Floppy drives not working

[Sebright]

I think we can narrow down the problem to one (or more?) of the following:
1) Power supply problem
2) cable problem
3) Disk drives both faulty
4) Gold Card faulty

So I've ordered a USB to floppy drive connector to try the QL drives out and see if they spin up.

I'll update when I get it (in a week or so...)

[Martin_Head]

I have an old PC with a floppy drive. I swapped out flp1 for that but it didn’t even light up. Quite a few reasons why that might not work though. But if there was a way to try one of the QL drives in the PC that might get me a bit further forward.

Does the PC floppy drive work OK in the PC? So at least you know that floppy drive and the PC works.

I would expect the QL floppy to work in a PC, but you might have to try it in both of the floppy drive connectors on the cable (the cable usually has two connectors on one end, with a twist in the cable). And it may appear as drive B:

Unless you can change the drive select jumpers on the QL floppys.

[Chr$]

I wonder if it's old electrolytic cap problems on the drive PCBs, they can go bad with age and that may well result in it not spinning (and other potential faults).

[Sebright]

I have an old PC with a floppy drive. I swapped out flp1 for that but it didn’t even light up. Quite a few reasons why that might not work though. But if there was a way to try one of the QL drives in the PC that might get me a bit further forward.

Does the PC floppy drive work OK in the PC? So at least you know that floppy drive and the PC works.

I would expect the QL floppy to work in a PC, but you might have to try it in both of the floppy drive connectors on the cable (the cable usually has two connectors on one end, with a twist in the cable). And it may appear as drive B:

Unless you can change the drive select jumpers on the QL floppys.

I tried to install one of the drives in the PC but the connector in the PC had some of the holes blanked off so I would have had to remove some pins from the QL drive. I wasn’t ready to try that yet.

Edit: and yes, that PC drive has been working recently, though the PC itself is on its last legs. Keeps overheating.

[Martin_Head]

If I remember correctly. If you put a PC floppy drive in a QL, it becomes FLP2_. You have to change the drive select on the drive, to make it work as FLP1_

[jobdone]

worth reseating the DP8473 and checking the crystal is still ok on the gold card.

[Sebright]

If I remember correctly. If you put a PC floppy drive in a QL, it becomes FLP2_. You have to change the drive select on the drive, to make it work as FLP1_

Thanks Martin, that worked! When I put the pc drive in before , I replaced flp1 and left flp2 connected. This time, I removed the old drives completely and the pc drive spun up as flp2. So both the originals are non-functional, possibly due to capacitor problems, as Chr$ suggested.

I'm happy with just one functional drive

Thanks to all for chipping in with suggestions.

Alan

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

PC Floppy drives are all configured as Drive 1, with DS1 hard wired or the jumper in DS1 position and will be seen as FLP2_ on a QL.

To use this type of floppy drive as FLP1_ move the Jumper to DS0 or if a hardwired solder link is fitted to DS1, get a PC floppy drive cable and straighten out the twist and twist lines 10,11,12 this will select DS0

This has been discussed in a previous Forum message, just needs a search.

If you are strugginging, I can provide a suitable floppy disk cable.

[Sebright]

Hi,

PC Floppy drives are all configured as Drive 1, with DS1 hard wired or the jumper in DS1 position and will be seen as FLP2_ on a QL.

To use this type of floppy drive as FLP1_ move the Jumper to DS0 or if a hardwired solder link is fitted to DS1, get a PC floppy drive cable and straighten out the twist and twist lines 10,11,12 this will select DS0

This has been discussed in a previous Forum message, just needs a search.

If you are strugginging, I can provide a suitable floppy disk cable.

Thanks for the offer Derek. The info for this drive says there are jumpers on the circuit board so I can sort that out at some point. However, I find it no hardship to type flp2 instead of flp1 for the time being.

Cheers,
Alan