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Re: Focus Drive //e woes



John wrote:
I've used a couple of Focus drives through the years.

As you probably know, the drives used on Focus cards have a bit of
"history" with failure. I've had 2 of 2 go bad. One is hanging in
there, barely. I turn the machine on daily just to keep the mechanical
parts working and charge the NiCd on the clock card. It's like starting
an old car or mower over the winter.

This system starts with the //e logo and a spinning HD. I hear the HD
seek sound (flutter), but it won't boot. A pattern repeats several
times (maybe 5-10), and then the floppy drives will attempt to boot. If
that fails the system sits there indefinitely. I don't see any error
messages, however.

If the //e was unused for several months, it took hours of fiddling. To
automate this, I  made a boot floppy which reset the system (some BIOS
call). This begins the HD seek behavior again. Eventually the HD boots,
and after this therapy it boots "reliably" in about 7-14 minutes every
time (if the //e only sits for a few days between use).

So, mechanical problems are not uncommon for Focus drives and, in some
cases, "warm up therapy" may help.

And the "warm up" is very likely the critical factor.

If you just turn your machine on and let it fail to boot, but
continue to run for 15 minutes or so, a three-fingered reboot
would probably work fine.

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

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