Faulty disk destroys floppy drive?!

[Matt3o]

I inserted what seems a faulty floppy into the A1200 drive, weird (weird) sound, then caput. Drive doesn't read anything else (brand new drive). I had dozens between amiga and PC floppy drives but this never happened to me before. I carefully looked at the floppy but I can't see dirt or warping. I used far worse disks and nothing destroyed the drive this way before...

Did this happen to any of you? Is there any way to fix it?

Thanks

 

[Vyncynt]

A long, long time ago, I did have a drive destroyed because the floppy disc caught on one of the heads and ripped it off. Not sure if this happened to your drive though, but it is possible.

 

[Matt3o]

I opened the drive, the head seems fine... but who knows...

 

[Rixa]

Haven't had something like that happen. Does the drive still spin disks? Do the heads move?

 

[Matt3o]

Haven't had something like that happen. Does the drive still spin disks? Do the heads move?

yes, the heads move and the disk spins but I only get an "FD0:????" disk label on the desktop and it's inaccessible.

 

[Rixa]

Well, no idea. You could always try to clean the heads with a q-tip dipped in IPA, but it's probably worse than dirt. Maybe they got knocked out of alignment or something.

 

[Matt3o]

just tried to clean the heads, but no luck. This is so frustrating...

 

[keitha]

I knackered an external drive (couple of years back) going through a large pile of 'unknown' floppies. I'm not 100% sure; but I think the dented metal dust cover, caught the upper head, and knocked it out of alignment. Usually I visually check the dust cover, but it is easy to miss one. Just bad luck unfortunately.

If cleaning doesn't work? Easier and cheaper to get another one from here/Ebay.

 

[Vyncynt]

Any of the electronics appear to be visibly fried?

I also recall a friend having another drive go bad, but it was not an Amiga drive. I can't remember what brand it was, but I fixed it by replacing a drive motor belt with a fat rubber band. Long time ago!

 

[DojoDan]

I partially killed a drive a long time ago with mouldy disks (also 'unknown' as above). They screached while reading which concerned me then I started getting read errors, then nothing, even on good disks. Even after a few runs with a cleaning floppy disk it was hit and miss. Its not like I completely ignored the noise, I only tried a few disks quickly. But looking at the disks afterwards they were mouldy, so now I've learnt to visually check any disks I buy out in the field!

 

[Matt3o]

and now I have to open a sealed spare amiga 1200 to scavenge the floppy drive....

 

[Matt3o]

okay, the weirdest things are happening.

I've found a new drive, placed inside my A1200... and it was not working. DOH! 3 drives out of 3 not working. I tought it was a faulty controller on the A1200 mainboard. I tried them on a new board (other two boards actually)... and they don't work.

I made one last test holding the drive in my hands and... it worked! WTF?!?!? It turned out that if the drive housing touches the RF shield the drive doesn't work. If I insulate the drive in any way it works perfectly.

Okay then I made some more tests, the drive works like a charme for like a couple of hours.... then dies again.

What the hell is going on?!

 

[Matt3o]

I made some more tests. An external drive I have reads everything flawlessly. Any internal drive I put inside any of the A1200 boards I have sooner or later fails... I really don't understand what is going on here. Very frustrating...

 

[keitha]

I've had the weird **** also! But 'logic' is the key. Relax, have a beer, and leave it for a couple of days.

 

[rcade]

The caps under the floppy drive often go bad and cause internal floppy errors. Recap...

 

[Matt3o]

The caps under the floppy drive often go bad and cause internal floppy errors. Recap...

can't be the caps on all 3 boards! that would be insane! Anyway I'll double check.

 

[Matt3o]

tried again today.

To recap: I have 3 drives and 3 A1200 boards. Each drive on each board behaves diffrently. One drive might read one disk while the others give FD???? or NDOS. It's not deterministic. One of the drives works better than the others. After a couple of hours though it fails like the others. After a night rest it works again.

I'll try to recap both the drive and one of the A1200 board and see what happens. Wish me luck.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

I Have a few Teac's and all of them had the same problem with a failed surface mouned capacitor. Soon as that capacitor was replaced they sprung back into life, I also serviced everything afterwards with grease/oil and switch spray and a good clean out.

None of that helps 100% if the Amiga itself also needs recapping though. Good luck with your re-caps! Little victorys are great when getting old amiga stuff working again

 

[Matt3o]

I have chinon drives and they seem to have 2 thru-hole capacitors. I placed my order of high-quality capacitors on mouser the other day, I should be working on my recap in the coming days. In the meantime I already removed all capacitors from the drive and one of my A1200.

I hope all will go as expeceted...

 

[Vyncynt]

Were your A1200's from Escom? I heard a bunch of them came with crap floppy drives...