Commodore 128D Boot Issue

[idflyfish]

Hello,

I am having a problem with my Commodore 128D in which the 1571 spins up, the drive activity light comes on, and it never finishes booting up (I don't get a ready). When this happens there isn't a disk in the drive. I am wondering what you folks think might be causing this.

I figured maybe I need to do some maintenance on the drive but I'd like to see if anyone can point me in the right direction getting documentation on doing this.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

[KevinO]

Do you mean you never get a ready prompt and a cursor? If you never get a ready prompt, I am not sure the drive has anything to do with it. I think the autoboot feature tries to read the drive to see if there's a bootable disk, and when it doesn't find anything, it should drop to a ready prompt.

 

[dabone]

I had a 128 do this with a old version of uiec firmware. So the serial bus can lockup the boot on a 128.
Does it come up fine in 64 mode (hold down the commodore key and boot).
Also, make sure your 40/80 switch is not pressed.

Later,
dabone

 

[idflyfish]

I had a 128 do this with a old version of uiec firmware. So the serial bus can lockup the boot on a 128.
Does it come up fine in 64 mode (hold down the commodore key and boot).
Also, make sure your 40/80 switch is not pressed.

Later,
dabone

Yep...it comes up fine in C64 mode. If I do soft reset (run/stop + restore) in 128 mode I get a prompt. It is almost like the routine that checks the 1571 when booting into 128 mode locks up, almost like it is waiting for the drive to finish doing some checks.

 

[KevinO]

I had a 128 do this with a old version of uiec firmware. So the serial bus can lockup the boot on a 128.
Does it come up fine in 64 mode (hold down the commodore key and boot).
Also, make sure your 40/80 switch is not pressed.

Later,
dabone

Now that you mention it, that's true. I just had that issue on a 128D. I had the uIEC plugged in, but no power applied to it and it locked up the serial bus. I'll bet you're right. If a R/S gives you a regular prompt, it probably is the drive not coming ready. I assume this is with no disk in the drive?

 

[idflyfish]

Now that you mention it, that's true. I just had that issue on a 128D. I had the uIEC plugged in, but no power applied to it and it locked up the serial bus. I'll bet you're right. If a R/S gives you a regular prompt, it probably is the drive not coming ready. I assume this is with no disk in the drive?

Exactly. No disk in the drive.

Now all of a sudden I am not having the problem. Is it possible I just need to lube up the drive head arms and clean the drive head?