Bring out your dead "DF0:???" disk drives!

ElectroBlaster

Active member
Joined
Aug 2, 2010
Posts
1,331
Country
Exeter, Devon
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 :LOL: 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 :censored: 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 :D very happy indeed.

Want some eye candy? (you can laugh at my soldering skills as well if you want lol)

picture.php

picture.php

picture.php

picture.php

picture.php

picture.php

picture.php
 
Last edited:
Nice one, one more drive saved from the bin. (y)

I hadn't seen that thread on EAB, interesting reading.
 
Very nicely done and its a good to see another drive not ending up as landfill (y)
 
Brilliant! I wouldn't be surprised if capacitor replacement was the most common way to revive faulty computer electronics. It's everywhere I look!

Right. I have a soldering iron, solder, helping hands and a multimeter. Hopefully, all I need now are some capacitors and I can start repairing my own stuff.

I'm thinking of starting off by repairing a few sega game gears and working my way up to Amigas. I love the Game gear, but the Amigais way more precious to me.

I am so thinking out loud :LOL:
 
after spending less than 10 eurocents for capacitor (4.7 uF 50v) and killing entire 5 minutes of my spare time, my once dead Teac drive works like charm! I feel like Amiga inclined Dr Frankenstein.

Kudos to ElectroBlaster for giving me a lot of help and Franchute13 of EAB for starting the topic.
 
after spending less than 10 eurocents for capacitor (4.7 uF 50v) and killing entire 5 minutes of my spare time, my once dead Teac drive works like charm! I feel like Amiga inclined Dr Frankenstein.

Kudos to ElectroBlaster for giving me a lot of help and Franchute13 of EAB for starting the topic.

Brilliant news :D

I feel much the same way at the moment, rebuilt and repaired an old external drive that was dead for well over 14years. Just need to find the correct type of screws that belong to it and then its done :)
 
Back
Top Bottom