3.5 Drive problems

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

Help!  I'm having problems with an Apple 3.5 Drive (the 800K variety, not the
Superdrive).  It was working just fine the other day when I turned the
computer off, but the next day when I turned it back on it refused to read
any of my disks.  It kept making the same sounds that it sometimes makes when
the read/write head gets stuck at track 0 (a problem I've always been able to
cure simply by ejecting and re-inserting the disk).

I took the drive mechanism out of its case so I could watch the parts running
naked.  By accessing the disk drive I/O locations by hand, I was able to
perform a few simple tests of the hardware.  The head-positioning mechanism
seems to work just fine, but the track 0 sensor fails to report when the
head is at track 0 (which seems to cause great confusion for the disk drive
firmware).

The track 0 sensor appears to be an optical mechanism.  Does anybody out
there know if it can be fixed just by replacing a burned-out LED, or will I
be forced to invest in a new drive?

             - Neil Parker
--
Neil Parker                       | No cute quote, no cute ASCII art, no cute
nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu         | disclaimer, no deposit, no return....
nparker@cie.uoregon.edu           | (This space intentionally left blank:
http://cie-2.uoregon.edu/~nparker |                                           )