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Any 8050 experts? wont format/read

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polishedball

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2010
Messages
114
Trying to bring an 8050 online, it shows no errors and has a green light until I try to format then it goes red.

If I give it a HEADER"test",D0,IXX or D1, to try a format the heads move to the farthest outside track and it returns a bad disk error. If it starts on the outside track it bangs the heads like a 1541 then returns a bad disk error.

Any guides for these anywhere, other than the built in diagnostic error codes?

Thanks for all the help especially since I have just jumped in as a new person not contributing much yet.
 
polishedball said:
Trying to bring an 8050 online, it shows no errors and has a green light until I try to format then it goes red.

If I give it a HEADER"test",D0,IXX or D1, to try a format the heads move to the farthest outside track and it returns a bad disk error. If it starts on the outside track it bangs the heads like a 1541 then returns a bad disk error.

Any guides for these anywhere, other than the built in diagnostic error codes?

Thanks for all the help especially since I have just jumped in as a new person not contributing much yet.
Click to expand...
Well, first thing if it's been sitting for a long while is to *carefully* clean any dried grease off the rails and drive screw (if it has one), and some people also suggest a drop or two of light machine oil.

What is the actual error (DS$)?

Any idea which make the drives are? Tandon, Micropolis or MPI?

Manual here:
http://www.devili.iki.fi/Computers/Commodore/8050/Service_Manual/contents.html
 
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I'll look up the drive type and let you know. I did clean and lube the rails lightly. The first drive error was a 26 write protect. I found a broken/loose wire going to the bottom transmitter. Now I get an error 75 drive speed.
 
polishedball said:
I'll look up the drive type and let you know. I did clean and lube the rails lightly. The first drive error was a 26 write protect. I found a broken/loose wire going to the bottom transmitter. Now I get an error 75 drive speed.
Click to expand...
Loose or deformed belt(s)? Have you got a strobe disk anywhere to see if the speed really is off? Micropolis drives seem to be a little prone to motor speed problems; I'd have to confirm but ISTR that they have a speed adjustment trimpot which sometimes gets noisy.
 
MikeS said:
Loose or deformed belt(s)? Have you got a strobe disk anywhere to see if the speed really is off? Micropolis drives seem to be a little prone to motor speed problems; I'd have to confirm but ISTR that they have a speed adjustment trimpot which sometimes gets noisy.
Click to expand...

No I haven't a strobe disk. I see 2 pots on the top board to adjust the drive speed of 0 and 1. I take it i need this strobe disk to do this correctly. I'll did in over the weekend and check to see if there a worn dried belts etc.
 
dave_m said:
Mike,
What kind of diskette is needed for the 8050? The spec says it has 77 tracks and 100 TPI. Does it need a high density floppy?
-Dave
Click to expand...
Nope, DS/DD or DS/QD if you've got 'em; even hard sector disks'll work. High density probably won't work because of the different magnetic characteristics, but I don't think that's the problem here (at least not yet ;-) ); still, something to check for sure.
 
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polishedball said:
No I haven't a strobe disk. I see 2 pots on the top board to adjust the drive speed of 0 and 1. I take it i need this strobe disk to do this correctly. I'll did in over the weekend and check to see if there a worn dried belts etc.
Click to expand...
Many floppy disks used to have a strobe disk on the flywheel and I thought for sure there'd be a strobe disk image on the net somewhere but couldn't find one, so here's a rather poor scan of mine; size it to fit on the flywheel, print it and cut it out, center it and tape it to the flywheel and the outer set of bars should appear stationary under a fluorescent light (the inner bars are for a 1.2MB HD drive).
strobe..jpg
 
I have tried those 1.2 MB HD floppies on my 8050, 8250 and 8250LP. It is a total failure. As you write, 48 tpi DD usually works but in the long run you might get data loss. I think 96 tpi DD/QD should be fine, but certain people mention the only long term solution would be the rather rare 100 tpi DD ones. I still don't know the functional difference between a floppy disk certified for 96 tpi and one good for 100 tpi if the floppy drive still will only format 77 tracks across that space.

I do understand the difference between floppy drives though, that a 77 track disk written in a 100 dpi mechanism probably won't be readable in a 96 tpi (obscure PC) mechanism as the tracks will lay at odd spacing compared to what the drive is programmed to expect.
 
The drive situation got worse on boot this morning; the actual drives respond to no commands that access the disk. ?DS$ will return Dos type initially, but anything to write a header or read a disk they don't respond and the computer just stays stuck searching if loading. There is spindle activity with the drive door, but that is all. Something went flaky overnight. I reseated all the chips and connectors still nothing.

Tape access, is driving me crazy. Hopefully I'll be able to use the XS-1541 Nils is sending me to get my uIEC to work on the pet.
 
polishedball said:
the actual drives respond to no commands that access the disk. ?DS$ will return Dos type initially, but anything to write a header or read a disk they don't respond.
Click to expand...

Just a reminder, as a precaution, do not leave the diskettes in the drive during on power cycles of the drive. It seems to reek havoc on the floppies on my 2040 drive. So right now you can not even perform a CATALOG command on a known good floppy?

polishedball said:
Hopefully I'll be able to use the XS-1541 Nils is sending me to get my uIEC to work on the pet.
Click to expand...

Right now I am waiting for a XM1541 cable to hook up a 1541 drive to a PC. Does the XS1541 also hook up to a PET? These X cables are very confusing to me.
 
I have some tips for the B seris line that include testing an 8050:
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=1
also here are the blink codes
http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=301

I routinely use regular DD/DS disks, no problems.

First forget about the disk, just focus on the drive itself
1) ?ds$ reveals what response, and what system is this hooked up to?
2) when you power on the system what is the blink code?

If you have a drive speed error, this is fixable by adjusting the POT on the board of the drive. Not that easy, but we can try to walk you though it

Bill
 
billdeg said:
1) ?ds$ reveals what response, and what system is this hooked up to?
2) when you power on the system what is the blink code?

If you have a drive speed error, this is fixable by adjusting the POT on the board of the drive. Not that easy, but we can try to walk you though it

Bill
Click to expand...

This is connected to a PET 8032, on intial power on the ?ds$ returns the CBM dos version, after trying to address the drive with a header, directory dload etc the drive does nothing wont spin or anything it then reports a write protect. There appears to be no blink code error on power up the lights don;t flash a repetitive sequence. I'll detail the leds at next power up.

It is wierd because prior to shutting it down the night before it was access the drive erroring out and returning a write speed error when ?ds$
 
polishedball said:
This is connected to a PET 8032, on intial power on the ?ds$ returns the CBM dos version, after trying to address the drive with a header, directory dload etc the drive does nothing wont spin or anything it then reports a write protect. There appears to be no blink code error on power up the lights don;t flash a repetitive sequence. I'll detail the leds at next power up.

It is wierd because prior to shutting it down the night before it was access the drive erroring out and returning a write speed error when ?ds$
Click to expand...
Are both drives equally unresponsive? Yes, tell us what the LEDs do.
 
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