Commodore 64/128 & Apple II(Laser 128) questions. Help!!

[benjam138]

Ok, I picked up my old Laser 128 from my parents house and can't get any of the disks to boot. I got a cleaner at Radio Shack and still nothing. Any suggestions? Also, I have a disk drive for my Commodore 128, but with no power supply. The disk drive has 117 volts. I do have a cable, but it says 125 volts. Will the 125 fry the drive? If so, can I get a 117 V cable at Radio Shack. Any help would be much appreciated. -Ben

[Nukey Shay]

You might try and clean the drive head. My IIc had this problem after it sat around a few years, and I just used a wet cleaning disk to correct it. If you don't have one of those, you can open the casing, unscrew the shielding plate (you may need to disconnect the cables from the board...take note of the position), and lift the read/write skate gently to clean the head with an alcohol swab. The head is ceramic, so I doubt you will harm it.

[AtariDude]

I found a place that might have a forum to help you. Here is the link:

 

http://www.applefritter.com/appleclones/vtech/

 

Click on the button that says Apple II.

[Ze_ro]

Also, I have a disk drive for my Commodore 128, but with no power supply.

 

I could have sworn I answered this somewhere... but maybe I closed the window without clicking "submit"... anyways, the cord for the disk drive has no actual components in it... it just passes outlet voltage straight to the drive (which has a built-in power supply... one of the reasons they're so damn big). Don't worry about the voltage, it'll be fine. Any PC-style power cord should work.

 

I know absolutely nothing about the Laser. However, there are three possibilities than I can think of:

[*]Your disks have all degraded. Magnetic media doesn't seem to last very long, and depending on how they were stored, it's quite possible that they didn't last. Oddly, the vast majority of my 80's C-64 disks still work, while the vast majority of my brothers 90's Amiga disks are dead. However, it's unlikely that ALL of the disks would be dead. If none of them work, then the problem is quite possible that...

[*]Your disk drive may be out of alignment. This was a common problem on Commodore drives too. If possible, trying using the drive to save something on a disk, then see if you can read it again. If that works, then chances are good that it's an alignment problem. Fixing the alignment yourself is usually possible, although it's a pain in the butt.

[*]The disk drive could be entirely dead. If you can't even read stuff that you just saved 5 seconds ago, then this could be the problem.

--Zero