ElectroBlaster
Active member
Inspired by this chap over at the English Amiga Board: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71760&highlight=Teac
I have fixed my first ever disk drive! I am alive to report it and nothing exploded I fixed a Teac FD 235F by replacing 1 smd cap on the motor-board. The cap had the tale-tale grotty/dull looking solder pads/feet.
I have learned that I am WAY out of my depth regarding smd capacitors :dry: I need loads of practice with some good soldering tools suited to the job. The only good I did was to heed the advice that I read on this forum about twisting old smd caps off leaving the pads behind (if you do it right) as it speeds up the job.
I am glad that I bought in two types of capacitor with the correct values for this, but I went with the electrolytic thru-hole as I found it easier with profiling the legs to fit. Fitting a proper smd would have made it look stock but space on one side was tight as hell the soldering iron tip was just too dam big even if it was a needle-type. So doing this cap fix will squeeze a bit more life out of this old drive. Better than it sitting in a dusty old box getting squashed.
I also have a pile of faulty drives here that I got from Fitzsteve last year (dont ask! I hoard things lol) and I assume all of them are giving out "DF0: ???" errors. All of them have a dodgy looking caps on the motor board. These caps stand out like a sore-thumb just as they do on A600 and A1200 boards.
I also have a nice A500+ here that I am tidying up, the internal drive on this has a gunky looking cap on it and suffers the same "DF0: ???" errors. This one is populated entirely by radial/electrolytic thru-holes all laid on their sides (must be a very old drive?) and that one will be fun if all of the caps are bad lol! I doubt it tho, only one seems dull/greasy the rest are clean and shiney.
I tried the repaired Teac on the 500+ and booted right up like a champ very happy indeed.
Want some eye candy? (you can laugh at my soldering skills as well if you want lol)
I have fixed my first ever disk drive! I am alive to report it and nothing exploded I fixed a Teac FD 235F by replacing 1 smd cap on the motor-board. The cap had the tale-tale grotty/dull looking solder pads/feet.
I have learned that I am WAY out of my depth regarding smd capacitors :dry: I need loads of practice with some good soldering tools suited to the job. The only good I did was to heed the advice that I read on this forum about twisting old smd caps off leaving the pads behind (if you do it right) as it speeds up the job.
I am glad that I bought in two types of capacitor with the correct values for this, but I went with the electrolytic thru-hole as I found it easier with profiling the legs to fit. Fitting a proper smd would have made it look stock but space on one side was tight as hell the soldering iron tip was just too dam big even if it was a needle-type. So doing this cap fix will squeeze a bit more life out of this old drive. Better than it sitting in a dusty old box getting squashed.
I also have a pile of faulty drives here that I got from Fitzsteve last year (dont ask! I hoard things lol) and I assume all of them are giving out "DF0: ???" errors. All of them have a dodgy looking caps on the motor board. These caps stand out like a sore-thumb just as they do on A600 and A1200 boards.
I also have a nice A500+ here that I am tidying up, the internal drive on this has a gunky looking cap on it and suffers the same "DF0: ???" errors. This one is populated entirely by radial/electrolytic thru-holes all laid on their sides (must be a very old drive?) and that one will be fun if all of the caps are bad lol! I doubt it tho, only one seems dull/greasy the rest are clean and shiney.
I tried the repaired Teac on the 500+ and booted right up like a champ very happy indeed.
Want some eye candy? (you can laugh at my soldering skills as well if you want lol)
Last edited: