Testing a 1050

[Smack2k]

Will be working on this tonight...will also check on the colon status as well...I didnt run it again once i read about the drive not needing to run three times as I had posted. So wanted to clean one of the heads first and then get it tested. Cleaning is tonight and hopefully I can test it, all depending on my real job and work I have to do.

 

What about WD-40 on the cotton swab and rubbing down the rails? Worth it?

Edited February 9, 2016 by Smack2k

[1050]

As to being worth it, of course it is best to have lubricated rails, especially if it's a noisy one. It's not a 'required' maintenance issue though as they can go for decades without anything done. Not nearly in the same class of MUST DO as a clean head.

 

Contrary to popular opinion WD-40 contains no lubricants, it's all top drawer, super secret solvent so for the short term it does work by re-distributing what oils are there. But in a few weeks, it's all gone. Real oil would be the ticket to use on the rails, some use vasoline to lessen the noise that these rails can make during use and some are very noise prone while others get by with an oil of much lighter viscosity than thick grease.

 

Never use too much is the primary goal, 3 in one oil, sewing machine oil, dielectric grease (silicone grease, raw thermal heat sink grease), vasoline, standard motor oil, and standard grease are all possibles for lubing the rails. Just a quarter drop or less for each one though. To clean them, wipe them off with paper towel and re-apply your favorite snake oil, work the sled, and repeat as necessary until they are clean.

 

One can easily prove the solvent claim for WD-40 by spraying it on some paper and tacking that up to watch for the next few weeks. While you at it, put a tenth of a drop of real oil on a similar paper sheet and watch it over time too. One paper will recover entirely and the other one won't. Newspaper giving the most visible results. I'm currently on the kick where I'm purposely using WD-40 as an electrical contact cleaner and have not found a situation where it gives any less results than the stuff marked as contact cleaner on the can itself. Same stuff in other words. I need to use it on the drive select switches every decade or so and then work them while wet, after such a long time the drive can go wonky responding correctly some of the time and acting like it's not there at random.

 

No worries about real life getting in the way, preaching to the choir - I should be at work right now.

 

Same story in the States, Bill C, but Europe seems to be the trouble spot. I can find it, I just have to be willing to visit a few stores is all. Genuine pharmacies are the most likely of course, but other stores have their bathroom essentials counter too. EG., right between the suppositories and the toothpaste.

[Smack2k]

OK,

 

I tested the drives with the heads cleaned...ran a format.

 

Drive ran for a while, then stopped. Then ran again for about 20 seconds and stopped. Checked the Disk using the 2: prompt and got 999+ Free Sectors.

 

Still ran the second time quickly, so not sure what that means...

[1050]

Yeah... not sure here either, but it's something to keep in mind. Try Kyle22's suggestion with option P Format Single and see if it want's to do the format in one go. Then switch up with standard I Format and see if this doesn't help. And one can use a magnet on the disk jacket to start all over too. Something's making it take an extra trip around the lake and it shouldn't be doing that, can't know why from here either but sometimes what is on the disk to begin with can cause issues.

 

Rebooting the drive might help, after booting DOS remove disk and turn off the drive and then on again without disk in it or door closed. Press RESET on the computer and try the above formats again? RESET should establish the cleanest possible state in the drive for use with a magnet erased disk for example, otherwise the drive is reading the previous format info into it's memory and perhaps that issue is causing the extra trip around the lake? Time to let the kid in you fiddle around some and find out what works best by doing it. As you close the door on a disk, the drive reads the disks format structure and store some of that information in it's buffers, just FYI there.

 

Re-formatting MS-DOS disks always seem to have issues, so this may be par for the course. Once you have single density Atari format on them (P option), this issue may just go away, not so sure about DOS 2.5 standard enhanced density format (I option) though. Like Kyle22, it's been a while since I used this DOS exclusively and I've forgot most of what I thought I did know. MS-DOS disks cause problems with other DOS too, I'm not too far from a magnet as I type this. That seems to straighten them up best.

[Smack2k]

I finally was able to test further after work getting in the way for 10 days....

 

I am going to test the P Format suggestion here shortly, but wanted to add that I took a disk that was Atari Formatted from my earlier attempts and formatted it again with the standard I Format, and it still does that strange, quick, second run before it stops. The disk checks out fine afterward.

 

I am going to also test writing a disk image to the disk to see how that turns out as a better test of the drive working or not. Anyone know anything small I can write onto one disk as a test? I guess I could just write DOS onto the disk correct?

[Kyle22]

Format first, then write DOS.

 

Go into BASIC and type a simple program such as:

 

10 FOR X=1 TO 20:PRINT"THIS IS A TEST":NEXT X

20 FOR X=255 TO 0 STEP -1:POKE 712,X:NEXT X

 

then type SAVE"D:TEST.BAS"

 

Replace D: with D2: if appropriate.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Kyle22

[russg]

I finally was able to test further after work getting in the way for 10 days....

 

I am going to test the P Format suggestion here shortly, but wanted to add that I took a disk that was Atari Formatted from my earlier attempts and formatted it again with the standard I Format, and it still does that strange, quick, second run before it stops. The disk checks out fine afterward.

 

I am going to also test writing a disk image to the disk to see how that turns out as a better test of the drive working or not. Anyone know anything small I can write onto one disk as a test? I guess I could just write DOS onto the disk correct?

This thread has gotten big. Here are some disk drive testing programs.

My RW14B.COM will read any sector(s) on a disk and will likewise write any sectors on a disk. The program

asks name of file to write to your selected test drive, but will write as many sectors as you input. Just give the name

of a small file on your D1:. ... give the filespec of a file on your D1:, like 'D:DUP.SYS', no quotes.

To be clear, you aren't copying a file to the test disk, just writing sectors you specify with the file data.

I put my RW14B.COM and by KMK/DLT RW.COM drive tester on a MyDOS 4.53 .ATR, zipped.

Be careful not to accidentally write to a wrong drive.

When you first run it, you just hit the number of the 'test' drive. It will then determine the density and use

that number drive for all reads and writes. The test drive must have a formatted (sngl or dbl) disk in it.

RW.zip

Edited February 23, 2016 by russg

[Smack2k]

Thanks, will give these a shot...

[spookt]

In case it helps here's a video of one of my 1050s topless (!) performing a format. Not sure from your post if you have a known good drive and thought it might be useful to see normal head movement?

 

https://youtu.be/SjviH4c4Yo4

[Fox-1 / mnx]

It may already be suggested, or be irrelevant for this case, so ignore when it is...

 

Are the used floppies actually DS/DD types? This because HD ones look exactly the same from the outside but are different media. In some cases a 1050 or XF551 can successfully format such disks and even write DOS to it but the magnetic signals from the drive head are just too weak to write reliable data on such disks.

 

edit: Looks like above can be ignored. Video shows a DS/DD disk.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Fox-1 / mnx

[russg]

It may already be suggested, or be irrelevant for this case, so ignore when it is...

 

Are the used floppies actually DS/DD types? This because HD ones look exactly the same from the outside but are different media. In some cases a 1050 or XF551 can successfully format such disks and even write DOS to it but the magnetic signals from the drive head are just too weak to write reliable data on such disks.

 

edit: Looks like above can be ignored. Video shows a DS/DD disk.

I'm pretty sure. HD floppies don't have the hub ring, won't work. Dbl/sngl density floppies have a hub ring on one side.

[_The Doctor__]

I have plenty of ds dd disks with no hub ring... bought them that way... hub rings really don't indicate much... I disk without a hub ring can be either dd or hd

[russg]

I have plenty of ds dd disks with no hub ring... bought them that way... hub rings really don't indicate much... I disk without a hub ring can be either dd or hd

OK, thanks. Can we say a floppy with a hub ring is dbl or sngl density? ie. can hd floppies have a hub ring?

[Smack2k]

Its been a while due to work and other things in life getting in the way, but I finally got to testing my 1050 drives and all 3 are working great...All 3 format fine now, Read Disks, Boot From Disks, and Write Disks with no issues..

 

A bunch of cleaning and time and they are all running great now.

 

Thanks for all the help with this a few months back, really appreciate it!