Anyone fix disk drives in the UK?

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:27 pm

I have a 128D (1571 disk drive) and the drive has a read problem. I stick in a disk do the Load"*",8,1 thang. The drive tries to read the disk going something like: "diggy, diggy, duh, duh - diggy, diggy, duh, duh" (I know it sounds like a chorus from a euro-pop song!) and then comes up with a "?FILE NOT FOUND ERROR" then the drive light just keeps on flashing until I switch the machine off.

The strange thing is, to me anyway, is that I have a 1541 C that did the same thing right up until tonight when I thought I'd just try it out of the blue. Now it seems to be okay!

I've seen posts on here before with wee bits of code about opening and closing 15 and the like. I have tried all of them in the past but it hasn't worked...

So, my question is: Is there anyone here in the UK that could repair my drive? I know that there are people in the US but the postage is through the roof!

Thanks for any pointers, P

PS: I'm posting this at the CCC and Lemon sites as well so don't have a go at me, okay?!

shem · Post by **shem** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:40 pm

First thing's first
have you tried cleaning the heads on the drive?
If you had one bad/dirty disc it could put crap back onto the read/write head

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:50 pm

I haven't actually. It's funny because if this had happened 20 years ago it would've been the first thing to spring to mind! I'll try to hunt down a cleaning disk. I take it eBay is the easiest?

Now that I've got a VIC on it's way I thought I should get my C64 and 128D back off the ground. There's always something, eh? No wonder my girlfriend's always on my back about not leaving things alone!

shem · Post by **shem** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:53 pm

@ pedro
Just give her some of that booze you were drinking last night she'll soon stop nagging

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:40 pm

It was her that turned me on to whisky in the first place - she knows her stuff (she's a senior whisky advisor)! Anyway, it makes her worse. You want to see her after a couple - especially with the fag hanging out the mouth, farting and swearing and needing a shave...then she gets amorous!

Just kidding of course! She's gorgeous and never really moans at me about it. She just likes to wind me up.

shem · Post by **shem** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:04 pm

Pedro Lambrini wrote:It was her that turned me on to whisky in the first place - she knows her stuff (she's a senior whisky advisor)! Anyway, it makes her worse. You want to see her after a couple - especially with the fag hanging out the mouth, farting and swearing and needing a shave...then she gets amorous!

sounds like a classy lady

Ian Colquhoun · Post by **Ian Colquhoun** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:29 pm

Pedro Lambrini wrote:I'll try to hunt down a cleaning disk. I take it eBay is the easiest?

Don't bother. Take a Q-Tip (or your favourite brand of cotton swabs on a stick) with some isopropyl alcohol and lightly swab the heads of your drive. Of course, that means you have to open the case up, but that's got to be easier than an eBay'd cleaning disk!

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:53 am

^
You have a point! I will buy some cotton buds this very day. Thanks bloke.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:36 pm

I once had a separate 1571 drive with my C128. I'm sorry to read about such one case again.

These drives suffered from a design failure, which ruined the head mechanics when the drive was closed without a disc being actually inserted.

In this case, the mechanics would not completely lower the top head, instead supporting it between two bars, alas only on one side. Effectively the flat spring forcing the head down would be twisted. Subsequently, that spring wouldn't anymore exert enough force so that both heads were in proper contact to the disc surface.

Even though I had the drive "repaired" twice under guarantee, it returned to that condition immediately at home after a few minutes. I could only operate it with open case, with one finger gently pressed on the upper head.

When I got a 1581, I immediately discarded the 1571 after transferring all data to 3 1/2 inch discs.

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 5:31 pm

If cleaning with the swab does not work, I would suggest the following before sending the bastard off.

Open up the drive at the top, if you dare. (i.e. take out the screws holding the top plastic cover in place) Stick in a disk (one you don't mind wrecking in the slight chance that this will wreck the disk) and do the whole LOAD"*",8 thing.

Just as it is spinning, slightly push the head a bit forward (or back) about half an inch or so. If you are lucky, then the head will start moving back and forth on its own and start loading your disk. Then reclose the drive

This works if what you have is a slight alignment error. I too sent my drive off (years ago) to get fixed and paid a fortune, twice. On the third time I decided to give it a go myself and this worked like a charm on all subsequent incidents. If this doesn't work, then it may be something more serious.

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 9:07 pm

Pedro Lambrini wrote:I have a 128D (1571 disk drive) and the drive has a read problem. I stick in a disk do the Load"*",8,1 thang. The drive tries to read the disk going something like: "diggy, diggy, duh, duh - diggy, diggy, duh, duh" (I know it sounds like a chorus from a euro-pop song!) and then comes up with a "?FILE NOT FOUND ERROR" then the drive light just keeps on flashing until I switch the machine off.

Pedro, have you given it the Initialize command?

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
Fresno Commodore User Group
CommVEx v5 info - http://www.commodore.ca/forum and click on ComVEX

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:04 pm

^
I'm not sure. There were loads of wee scripts to type in over at Lemon but I can't remember any of them. I think one had something along the lines of; OPEN 15,8,15...

Do you have a secret trick up your sleeve?!

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:12 pm

Uh....this is may seem like an dumb question....but have you formatted any of these disks before you tried to use them?

....just trying to eliminate the obvious.

OPEN 15,8,15

PRINT#15,"N0:disk,01"

CLOSE 15,8,15

I might have that slightly wrong. I'm typing this by memory.

I have four 1541's that need alignment though - and they do the same thing you described.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:21 pm

Not such a dumb question! No, I haven't. To be honest, I'm a total 8 bit disk drive noob. Up until recently I've always been a tape man - and I'm rapidly going back that way!

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:33 pm

Oh, okay then. If these are "fresh" disks, or disks from another computer platform, they need to be formatted to work on Commodore machines.

Denial

Anyone fix disk drives in the UK?

Anyone fix disk drives in the UK?

Re: Anyone fix disk drives in the UK?