death xf551?

[w1k]

hello,

today i received a shipment of 300 disks.. i start look that disks on my xf551.. after about 100th floppy xf551 stops reading.. when i insert disc into them, its starts, but he cant read directory of boot disc.. what can i do?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91X2f0VC7Q

Edited March 15, 2011 by w1k

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hello,

today i received a shipment of 300 disks.. i start look that disks on my xf551.. after about 100th floppy xf551 stops reading.. when i insert disc into them, its starts, but he cant read directory of boot disc.. what can i do?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91X2f0VC7Q

 

Same happened to two my XF551's too. I think the answer I got was the mainboard in the XF551. Poor soldering from Atari ... Haven't yet fixed mine. I did try the drive in another XF case and the drive was okay.

[mimo]

I am no expert, but old discs shed their coating pretty easily, so I would suggest giving the head a good clean.

[w1k]

i open it, i dont see any cold junctions.. look pretty clean.. but i dont want open case where is MB :/

[w1k]

i have it, here is the cold one

[MEtalGuy66]

Those all need to be resoldered, and the connectors need to be secured in some way that they can not move from cable insertion/removal force. The solder ATARI used was crap.. you need to remove the old solder completely and replace it with good 60/40 electronics grade solder. Do not TOUCH that board wityh a soldering iron unless you can control the heat (keep it below 500F) or you will be sorry.

 

But I doubt that's the cause of your immediate problem.. Clean the heads.. The drive worked before you started putting those old floppies in it, right?

[mimo]

Is it working now?

[w1k]

i found three cold pins, i sold it, but problem not resolved..

 

hm, works like without diskette.. if i boot without diskette, it is same like with diskette.

i go look now in reading head or what

 

edit: i clean reading head with alcohol.. then i boot first diskette, but problem is here again :/

Edited March 15, 2011 by w1k

[w1k]

what i can do else?

[+orpheuswaking]

Swap it for a 1050... I'll make that swap

 

 

[w1k]

another video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5QWenQmWmo

[flashjazzcat]

I used to put machine oil on the spindle and clean and re-grease the rails the head moves on. This used to quieten down my XF when it started sounding a little rough after years of extreme punishment. It also solved the problem of the drive not wanting for format with high speed sector skew a few times. It's still chugging away today, 22 years on.

[MEtalGuy66]

Your cat did it!!

(just kidding)

 

That's not an original XF551 floppy mech.. (no problem, but just noticing)

 

It's acting exactly like It can't physically read the disk.. I dont know what to reccomend other than making absolutely sure the heads are clean.. If it "went out" during reading some old floppys, nothing else makes any sense.. Maybe the tiny cable that goes to the heads just HAPPENED to go bad??

 

You havent messed with the head allignment or track 0 sensor have you?!?!?

[w1k]

problem resolved.. when i try booting from disc, im easy push the head toward me and from me..

and it works now!

but i must clean belts

[MEtalGuy66]

One more thing.. What was that word you muttered inthe very end of that video?? I didnt quite catch it on the audio...

 

it kinda sounded like something in english...

 

Edited March 15, 2011 by MEtalGuy66

[MEtalGuy66]

problem resolved.. when i try booting from disc, im easy push the head toward me and from me..

and it works now!

but i must clean belts

 

What this means is that the drive is not correctly positioning the head over the track it is trying to read from.

 

DID YOU MESS WITH THE TRACK 0 SENSOR????

 

That will cause that.. Other possibilites are a flakey head-stepper motor controller board, a loose, or defective head-stepper motor, or slop in the mechanism that moves the head.. (some use worm gear, some use metal band)..

Edited March 15, 2011 by MEtalGuy66

[w1k]

i dont not know about 0 sencor.. but now xf551 works fine.. i grease it

[+bob1200xl]

Did you hear the head step? It sounds like the step timing is set wrong for that non-Atari drive. Usually, you can't hear it seek from track to track that easily. On a 3.5, you can't hear them at all.

 

Typical... it's software.

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

Your cat did it!!

(just kidding)

 

That's not an original XF551 floppy mech.. (no problem, but just noticing)

 

It's acting exactly like It can't physically read the disk.. I dont know what to reccomend other than making absolutely sure the heads are clean.. If it "went out" during reading some old floppys, nothing else makes any sense.. Maybe the tiny cable that goes to the heads just HAPPENED to go bad??

 

You havent messed with the head allignment or track 0 sensor have you?!?!?