Re: Adding a second floppy drive to an Apple IIe

[Linards Ticmanis <ticmanis@gmx.de>]

On 05/05/2011 08:01 PM, Jeff Shanholtz wrote:

> No, it's an apple drive. I'd much rather get the apple one working
> than the other off brand ones. I can try the fluorescent light
> approach (I think we have one somewhere), although I'm not convinced
> that a mechanical (speed) issue would prevent the other functioning
> drive from booting (i.e. a mechanical problem in 1 drive causing an
> electronic problem on the drive card and/or other drive). Admittedly
> I'm not very knowledgeable about these drives though.

You're right, a speed issue wouldn't cause the other drive to fail. As I
said the 74LS125 is still a possible villain. The failure mode you
describe leads me to the assumption that the ULA 2003 might be more
likely in this case though; its failure could cause one drive to hold
the phase lines, so that the computer can't move the other drive's head
any more. Also, your controller card might have a problem with two
drives attached, or maybe your PSU might be failing and the two drives
tax it too much (the latter isn't all that likely though).

Do you maybe have another controller card, so that you can connect each
drive to its own controller?

Also try plugging in ONLY the supposedly bad drive, does it work then?

-- 
Linards Ticmanis