Re: Needed: Good Book for Maint. of Apple II Drives...Alignment/ etc

[Cyrus Roton <croton@ridgecrest.ca.us>]

On 20 Jun 1995, Tim Foley wrote:

>  
>   Does anyone know of a good book, thats still available (through Coles, 
> WH Smith, etc) on Apple II maintenance, specifically Drive Alignment / maint.  
> Mine are getting a little old now and its time to give this thing a good 
> working over before my Wizardy party bites the dust again!
>   If you know the ISBN number or all that jazz (author), please drop a line.  
> Thanks.
>  
As for books on that subject, if someone else knows the answer I, too, 
will be glad to get the info. But for the simple stuff, I can give you 
some answer here.

The speed control is mounted on a circuit board inside the drive (on the 
old Disk II, it is mounted at the back of the drive). You can see whether 
it needs adjusting by turning the drive over and observing the printed 
pattern under a flourescent light. Or, you can use a diagnostic program 
like APTEST to measure the speed and the alignment.

The alignment can be adjusted slightly by rotating the head drive motor. 
But,if the "home stop" is out of adjustment, the only way I have of 
setting it is by comparison to another drive and then by trial-and-error. 
There are alignment disks which have calibration tracks on them, but I do 
not know where to obtain them.

The diagnostic programs disk I use is APTEST. I do not know whether 
anyone sells it now (perhaps someone reading this can tell us). I have 
looked at the manual and at the notices on the disk (as it boots), and do 
not find any copyright notice. So far as I can tell, it would be legal to 
give away a copy, which I am willing to do unless someone informs me 
otherwise. It would be a good archive item for some site.