Problems with slot 6 on IIGS... can anybody help???

[ToasterKing <toastjuice@aol.com>]

I've had an Apple IIGS ROM 01 for 8 years and I just recently started
having problems with the external 5.25" floppy drive in slot 6. 

When it's daisy-chained to the 3.5" drive (slot 5), it sometimes works
okay, but usually not.  When reading a 5.25 floppy, I get excessive read
errors and it makes that loud noise (carriage at center and still trying
to move) quite a bit when reading/writing.  Sometimes it even damages the
disk.

When it's NOT daisy-chained to the 3.5" drive, the IN USE indicator comes
on when I turn on my GS and it freezes like that.  The spindle motor
doesn't spin, the light just comes on.

I first suspected the 5.25" drive, but when I exchanged it with another
Apple 5.25" drive that I borrowed from a friend, same results.  I now
suspect the problem to be in the motherboard of the GS, maybe in the
"SLOTMAKER" IC?  (Just a blind guess.)  That IC isn't swappable (e.g. it
doesn't have a socket).

I've also tried swapping the microprocessor (the "CPU" chip) with
another.  Problem still exists.


Can somebody tell me what to do???  Do I need to just replace the whole
motherboard?  Somebody please advise.

Thanks,
Chris