Re: Apple //e keeps Killing Floppy Drives!

["Dave Althoff, Jr." <dalloff.gcfn.org@sbcglobal.net>]

John B. Matthews <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:
: 
: I lugged a DuoDisk to a trade show some years ago. Its first (left) 
: drive ate disks by seeking and overwriting track zero. I assumed it was 
: the drive, but it could have been carelessly connected.  Is there some 
: component in the DuoDisk that could turn a drive into a killer? :-)

Oh, gee...you have dredged up a bad memory.

There are two modifications to be made to *old* DuoDisk drives.  Two 
capacitors need to be clipped from the board to keep them from killing 
disks, and a resistor needs to be clipped if you plan to run the DuoDisk 
on a SmartPort.  

Someone has the details around here someplace.  I remember spending a 
couple of days going around the ad-hoc computer training facility and 
trimming caps from all the DuoDisks after the bulletin came out.

Oh, and another thing...if you are ever trying unsuccessfully to format 
a disk on a ][e using a Duo or Uni (never had this happen on a Disk ][), 
and the thing is recalibrating and being nasty, OPEN THE DRIVE DOORS 
BEFORE YOU HIT RESET, then HIT RESET AGAIN, then wait for the drives to 
stop before closing the doors and rebooting.  Don't know how I did it, 
but more than once I hit RESET while formatting on D2, only to have D1 
start to boot, then suddenly..BZZZZT! BZZZZZT! 
click...click...click...click...click... as the drive dutifuly formatted 
my boot disk...  8-(


--Dave Althoff, ][.
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