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IBM 5155 Stuck Floppy Drive

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cobracon

Experienced Member
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Mar 15, 2012
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176
Location
Michigan
I have an IBM 5155 that is in great condition but has one problem. When I go to insert a floppy into the one and only drive, it will only go in half way. The unit did not do this when I used it last year. How do I get it unstuck? Is there a switch in there or something that is stuck?

Thanks for any advice in advance.
 
If you can't see what's stopping the disk by looking in the slot with a flashlight, disassembling the drive should make it obvious.
 
Well I took a flashlight and looked in the drive. It looks like the head is stuck down in the read position. How hard of a fix is that before I tear it all apart? I've never really fixed a floppy drive, I usually just replace them.
 
There's normally a spring mechanism to lift the heads if there's no disk in the drive. You'll have to open the drive up to see what's happening. The danger is that you've already clobbered the head supports by trying to jam a disk in when the heads are down.

I can't really venture more without a closer look.
 
Well I replaced the drive with what I had on hand. A mits 1.2 5.25 drive. The computer boots right up to basic and doesn't read the drive. It looks at the drive then goes to basic. Is there something I have to set on the floppy controller to address this? Been along time since I used an XT.
 
I'm quite sure the 5155 came originally with a 360K Floppy drive. The controller does NOT have High density support, so your 1.2MB drive will definitely not work on the original controller.
 
A 1.2mb drive operates at a data rate of either 300kpbs (low density) or 500kbps (high density) so that won't quite work on a normal low density controller - that only operates at 250kbps. Some 1.2mb drives might have jumpers that let them switch from spinning at 360RPM to 300RPM and double step, but still not recommended due to differences in tracks per inch.

If you are just trying to get it going, you can attach any standard 1.44mb floppy drive. Cover the density notch on a 1.44mb disk, and it will work happily as a 720K drive on your low density controller.
 
SomeGuy said:
A 1.2mb drive operates at a data rate of either 300kpbs (low density) or 500kbps (high density) so that won't quite work on a normal low density controller - that only operates at 250kbps. Some 1.2mb drives might have jumpers that let them switch from spinning at 360RPM to 300RPM and double step, but still not recommended due to differences in tracks per inch.

If you are just trying to get it going, you can attach any standard 1.44mb floppy drive. Cover the density notch on a 1.44mb disk, and it will work happily as a 720K drive on your low density controller.
Click to expand...

This I will try. I don't have any more 5.25 drives. Wish I would have saved more.
 
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