Timkorbs Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 So I recently bought a Peripheral Expansion box with a 32k expansion card. I am a newbie at this. When I power the PEB up, the floppy drive initializes and then turns on and off repeatedly every few seconds. Super annoying. I pulled out the 32k card and then the problem stopped. With the card out, it works normally. I figured the 32k card had a problem so I bought another. The new card does the same thing! Any thoughts?? I have cleaned all contacts and inspected everything but nothing seems to help. Something in my floppy drive maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 (edited) Was the, or has the floppy worked in the past in this configuration? Did the seller say anything. Edited October 25, 2020 by GDMike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 Out of curiosity, what is the timing interval? Does the timing interval change as the P-Box heats up? You mention you've inspected the contacts, but what about the power supply, and it's output and it's connections? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Hopefully not a flood rescue peb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 I simply cannot prove my theory/hunch without testing, but if I were to guess I suspect it could be a combination of two problems. First, when another perfectly good card is inserted into the P-Box, it starts to draw more power from the aging power supply. Second, if a transistor on the floppy controller is starting to fail, it may be going into a low state because of the reduced power, thus switching the drive on. Again this is just a guess, don't shoot me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Maybe the cable between floppy disk controller and disk drive?I had some problems while I thought it was working and replaced it. Make sure it is connected properly and not twisted with the connector.Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Maybe the cable between floppy disk controller and disk drive?I had some problems while I thought it was working and replaced it. Make sure it is connected properly and not twisted with the connector.Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 With the floppy drive removed, does the computer work in basic, other carts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 Where's the OP? I'd like to see how this works out and what exactly the problem was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 On 10/25/2020 at 10:03 AM, GDMike said: Was the, or has the floppy worked in the past in this configuration? Did the seller say anything. The seller was not really too familiar with the PEB I don't know how they had obtained it, but they said they would refund me if it didn't work. I have never gotten the floppy drive to work properly but I've only owned this a couple weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 On 10/25/2020 at 10:25 AM, Omega-TI said: Out of curiosity, what is the timing interval? Does the timing interval change as the P-Box heats up? You mention you've inspected the contacts, but what about the power supply, and it's output and it's connections? The timing interval stays exactly the same, but it makes a loud snapping sound as it's doing it because it's lifting up and dropping down the read function of the floppy as it's doing this. So there's kind of a metallic clanging/snapping sound in there and I don't want that to go on for too long or I think there may be damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 On 10/26/2020 at 9:44 AM, GDMike said: Hopefully not a flood rescue peb No, I have examined this thing thoroughly and honestly it looks really great inside. Very clean and lightly used is what I would say. I guess it's possible that it got wet, but there sure are no visible signs of that. I ordered a new floppy controller card and I'm going to try that because I think that's a possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 On 10/26/2020 at 5:58 PM, globeron said: Maybe the cable between floppy disk controller and disk drive? I had some problems while I thought it was working and replaced it. Make sure it is connected properly and not twisted with the connector. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk I guess that's possible, I tried ordering a new 32k card but that did not solve the problem. now I have another floppy controller card on order from eBay and I'm going to see if that solves the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 On 10/26/2020 at 5:20 PM, Omega-TI said: I simply cannot prove my theory/hunch without testing, but if I were to guess I suspect it could be a combination of two problems. First, when another perfectly good card is inserted into the P-Box, it starts to draw more power from the aging power supply. Second, if a transistor on the floppy controller is starting to fail, it may be going into a low state because of the reduced power, thus switching the drive on. Again this is just a guess, don't shoot me. Well, after much restraint, I've decided not to shoot you. Actually, those are some very good thoughts. When I removed the 32k card out of the peb, the drive at least did not turn on and off. the drive is also having other problems reading and it doesn't write. I thought it was a bad 32k card and so I ordered another but that did not solve the problem. Right now, there is another floppy controller card being shipped to me and I am fairly convinced that that may be the problem. If not, it's probably the power supply because honestly the floppy drive looks super clean. Anyway, thanks for the thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 On 10/26/2020 at 8:18 PM, GDMike said: With the floppy drive removed, does the computer work in basic, other carts? Yep, it works fine that way. I even tried another computer and has the same symptoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 2 hours ago, Omega-TI said: Where's the OP? I'd like to see how this works out and what exactly the problem was. I'm not sure what you mean by op. I tried ordering another 32k card because I thought that maybe that was the problem since removing the 32k card stopped the drive from turning on and off. The new 32k card did not help. The floppy drive is also having some issues reading and writing. It won't write at all, but it does read most of the time. I've tried cleaning the head and lubing the rails, etc. Nothing seems to help. My most recent idea was to order a new floppy controller card and that is being shipped to me right now. I'll let you know what happens after that. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 My new disc controller solved the problem of the drive turning on and off. It reads fine, but it will not write, which was also a problem before I installed the new controller. Anybody have any thoughts on why that would be? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 (edited) No, but everything points to the floppy drive now. Maybe the cable itself. I'd slave a gotek or another fdisk drive if you got one. Else just order another drive. Edited November 5, 2020 by GDMike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 1 hour ago, Timkorbs said: My new disc controller solved the problem of the drive turning on and off. It reads fine, but it will not write, which was also a problem before I installed the new controller. Anybody have any thoughts on why that would be? Drives dont write usually due to bad components in the board (caps?) and or the write protect circut.. one I troubleshot in the past had a burned out led in the optical write protect another bad microswitch same place.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 9 hours ago, GDMike said: No, but everything points to the floppy drive now. Maybe the cable itself. I'd slave a gotek or another fdisk drive if you got one. Else just order another drive. I'm pretty new to this TI computing stuff. So you're saying that there are other compatible disk drives that I could attach as a secondary drive? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 8 hours ago, arcadeshopper said: Drives dont write usually due to bad components in the board (caps?) and or the write protect circut.. one I troubleshot in the past had a burned out led in the optical write protect another bad microswitch same place.. Hmmm. the internals of the drive look super clean and barely used, but I'm going to take a closer look at what you're talking about and see if I can figure something out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timkorbs Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 (edited) 9 hours ago, arcadeshopper said: Drives dont write usually due to bad components in the board (caps?) and or the write protect circut.. one I troubleshot in the past had a burned out led in the optical write protect another bad microswitch same place.. One other strange detail about this is that I have tried to save files to a number of different disks and it has ruined the data on the disks. They will not catalog or read anymore because apparently the data is corrupted. just wondering if there is an attempt being made for the drive head to write, but somehow the magnetic "pulses" are not organized correctly and they're wrecking the data?? I've tried formatting as well but it tells me there's a disc error. Edited November 5, 2020 by Timkorbs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDMike Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 5 minutes ago, Timkorbs said: I'm pretty new to this TI computing stuff. So you're saying that there are other compatible disk drives that I could attach as a secondary drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz442 Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 (edited) You can also just use almost any 3-1/2 drive as DSK2 to test with. Just cover the 2nd hole on the floppy with tape then format the disk. Use a straight through standard cable to the drive. Edited November 5, 2020 by Fritz442 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 5 hours ago, Timkorbs said: One other strange detail about this is that I have tried to save files to a number of different disks and it has ruined the data on the disks. They will not catalog or read anymore because apparently the data is corrupted. just wondering if there is an attempt being made for the drive head to write, but somehow the magnetic "pulses" are not organized correctly and they're wrecking the data?? I've tried formatting as well but it tells me there's a disc error. this is either bad alignment or hardware on the drive.. SO get a known working drive.. even a 1.44 3.5" pc drive will work, albiet only in the modes the TI supports (I assume you have a TI controller board) DS/SD.. you just have to use 720k disks or put a label over the hole in the 1.44 disks.. OR use a gotek, which is what I recommend to most. I have 1.44 drives, the cables and goteks in my store at arcadeshopper.com Greg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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