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Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2025 7:42 pm
by 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...)
Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2025 10:08 am
by Martin_Head
Sebright wrote: Tue Apr 22, 2025 3:26 pm
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.
Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2025 11:21 am
by 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).
Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2025 12:07 pm
by Sebright
Martin_Head wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 10:08 am
Sebright wrote: Tue Apr 22, 2025 3:26 pm
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.
Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2025 5:23 pm
by 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_
Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2025 8:01 pm
by jobdone
worth reseating the DP8473 and checking the crystal is still ok on the gold card.
SOLVED Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2025 9:42 am
by Sebright
Martin_Head wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 5:23 pm
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
Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2025 10:31 am
by 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.
Re: Floppy drives not working
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2025 12:28 pm
by Sebright
Derek_Stewart wrote: Thu Apr 24, 2025 10:31 am
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