Re: 800k vs 1.44k floppy drives

["Mark Cummings" <NOTfigjams@primus.com.au>]

> Maybe you might have an idea on this situation. I have a IIgs
> with two 3.5" drives and then my 5.25" drive.  If I add in my
> second 5.25", the IIgs doesn't recognize it exist. Any idea
> why?

Hey William,

I have studied this problem extensively with my own Apple II system(s) and
come to the conclusion that the daisychain board is faulty in the 2nd 3.5"
drive.
To prove it (sort of) you can remove the 2nd 3.5" drive and then put your
two 5.25" drives onto your first 3.5" drive. If they both work then try
swapping out the 3.5" drive with the faulty one, and you will see that the
second 5.25" drive stops working.

I have two out of five 3.5" drives that exhibit this fault. I went as far as
swapping out the daisychain board to find the fault. Alas there is no cure
for this daisychain board as they are only found in 800K Apple 3.5" drives.
I suspect the LSI chip on it is faulty as there are very few other parts. If
the drive mechanism itself was faulty then it's an easy fix by putting in a
1.4M auto inject drive mechanism from a old Mac which are plentiful and
cheap.

A work around is to get a 5.25" controller into slot 6 to run the two 5.25"
drives and run the two 3.5" drives in the smartport. This way you can run
your 4 drives with no obvious differences except under the IIGS hood. :)

Mark