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Need help with Atari 1050


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I recently picked up an Atari 1050, whatever disk I put in results in a slow scrolling boot error. I am currently running it on an atari xegs. I don't know if this is an issue with the disk drive, the Atari XEGS, none my floppys work, or maybe my power supply is incorrect, if you have any advice that would be awesome. 

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the slow boot means the computer is polling the drive ok

does the drive 'zero' itself ok on power-up?

sounds like the drive head needs cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, its the easiest thing to try first

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when working correctly, on power up the head moves forward and back. this tests the track zero sensor. if the sensor has failed, the head only moves forward.

do you have the means to run the 1050 diagnostic? you will need another device to load in the atr file, then power up the drive as drive 0 with a dos compatible disk in it and you can perform the tests.

 

1050 Disk Diagnostics.atr

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My 1050 story:

 

About a year or so ago, when I pulled my Atari stuff from storage, I unpacked my two 1050s.  These were in original boxes (one is in an original Refurbished box!).  They are in the original plastic bags, encased in the original styrofoam, along with the power supply & the SIO cable.  Strangely, one of the boxes also had a piece of small black ribbon in it.

Anyway, I open the drives to clean & lube them first before plugging them in.  One was missing the screws.  Then I sort of remember having the screws taped wrapped in scotch tape & taped to the desk just under the front of the drives back in the 80s so that I could easily clean & lube them when they started getting noisey.  So now that the heads & rails are cleaned with denatured alcohol, and the rails are lubed with silicon lube (sprayed into the cap then applied with a Q-tip, just like I did in the 80s), I plug them in & turn them on.  One spins up & does the track 0 seek.  The other just does the seek.  Crud.  It must have died in storage over the past 30 years.

 

I take the bad one & remove the drive mechanism.  That's when I find a bunch of pieces of dried-up rubber bits all over under the mechanism.  Light bulb goes off!  Oh yeah!  Back in the late 80s, I had a drive belt break and I replaced it with a wide rubberband.  Over the next 30 years, the rubberband dried up and broke into pieces.  The piece of black ribbon in the packaging was the original belt that I kept.  As I now recall, I had put it in there to remind me that that drive had the rubberband in it.

 

Weird how the memories come back.

 

The rubberband worked just fine for years.  I figured that there may be some stretch as the motor started, but the speed would even out before the disk accesses would start.

 

I ended up replacing the belt with one from a 1050 that I picked up from CraigsList.  That drive would power up, spin & seek the first few times that I powered it up, and then, iirc, it stopped spinning but still seeked.  I tried powering it up recently, but it glowed & burned a cap.  For now, it's just going to be a parts-donor drive.  So far, it has donated it's belt to my old drive, and it's front & top to a Tandon drive that someone had put the wrong top & front on.

 

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1 hour ago, archeocomp said:

Are they any good? I need one belt right now and would buy two more as backup for my (small) collection of Singapore 1050 drives. Maybe if I could join someone ordering from Best.

Well, I haven't purchased from them personally, but I have replaced at least a half dozen belts for both Tandon & WST 1050's from BEST. Can't imagine they'd be much different. The new ones are much 'tighter' than some of the old ones i've replaced - should improve on RPM variance.

 

It seems those who figure out the exact measurements and a supplier seem to keep that info a closely guarded secret. :) BEST also has their usual minimum and special order requirements, these guys look like you can order as little or as much needed...

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