anybody has suggestions? Should I buy another drive, or would I
  be wasting my money?

  The games I liked most are not working... :-(

  Also... I don't know if anybody will know about this, but the cursor
  is not blinking. Is it probable that only replacing a chip (that
  "555" one, a temporizer or oscillator, I don't remember) will solve
  the problem?

Thanks a lot,
Jeronimo Pellegrini