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RODIME MFM HD won't spin up... without help.

SteveH

SteveH

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2003
Messages
301
Location
Shropshire, ENGLAND
My old RODIME RO202 full height MFM hard drive refuses to power up properly. When power is applied the drive brake disengages, but the drive does not spin up. Then after 30 seconds or so the power LED starts flashing an error code. Now if I poke my little pinkie in once the brake has disengaged and give the drive spindle a nudge, it spins up OK and the power LED stays lit indicating it is ready. I've left it running for a couple of hours, but when I power it off and then back on again, it still refuses to spin up without help. Any suggestions in getting this thing to spin up on its own accord.

Cheers,
Steve
 
Stone said:
I have a FH Maxtor tank with a somewhat similar problem. It works with some initial help but not without.
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Have you tried hooking it to your car battery with a good pair of jumper cables to get it started?

Only 90% kidding; I had that problem with a Maxtor, replaced the PS with a beefier one, no more problems.
 
MikeS said:
Have you tried hooking it to your car battery with a good pair of jumper cables to get it started?
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Hey, it might just work. Seriously, 12V is 12V; the amperage doesn't matter as long as it's enough which the car battey certainly is.
 
Thanks for all of the replies.

I'll look for a beefier power supply and give that a go before giving up on it. I must admit, I haven't tried reading from or writing to it yet simple because it's currently sitting there with the main circuit board hanging off just so I can get to the drive spindle - this also means the drive is upside down! I've have checked out the 200E series manual from Bitsavers, but nothing in the trouble shooting section appears to apply - all of the faults listed assume the drive is powered up and spinning.

Cheers,
Steve
 
Well, since you have nothing to lose, I will tell you what I do to revive reticent hard drives.

If the spindle shaft is exposed, get some 3 in 1 oil and put a few drops around the spindle shaft and leave it for, oh, 1/2 an hour to penetrate down the shaft.

After that, with the drive on it's back, power it up and, hopefully, it will spin up on its own. If not, give it a little push and let it spin for another half hour.

When that time has elapsed, power it down, turn it right side up and power it up again. If it spins up, then let it go for a half hour and that should be about it. If not, repeat the two above paragraphs once more.

If, after that, it doesn't spin up on it's own, it's probably not going to, although, I've never had one that's even required a second application to come back from the dead and work properly.
 
I think I've just sent this drive to hard disk heaven :(

After plugging it into a different PC with a beefier PSU, I started getting it spin up on its own. So I replaced all of the screws in the main logic board and tried again. It refused to spin up. So, out came the screws again, disconnected the main logic board for another visual inspection. Reconnected the main logic board without the screws and powered up again. It started spinning up but there was suddenly a hot ceramic sort of smell. I quickly pulled the power and turned the drive over to take a look. Arrghh... when I'd replaced the main logic board I hadn't noticed that the connector to the pre-amplifier board was displaced by 1 pin. Although there's no visible damage to any component, once it has spun up to speed, it simply flashes error code 0001. The RO200E manual says this is a "Faulty flag zero position" error and to contact service organisation. The only time I previously got this particular error was when the main logic boards was not plugged into the pre-amplifier.

Steve
 
k2x4b524[ said:
If you can find a logic board for it, the drive may still have a chance....
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I often keep an eye out for old Rodime drives, but they are few and far between. Back in the day, the company I worked for had several engineers who would repair these things using modification notes obtained from Rodime. At the time I scrounged several dodgy drives and swapped parts around to get a couple of working (mostly) drives.
 
I trace back that connector for any diodes. They have been first to fry... I wouldnt give all hope up yet. :)

Do you own any test equipment?
 
Well, the pre-amplifier board is a mass of diodes and resisters. It's certainly more basic than the diagram and schematic given in the RO200E manual.

As to test equipment, I've only got a small multimeter. Would it be a simple case of checking which diodes show zero resistance in either direction?
 
Checked all of the diodes and all but one allowed current to flow in one direction only. The odd one was in parallel to a resistor and showed the same resistance in both directions.

There are several metal-can type transistors. Would I be able to test these with a simple multimeter?
 
SteveH said:
There are several metal-can type transistors. Would I be able to test these with a simple multimeter?
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You can do a rudimentary test with your ohmmeter. A junction transistor (not a FET) should look as two diodes: an NPN should look like diodes with their anodes connected to the base; a PNP should look like diodes with the cathodes connected at the base (and the anodes connected to collector and emitter, respectively). Thus, you test the B-to-E connection, then the B-to-C connection. If open or shorted, the transistor's bad. Use the diode setting on your multimeter if you have one.

trtest1.gif
 
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