Both 1050 drives gone bad

[Rybags]

I've got 2 x stock 1050s, both have had near perfect behaviour always, only needing a head clean once in a while (open up, swab with isopropyl).

 

Today I've used them for the first time in probably 3 years, maybe a bit longer.

I managed to get a directory on one of them after a few failed read attempts on other floppies, subsequent attempts fail.

Tried various disks, likely they are all good.  Most kept in my bedroom, generally never high humidity but sometimes low and high temperatures.

 

But the drives, seem to spin up fine and the seeking seems normal also.  But any attempt at a disk read gets the seek 0/reseek/retry thing and the usual Error 144.

Even formatting fails - it does the high speed write and head step every ~ 1.5 seconds but the format fails eventually after retrying a couple of times.

 

Visual inspection inside - the heads on one looked a bit dirty and both came up fine.  Very slight bulge on the big caps on one drive.  Each drive has a different mech by the looks - one has the felt pad that barely seperates off the head and the other has the one that can open up beyond 90 degrees.

 

I've only got the single PS that I've used on both - though I guess I could try a 400 PS though I think it might be underrated for the task?

Edited February 3, 2021 by Rybags

[Rybags]

Just realised this is in the wrong section  - can we delete this thread?