Adam 1.44 disk drive not working

[Pixelboy]

I tried to test my Micro Innovations 1.44 floppy disk drive on my ADAM today. It worked fine the last time I tried it (a few years ago, I think) and it was stored in a box until today.

 

When I press the reset button, the disk drive itself resets but it seems to spin the floppy without reading it, and all I get is a blank screen.

 

I've got the ADAMNet cable plugged into the "IN" slot, and I tried setting the switch on "drive 1" or "drive 2", but it makes no difference. I also tried the ADAMNet cable that came with another external (5.25) floppy drive, and again, no difference.

 

I've tried two different memory consoles, several floppies, and nothing's working. I'm thinking the drive is kaput.

 

Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

[NIAD]

I tried to test my Micro Innovations 1.44 floppy disk drive on my ADAM today. It worked fine the last time I tried it (a few years ago, I think) and it was stored in a box until today.

 

When I press the reset button, the disk drive itself resets but it seems to spin the floppy without reading it, and all I get is a blank screen.

 

I've got the ADAMNet cable plugged into the "IN" slot, and I tried setting the switch on "drive 1" or "drive 2", but it makes no difference. I also tried the ADAMNet cable that came with another external (5.25) floppy drive, and again, no difference.

 

I've tried two different memory consoles, several floppies, and nothing's working. I'm thinking the drive is kaput.

 

Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

Sounds like the floppy drive controller board built into the unit has gone bad. As I never opened up a Micro Innovations drive, I'm not sure how Mark layed it out and if he used sockets for the controller chips or soldered them directly to the PCB, but the good news is that Bob and Doug Slopsema have accumulated a lot of replacement parts and very good working knowledge of the M.I. line so they might be able to help you get this baby back up and running. As the actual 3 1/2" drive is/or should be generic, you could always replace the drive with a known working one to see if that fixes the problem... although I doubt it.

 

As far as proper cable hookup for a Coleco drive (don't remember if the MI drive ports were labeled the same), the ADAMnet Cable can be plugged into the front or side ADAMnet Port on the Memory Console and then should be plugged into the ADAMnet Port labeled "IN" on the back of the drive and the drive number set to #1. If you have a second disk drive then another ADAMnet Cable will be plugged into the port labeled "OUT" and then run it to the second drive's "IN" port.

 

As a last resort, eColeco bought the rights to the entire line of M.I. products back in the mid 90's and might have available replacement parts or still offer repair services.

 

Not to make light of a bad situation, but when I read "It worked fine the last time I tried it (a few years ago, I think) and it was stored in a box until today", I though I was on eBAY!

[Pixelboy]

Sounds like the floppy drive controller board built into the unit has gone bad. As I never opened up a Micro Innovations drive, I'm not sure how Mark layed it out and if he used sockets for the controller chips or soldered them directly to the PCB, but the good news is that Bob and Doug Slopsema have accumulated a lot of replacement parts and very good working knowledge of the M.I. line so they might be able to help you get this baby back up and running. As the actual 3 1/2" drive is/or should be generic, you could always replace the drive with a known working one to see if that fixes the problem... although I doubt it.

Bob and Doug, huh? Thanks for the advice, I'll drop by the Adamcon chat next Wednesday and try to get some info. Bob is there often, and I'm sure Rich Clee will have some useful advice for me too.

 

As far as proper cable hookup for a Coleco drive (don't remember if the MI drive ports were labeled the same), the ADAMnet Cable can be plugged into the front or side ADAMnet Port on the Memory Console and then should be plugged into the ADAMnet Port labeled "IN" on the back of the drive and the drive number set to #1. If you have a second disk drive then another ADAMnet Cable will be plugged into the port labeled "OUT" and then run it to the second drive's "IN" port.

That's what I figured.

 

As a last resort, eColeco bought the rights to the entire line of M.I. products back in the mid 90's and might have available replacement parts or still offer repair services.

eColeco doesn't have much of a rep these days...

 

Not to make light of a bad situation, but when I read "It worked fine the last time I tried it (a few years ago, I think) and it was stored in a box until today", I though I was on eBAY!

That thought has crossed my mind as well! Just telling it like it is.

 

Hey, guess what: I wanted to test my 5.25 disk drive today, but I can't, because I can't find my Dragon's Lair floppy, which is pretty much the only 5-inch floppy I have that works with that drive.

 

And the real joke in all of this is that all I really want is to get rid of these drives, because I'm not using them anyway.

 

EDIT: Just found my Dragon's Lair floppy, tried it and the 5.25-inch drive works just fine! What a relief!

Edited October 18, 2010 by Pixelboy

[retroillucid]

When I first read this thread, I was like: "Man you're truly not lucky with coleco stuff"

 

 

Glad it now finally works!

[NIAD]

Hey, guess what: I wanted to test my 5.25 disk drive today, but I can't, because I can't find my Dragon's Lair floppy, which is pretty much the only 5-inch floppy I have that works with that drive.

 

And the real joke in all of this is that all I really want is to get rid of these drives, because I'm not using them anyway.

 

EDIT: Just found my Dragon's Lair floppy, tried it and the 5.25-inch drive works just fine! What a relief!

Here is Bob's webite and his email address if you are like me and hate to waite... even just for a couple days. Not sure if the email address is still active, but it's what is listed on his website. If not, PM me and I'll give you another one.

 

Website: http://ann.hollowdreams.com/

 

Email: adamcomputer@yahoo.com

 

As far as the drives, if I were to hold onto one, it would be the 5 1/4". I have heard from two different ADAM owners that their large collection of ADAM 3 1/2" disks are now inaccessible even after storing them away neatly in disk containers. The 3 1/2" drives are still functional as new disks were bought to test them. One person suggested it could be the way the data is packed tighter on the 3 1/2" disk which could lead to increased degridation/bit-rot or it could be an actual bug in the custom disk controller program written by Orphanware for their 3 1/2" drive conversions or MMSG for the E&T Software 3 1/2" drive conversions that were very popular in the late '80s before Micro Innovations came out with their line of drives in the early '90s.

Edited October 18, 2010 by NIAD

[adamcomputer]

OOPS!!! Luc, are you absolutely SURE that what you are trying to read is an ADAM formatted 3 1/2" disk???? I think that what you are having is a disk failure. Do you have other ADAM 1.44m disks? One possible scenario would be to try and port it over to the ADAMemulator using dcopy.exe and see if you can read the disk(s) in ADAMem. If not, it is a disk problem.

You might also try using a head cleaner disk on the MI drive and try it again. OR try to format a disk in the MI drive using any ADAM formatting program.

 

[bob]

Edited October 18, 2010 by adamcomputer

[NIAD]

BTW, the 3 1/2" disks that you are using ARE formatted for use on the ADAM? Hate to ask such an obvious question.

[Pixelboy]

OOPS!!! Luc, are you absolutely SURE that what you are trying to read is an ADAM formatted 3 1/2" disk???? I think that what you are having is a disk failure. Do you have other ADAM 1.44m disks? One possible scenario would be to try and port it over to the ADAMemulator using dcopy.exe and see if you can read the disk(s) in ADAMem. If not, it is a disk problem.

You might also try using a head cleaner disk on the MI drive and try it again. OR try to format a disk in the MI drive using any ADAM formatting program.

 

[bob]

Thanks for the advice, Bob, but I tried several 1.44m disks that were sold to me by Richard Clee together with the M.I. drive itself (if I remember correctly), most of which have Super Games on them. The result was exactly the same for all the disks I tried, and I find it hard to believe that all of them would suddently decide to self-destruct while in storage.

 

For now, what I really need to know is whether there's someone out there who can have a look at the drive and repair it, if possible.

[adamcomputer]

Hey, guess what: I wanted to test my 5.25 disk drive today, but I can't, because I can't find my Dragon's Lair floppy, which is pretty much the only 5-inch floppy I have that works with that drive.

 

And the real joke in all of this is that all I really want is to get rid of these drives, because I'm not using them anyway.

 

EDIT: Just found my Dragon's Lair floppy, tried it and the 5.25-inch drive works just fine! What a relief!

Here is Bob's webite and his email address if you are like me and hate to waite... even just for a couple days. Not sure if the email address is still active, but it's what is listed on his website. If not, PM me and I'll give you another one.

 

Website: http://ann.hollowdreams.com/

 

Email: adamcomputer@yahoo.com

 

As far as the drives, if I were to hold onto one, it would be the 5 1/4". I have heard from two different ADAM owners that their large collection of ADAM 3 1/2" disks are now inaccessible even after storing them away neatly in disk containers. The 3 1/2" drives are still functional as new disks were bought to test them. One person suggested it could be the way the data is packed tighter on the 3 1/2" disk which could lead to increased degridation/bit-rot or it could be an actual bug in the custom disk controller program written by Orphanware for their 3 1/2" drive conversions or MMSG for the E&T Software 3 1/2" drive conversions that were very popular in the late '80s before Micro Innovations came out with their line of drives in the early '90s.

 

I haven't had any problems with my Orphanware 3-1/2" 720k drives; for E&T drives, I don't know. The Orphanware and E&T were Coleco controller board with ungraded eprom and an ibm drive mech with hand wired disk in sensor. Micro Innovations disk drive was a totally built from scratch unit with whatever mark found to make it. He was also the only one to make a 1.44m drive for the ADAM.

[adamcomputer]

OOPS!!! Luc, are you absolutely SURE that what you are trying to read is an ADAM formatted 3 1/2" disk???? I think that what you are having is a disk failure. Do you have other ADAM 1.44m disks? One possible scenario would be to try and port it over to the ADAMemulator using dcopy.exe and see if you can read the disk(s) in ADAMem. If not, it is a disk problem.

You might also try using a head cleaner disk on the MI drive and try it again. OR try to format a disk in the MI drive using any ADAM formatting program.

 

[bob]

Thanks for the advice, Bob, but I tried several 1.44m disks that were sold to me by Richard Clee together with the M.I. drive itself (if I remember correctly), most of which have Super Games on them. The result was exactly the same for all the disks I tried, and I find it hard to believe that all of them would suddently decide to self-destruct while in storage.

 

For now, what I really need to know is whether there's someone out there who can have a look at the drive and repair it, if possible.

 

I know of no-one who repairs them Luc. Howard Pines in Florida tried and failed back at ADAMCON 10 and threw up his hands. I have a MI 1.44m drive, will get it out tomorrow and check thru it. I would be more than happy to take a look at it, but it means shipping here to Michigan. [bob]

[Pixelboy]

For now, what I really need to know is whether there's someone out there who can have a look at the drive and repair it, if possible.

I know of no-one who repairs them Luc. Howard Pines in Florida tried and failed back at ADAMCON 10 and threw up his hands. I have a MI 1.44m drive, will get it out tomorrow and check thru it. I would be more than happy to take a look at it, but it means shipping here to Michigan. [bob]

Sounds like a plan to me. I'll send you an AtariAge private message shortly. Please watch for it.

[NIAD]

For now, what I really need to know is whether there's someone out there who can have a look at the drive and repair it, if possible.

I know of no-one who repairs them Luc. Howard Pines in Florida tried and failed back at ADAMCON 10 and threw up his hands. I have a MI 1.44m drive, will get it out tomorrow and check thru it. I would be more than happy to take a look at it, but it means shipping here to Michigan. [bob]

Sounds like a plan to me. I'll send you an AtariAge private message shortly. Please watch for it.

If you have a spare 3 1/2" 1.44Mb drive laying around or in an old system, I would try that first because as Bob stated, the MI drives were built completely by MI (Mark Gordon) using readily available parts except for the controller software that was burnt onto an eprom and the controller pcb. You should be able to open up the drive housing, remove the power and ribbon cable, remove the drive and insert a replacement drive and then test. Once again, though, I never saw the inside of one of MI's drives so I can't be a 100% sure. If you get the same result, then the controller board is the culprit.

 

Also try this, hookup the 5 1/4" drive as drive #1 and the 3 1/2" drive as drive #2. Turn on drive #1, drive #2 and then the computer, boot your disk formatting program from drive #1 or Data Drive #1 if it's on data pack (ie: File Manager or One-Minute Formatter). Once the program is loaded, insert a 1.44Mb disk that isn't part of the bundle you got from Rich (ie: a new unformatted one would be best) and try to format it. If you get no response or an error than see above, if it formats the disk than you know the 3 1/2" disks you got with the drive have gone bad for whatever reason.

 

Just sounds like a good option to try before spending some money to ship it out. Hope it ends up being that simple!