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TRS80 - Model 4 disk error

Lorne,

Sorry I did not read this thread earlier. I live in Chandler also and had boot disks for the TRS-80 model IV that you could've borrowed instead of waiting for the free ones.

I live right off of Ray & Rural. I don't have much, but you can PM me in the future if you think I might have something you need.
 
patscc said:
I can't remember now, have the rails, or anything else on it been lubed ?
I guess after the format terminates, doing a DIR on the floppy gives an error ?
Did you try several floppies ?
patscc
Click to expand...

I have lubed the rails in that particular drive.
I haven't tried doing a DIR on the floppy. I will.
I used the same floppy. I'll try formatting some others.

I think it's the drive though - you need to see the video - the heads just don't seem to want to move far.
 
Head travel

Head travel

Total travel is less than an inch (smaller than the window)
I'm thinking maybe your stepper is gunked up, or your drive circuit is bad. You still have that logic probe, right ?
patscc
 
I still have the probe (unused).

I tried formatting another disk of a different manufacturer (both disks were new).

Same deal:
Unable to write boot.
I tried DIR afterward.
Message = "Sector not found reading Drive D".
 
This wouldn't be the first time that I've seen a bad positioner circuit on a Tandon drive (I know it says, TPI, but it's a Tandon). It seems that Tandon had their share of problems, using 3- 4- and 6-wire steppers on these drives.

In at least one of the cases I've seen, it wasn't the circuitry, but the stepper itself that was at fault. I'd start with the relatively easy task of checking for short or open stepper windings.
 
Dir

Dir

Comment out the c:\device=
line, and after you're booted, see if you can do a DIR on an existing 360k (DSDD) DOS floppy if you have one. You can't copy any files, but the FAT( which is needed for DIR) resides on the side of the floppy where your (drive's) single head is.
If you can't pull the DIR, then more work is required.
patscc
 
I found a working 360KB DOS disk, so I tried reading that with the TRS-80 drive hooked up to the PC, and it wouldn’t read it.

I managed, after much perseverance, to format a floppy on the TRS-80 drive using Chuck(G)'s 160DOS.sys file in the root directory, and referencing it with patscc's config.sys file.
It formatted it as a 160 KB.
I started copying files to the newly formatted disk.
It copied three files, and then gave me a “Sector not found on Drive D” error.

I’ve been testing and testing the read/write on both the drives.
Same problems on both (although one of them did let me do a format once).

Druid6900 figures the drives are out of alignment – he’s got a PC test jig he uses to align the drives.
So, the two drives are now in a box (well packed for the return trip), and will be on their way to Druid6900 in the morning.

We'll see if the Model 4 works after he sends the drives back.
If it still doesn't work, at least I’ve ruled out the most probable cause, and can then focus my attention on other potential problem areas.

Stay tuned for updates.

Thanks.
 
I posted this message in the Rants section in T's Sinus Infection thread as these Model 4 drives seem to get around.

Ya know, it's probably just a coincidence that I got that sinus infection shortly after that bio-terrorist box from Arizona arrived......

Ok, due to time restrains (like everyone bugging me about stuff I'm fixing for them), I only got around to opening the box and working on Drive A (found the envelope and thank you).

However, seeing as the same thing is wrong with both of them, it won't take long to get drive B going as well.

Drive A is happily running a 24 hour read/write burn-in test on a 160K diskette that I formatted on another drive using WinImage. It formatted a bulk erased 160K disk using the F:160 option in the 6.20 format command and DIDN'T format a known defective disk using the same options. Had to touch up the speed JUST a bit.

Seems to be working.
 
Druid6900 said:
Ya know, it's probably just a coincidence that I got that sinus infection shortly after that bio-terrorist box from Arizona arrived......

However, seeing as the same thing is wrong with both of them, it won't take long to get drive B going as well.

Drive A is happily running a 24 hour read/write burn-in test on a 160K diskette that I formatted on another drive using WinImage. It formatted a bulk erased 160K disk using the F:160 option in the 6.20 format command and DIDN'T format a known defective disk using the same options. Had to touch up the speed JUST a bit.

Seems to be working.
Click to expand...

In case the germs are still active (after all this time :) ), please make sure the drives are disinfected before you send them back.

"the same thing is wrong with both of them" - don't keep us in suspense - what was wrong with them? (other than they were screwed).

Cheers,

Lorne.
 
Drive B has replaced Drive A in the 24 Hour read/write burn-in and, after a couple of more days of tests (I like to be thorough) they will be on their way back to their case.

Yup, like I said, a light dusting with nerve gas should do it.

Well, as far as I could determine, the problem was that they didn't work :)
 
Druid6900 said:
Drive B has replaced Drive A in the 24 Hour read/write burn-in and, after a couple of more days of tests (I like to be thorough) they will be on their way back to their case.

Yup, like I said, a light dusting with nerve gas should do it.

Well, as far as I could determine, the problem was that they didn't work :)
Click to expand...

That's good news on the drives getting back home - it'll be in the mid-80's (30 C) here tomorrow, so they'll be looking forward to coming back :)

I think there are a few folks on our forums that will want to know what was wrong with those drives.

I trust you'll provide us a slightly more detailed explanation of the problem once they're done?

Thanks.
 
broke

broke

I'd chatted with Lorne about the drives earlier, and I don't think the diagnosis of "They wuz broke" is entirely accurate.
I think "dey war'd messed-up" would be more accurate.
patscc
 
Druid6900 said:
I fixed 'em REAL good.

Happy?
Click to expand...

I'm very happy they're fixed, and I'm looking forward to getting them back, and into the Model 4.

Just a thought: if you're ever planning a career change, try to avoid applying for anything with the words "technical report writing skills" in the job description! :)

Thanks Dru,

Lorne.
 
Druid6900 said:
Drive B has replaced Drive A in the 24 Hour read/write burn-in and, after a couple of more days of tests (I like to be thorough) they will be on their way back to their case.

Yup, like I said, a light dusting with nerve gas should do it.

Well, as far as I could determine, the problem was that they didn't work :)
Click to expand...

Hmm, are floppy drives really designed for a 100% duty cycle for that rather long period of time? Of course, I never worked in the computer repair shop at my jobs, I was too busy putting new RAID drives in the servers to keep up with storage demands.
 
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