Re: Disk II Problem

[Tom Zuchowski <cd003508@interramp.com>]

lesherjt@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Tilghman Lesher) wrote:
>Here's the problem:  drive one is inconsistent in reading the disk.
>Sometimes it reads the disk, sometimes it doesn't (and GS/OS gives
>me a dialog about an unreadable disk).
>
>Drive two works, however.  To further narrow the problem, I switched
>the connectors on the card, so the drive labeled 2 is in fact mapped
>to 1 and vice versa.

So what happened when you swapped the drives?  Did the problem move with 
the drive, or did it stay with the Drive 1 connector?

What kind of drives and interface are these?  It sounds rather like you 
are talking about a Disk ][ setup, but it's good to be sure.

If it moves with the drive, then it's probably either a dirty head or 
related to motor speed.  It could be that the rotation speed is off, or 
that the drive motor is going bad.

If it stays on the same conector, then it could be a chip, or it might be 
that you've got a cracked solder joint somewhere, possibly on the 
connector.  FYI there are Disk ][ schematics, both interface and drive 
analog card, in the old Apple DOS manuals.

If push comes to shove, Disk ][ interface cards can be had CHEAP.

Good luck.

TomZ