810 needs your help

[ochen]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm trying to revive an 810 drive that keeps powering up to "boot error" screen. I can see the head move down and attempt to read, moves a little bit with a grinding type noise and pulls back to center. I'm using a couple disks single formatted and verified working on 1050 drive. Here are a few things that I've tried so far:

 

1. Cleaned head a couple times.

2. Cleaned track/slider & greased if it was neccessary.

3. Cleaned all connectors & components with contact cleaner.

4. Adjusted track head from back stop set screw to .01" per FSM.

5. Verified motor RPM within spec per manual. I only have a cheap 1 ch scope so not sure of accuracy.

 

I don't have another 810 drive to swap parts with so wondering if anyone can shed some light on other possible culprits. The FSM doesn't show voltage levels for the RPM test so that would be useful to know.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[TGB1718]

track 0 sensor alignment, you'll need a diagnostics disk to run the test and adjust accordingly.

You could create it with your 1050, wouldn't be perfect, but at least it would be the same as your 1050.

[ochen]

Hi,

 

I used an 810 diagnostics image via aspeqt that gives option to burn-in or adjust. It attempts to track to 16, but same behavior results. I attempted to check track00 directly from the controller, but it seems this one is not wired the same as the 1050. Is there another diagnostics disk option available?

 

Thanks!

[+Nezgar]

810 does not have a track 0 sensor as far as I know?

 

ochen, can you confirm if your drive has the "Grass Valley" upgrade board set?

 

A good indicator is if there is a PCB above the drive mechanism. Drives with the MPI "Garage Door" mechs could have either, Drives with the Tandon "flipper" should always have the upgraded electronics.

 

Basically, an old MPI 810 with the old board set are likely to have all sorts of problems due to poor power regulation, wonky RPM, no data separator, etc.

 

One of these 'old' drives with an MPI mech would look like this:

 

A fully upgraded MPI drive would look like this:

 

Knowing which you have may help deciding next course of action...

 

(Photos credit: @Paul Westphal)

[ochen]

Hi Nezgar,

 

Seems I have the oldest of the bunch, it looks just like the first pic. The FSM advises to swap parts out at this point, but I was hoping to verify voltage ranges with known good values before thinking of buying replacements.

 

Thanks for the input!

[Paul Westphal]

I have one of the last, best  disk drive techs available. Paul Alhart, down in SoCal.

 

let me know if you need his services. I’ll hook you up, Bro

 

Paul

eighhtbitfix.com

Edited December 3, 2019 by Paul Westphal