New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

Background:

- PSU blew filter caps, DuoDisk was fine for the ten mins. it ran before this, loading several different disks.

NOW:

- Apple IIe beeps as normal, drive chatters, then just spins without reading.

- Have checked / cleaned heads – no gunk on read head.

Thanks for any help, been trying to get this IIe going for over a month now!

PS: is there any code to boot from drive 2?

I did this below, it looks like the drive might ok as I do get the light and the chatter, but I still can't load anything.


"After you hit ctrl-Reset, type CALL -151 to get into the monitor
Then type C600L to get a listing of the Disk II firmware
A bad disk II firmware listing will have random code
Type Ctrl-C to get back to the applesoft prompt and type PR#6
If the disk drive rattles and the light comes on, then it is a bad
disk
If the computer hangs with no response from the drive and the firmware
code looked good then likely bad drive."

Also tried formatting a disk using this below – got DISK ERROR.

http://asciiexpress.net/diskserver/

Pulled the DuoDisk apart and rigged it up so Drive 2 was talking to the IIe as Drive 1 – it works!

I don't need both drives working, but look like the wires are too short to simply swap the disks over...

Still no idea why Drive 1 isn't working – maybe the read head motor isn't working? Was working before the PSU died.

Managed to get the wires to fit, and have installed Drive 2 to work permanently as Drive 1.

The purists might not like this approach too much, but I now have a working IIe!

Now to put all the DuoDisk case etc all back together and hope it still works... At least I know Drive 2 won't have had too much use over the years!

Not sure if it helps - but with regards to head cleaning, to get my drive to work correctly it took several runs with a disk cleaner - and the final winning clean involved an excessive amount of isopropyl on the disk cleaner surface (way more than I'd usually use).

Oh, OK – looks like the replacement drive has stopped reading now – I'll give it another clean.

Thanks Spider's Web – you were right, it works again.

On my C64 FDD, if it looks clean after a dry cotton bud wiping, it works. Must be a bit touchier with the Apple II drives.

Oh bother, maybe that was all that was wrong with drive 1. I can swap them back another day and try!

Bit of IIe eye candy for those who are interested.

Oh, god... the hours I spent on that game as a child. (twitching)