billdeg
Technician
[copy from my orig. post to cctech on classiccmp]
I leave the unit powered up for a good ten minutes before turning on my known-to-work Commodore B128. The expected drive initialization lights flash and the system sits waiting for action while the top light shines green, the bottom light is off. Here are the things I have tried:
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?ds$ - returns CBM DOS 3, etc. message
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open 15,8,15
print#15,"i0" [top and bottom lights shine green, drive sounds spinning, never completes.]
close 15
NOTE: The first time I run these commands the READY prompt returns to the screen and I can continue working, even though the drive lights perpetually shine green and the drive spins. If I do repeat this set of commands however I will freeze up the computer and I am forced to hard boot the B128.
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header "degnan9090", d0, i01
The "are you sure?" message appears and I can initiate the drive format. Both lights shine green. The B128 freezes up. Because I have a Rev B ROM, I expect that it will take less than 3 hours to format the drive. In my testing I finally aborted after 10 hours. I know from experience that when a header command is issued, control returns to the B128 (or whatever computer) while the formatting is happening on the drive.
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dcleard0 - does not appear to move the drive heads.
-------------------------
It seems like the heads are not moving and that's the problem. I do not hear "head moving noises"
Any suggestions?
Bill D
Wilmington, DE
I leave the unit powered up for a good ten minutes before turning on my known-to-work Commodore B128. The expected drive initialization lights flash and the system sits waiting for action while the top light shines green, the bottom light is off. Here are the things I have tried:
-------------------------
?ds$ - returns CBM DOS 3, etc. message
-------------------------
open 15,8,15
print#15,"i0" [top and bottom lights shine green, drive sounds spinning, never completes.]
close 15
NOTE: The first time I run these commands the READY prompt returns to the screen and I can continue working, even though the drive lights perpetually shine green and the drive spins. If I do repeat this set of commands however I will freeze up the computer and I am forced to hard boot the B128.
-------------------------
header "degnan9090", d0, i01
The "are you sure?" message appears and I can initiate the drive format. Both lights shine green. The B128 freezes up. Because I have a Rev B ROM, I expect that it will take less than 3 hours to format the drive. In my testing I finally aborted after 10 hours. I know from experience that when a header command is issued, control returns to the B128 (or whatever computer) while the formatting is happening on the drive.
-------------------------
dcleard0 - does not appear to move the drive heads.
-------------------------
It seems like the heads are not moving and that's the problem. I do not hear "head moving noises"
Any suggestions?
Bill D
Wilmington, DE