What should a 1050 drive sound like?

[6BQ5]

About a week ago I went on a tear buying up 8-bit gear. Got myself a US made 1200XL, a HK made 800XL, and a SG made 1050. It all seems to work just fine but I am concerned about the sounds made by the 1050 drive. When seeking across the disk the drive sounds like an old goose complaining about chronic constipation.

 

bbRRRRR-aaaahHHH .. G! .. G! .. G! .. G! .. G! .. brrRRaaaaWWW-brrRRaaaaWWW!

 

And the computer is happily tooting away in the background.

 

Is that normal? I used to have a 1050 back in the 80s and it sounded happier and more joyful.

 

Like I said, the drive seems to work. I can format enhanced density (ED?) floppies and the drive passed diagnostics. My fear is the drive is wearing itself to dust.

[+Nezgar]

1050 muffler tips!

 

A lot of Tandon (Singapore) 1050's really are noisy when stepping... Applying a little 3-in-1 oil using a q-tip on the slider rails goes a long way to quieting the stepping rattle.

 

Next trick I've had success with sometimes is tightening the tension of the metal belt along the side (the strip that wraps around the stepper head). Sometimes putting a little piece of rubber or a small screw in between the hook/spring thing at one end of the head carriage helps.

 

I can post a picture later.

 

Sometimes the only solution for a noisy drive is to upgrade it with a speeder mod that uses a faster stepper rate, like the miniSpeedy.

[Rybags]

I've got 2 - I recall my original 1984 one being somewhat quiet when new but suddenly developing the annoying resonance problem at a fairly early age.

The second one I got from a recycler over 15 years ago and is somewhat quieter.

 

Which mech each one has I'm not sure.

[+kheller2]

About a week ago I went on a tear buying up 8-bit gear. Got myself a US made 1200XL, a HK made 800XL, and a SG made 1050. It all seems to work just fine but I am concerned about the sounds made by the 1050 drive. When seeking across the disk the drive sounds like an old goose complaining about chronic constipation.

 

bbRRRRR-aaaahHHH .. G! .. G! .. G! .. G! .. G! .. brrRRaaaaWWW-brrRRaaaaWWW!

 

And the computer is happily tooting away in the background.

 

Is that normal? I used to have a 1050 back in the 80s and it sounded happier and more joyful.

 

Like I said, the drive seems to work. I can format enhanced density (ED?) floppies and the drive passed diagnostics. My fear is the drive is wearing itself to dust.

 

 

I'm missing what you are actually hearing but what you seem to be describing are bad disks.

Should be seek/settle, read, seek/settle read. The only time you get into the bRRRRRRaaaarrrhhh is when the head has to completely reseek because it can't find a sector.

[_The Doctor__]

a short audio or a/v recording and a description of what you are booting would tell us if this is normal. Copy protected disks can grind the drives quite a bit.

Much more information is needed.

[+CharlieChaplin]

It should not sound like doves cry...

 

(This is what it sounds like, when doves cry - Prince)

[SS]

 

 

I'm missing what you are actually hearing but what you seem to be describing are bad disks.

Should be seek/settle, read, seek/settle read. The only time you get into the bRRRRRRaaaarrrhhh is when the head has to completely reseek because it can't find a sector.

I am going to second this diagnosis. 1050s do tend to be a bit noisy (although NOTHING in comparison to a Commodore drive!) but they really don't make a grinding kind of noise unless they are having difficulty reading a disk. Regular operation is more of a pleasant "click click click whirr" kind of sound.

[+DrVenkman]

I used a 1050 back in the day, and I have a pair of them these days. They *WILL* make seeking noises if you're reading some copy-protected disks, and much more commonly, when you're using disks that haven't been formatted recently and have files fragmented and scattered all over the disk. If you've written files to the disk, deleted some, overwritten them with newer copies, etc. without ever reformatting, you'll get a fragmented disk. As a kid who wrote lots of BASIC programs, revising, editing and saving them often on the same handful of disks (hey, my allowance wasn't that big as a teenager!), this was pretty common.

 

 

Of course, if you copy all the files to a ramdisk or something, reformat the floppy and copy the files back into contiguous sectors, file access is a lot quieter.

 

Still, an audio or better yet a video would help be sure if what you're hearing is "normal."

[6BQ5]

I made a small video to record the sound of my 1050. In this video I am booting up with Dragonriders of Pern by Epyx. This disk doesn't extract the most gruesome seeking and scanning sounds but you can hear the Angry Goose from within. Apologies if the audio levels are too low.

 

 

What do you think?

[1050]

I give it 8.5.

 

It's right up there, but not the very worst either.

It should respond some to a light oiling of the rails,

but not always the complete cure we hope for. Some are

whisper quiet and just as much of a mystery as to why

as the angry goose on a rampage. If it's a secret, it's

a pretty well kept one.

[+Nezgar]

Here's another 'silencer' method I've tried on a drive... Cut some small rubber bits to insert at each end of the tension strip. In this case I cut them from a torn rubber wrist band.

 

See the red pieces inserted here. I've also tried screwing a small screw into the top part. The increased tension seems to help 'silence' a drive... But again, not always....

[Mclaneinc]

Head clean, rails oiled...Also sounds like the little pad for the head may be on the way out...

[6BQ5]

Looks like I have yet another project on my hands.

 

Head cleaning - QTip with 90% alcohol ok to use?

 

Little pad for the head - no idea what this is currently. Will probably make sense once I crack open the drive to clean the head and oil the rails.

 

Rails - any recommended lubricant type?

[rodcastler_two]

a bit of silicon grease on those rails will get you where you want to be.

 

This sound of yours is very normal but when greased it gets far more pleasing. I did that greasing thing when I first got mine 30+yrs ago and sounds charming to this day. Just be gentle with the amount: you don't need much really.

[eegad]

I have 4 1050s from back in the day. For some reason, one of them was always MUCH quieter than the other 3. The 3 noisier ones I put a little WD40 on the rail, which definitely made a slight improvement... But yeah, even when they were brand new, 1050s typically were pretty noisy.

[Mclaneinc]

Yes, you will see the little square pad I mention when you open the drive, it acts as a guide iifrc and there's threads about replacing it easily but head clean and rail grease should help a lot...

 

Also, brand new disk is the best test, older used disks that have been open and gathering possible dust, mold, hair, skin flakes etc etc will often be very noisy as the disk moves in the sleeve..

 

A new fresh disk will cut down the checking for the noise as much as possible so you get the exact reason..

Edited April 24, 2019 by Mclaneinc