Squeaky 1050 drive

[TVC15]

Hello all,

 

I'm new to the forum and Atari 8 bit computers.

 

I recently got a 65XE and just yesterday a 1050 drive arrived. After hooking it up I slipped in the the only disk I have on hand (I've ordered a 2.5 dos disk which should arrive soon.) The disk I have is Pac Man for Commodore 64 but on the flip side, there is also an Atari version. Well, when I turned it on and the drive began whirring around I noticed that it squeaked a lot. It began to load the game OK but it seemed that it was taking quite a long time for the game to load. I can see the game information coming up (right before the game proper is loaded up) but that's all I was getting. And all the while the disk is whirring around and squeaking. I noticed that the drive is not going to stop and the game should have been loaded already. So I turned it off to try it again. Now, all I get is BOOT ERROR on the screen.

 

Do I have a dead drive? Also, did I break the disk by putting it in the squeaky drive? I hope this is a simple fix because I have no knowledge of electronics.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[john-m]

If you shut down the drive while the busy light was on, you could have possibly damaged the disk.

As to the squeaking drive, I would pull the cover and put some light oil on the slides using a cue tip.

Also, examine the drive hub for corrosion buildup. A number of drives I have had corrosion on the hub that causes erratic drive speed and bad reads. A drop of oil on the hub bearing could not hurt either.

Just go very lightly with the oil so it does not get to the main circuit board though.

Also, when one removes the six screws that hold the cover and faceplate on, turn the drive upright and carefully remove the cover,

The drive mechanism just sits on four pins so care is needed.

[+therealbountybob]

If the drive has not been used much for a while there may be a high pitched whirr - in my experience this seems to go away after a few weeks of regular use without having to apply any lubricant. You could try holding open the drive lever to relieve the pressure on the disk and see if it loads? - have you got several disks to try? If it's one disk that starts to load then fails (errr-errr noise several times) it may have a bad sector... If it's working you should here fast regular beeps as it loads. Does the disk spin freely after you put and shut the lever or does it sound like it's grinding?

 

[john-m]

If you have the SIO2PC interface and APE or aspeQT, you can set the physical drive as D2: and boot from a disk image (ATR) that contains Atari DOS, MyDos, Spartados, or some other and format a blank disk in the physical drive.

That is the way I made some physical disks with DOS for my Atari.

I wanted to pass that along just in case it would be of use to you.

The SIO2PC interface is available in both serial and USB at the AtariMAX website http://www.atarimax.com

[+bf2k+]

Make sure you hold down the 'option' key when you power on the CPU to disable BASIC before the disk boots.

[MEtalGuy66]

clean the heads on the drive and try a different disk that you know is in good shape.. If that disk keeps crudding up the heads on your drive, throw the disk away..

 

gotta watch old disks.. could also be the heads on the drive were already crudded up before you got it..

 

Invest in one of these: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 170833653131

[atari8warez]

@TVC15:

 

Squiky noise could be (and most likely) due to the drive pressure pad becoming hard over the time. It sometimes needs to be replaced (if worn down to the plastic) or just needs to be (carefully) raffled a bit into smoother texture. In fact I've just fixed one such drive minutes before I've seen your message . If it's worn beyond repair, there is an article on the web about making your own pressure pad to replace a bad one. I don't have the link to the article but you can perhaps google for it.

 

You can verify the source of the noise by simply removing the floopy and closing the drive door latch. If the noise is gone when there is no floppy in the drive the cause is almost certainly the pressure pad.

 

While you're at it, make sure you clean the drive head with a q-tip dampened with isopropyl alcohol (readily available at your drug-store). A dirty drive head would not cause squicky noise but more likely cause read/write errors.

 

Ray

 

PS: If you need instructions on disassembling the pressure pad let me know...

Edited May 7, 2012 by atari8warez

[MEtalGuy66]

Sometimes the noise is the disk, itself..

[atari8warez]

@TVC15:

 

If it's worn beyond repair, there is an article on the web about making your own pressure pad to replace a bad one. I don't have the link to the article but you can perhaps google for it.

 

 

Obviously I did have the link to the article as seen above. Just forgot to edit my message to delete the sentence following the link -

 

Here's a photo to illustrate what's involved in repairing the pressure pad. Few cautions and disclaimers are needed here:

 

- Take a photo detailing everything you plan to remove/disassemble before actualy doing it, so that you will remember what goes where.

 

- Plastic age, and may become brittle over time, so squizing the pressure pad holder to remove it may break it no matter how careful you are (and you should be gentle and careful trying), proceed at your own risk and make sure you can get a replacement part (Best Electronics) if indeed it does break.

 

Good luck.

Edited May 8, 2012 by atari8warez

[+bob1200xl]

I just peel off the old pad and stick on the new one. That way, you don't have to get the pad holder off and back where it needs to be...

 

Bob