Re-aligning head of NEC FD5711C 5 1/4" floppy drive?

[Tor]

My NEC 1.2MB 5 1/4" drive (FD5711C) seems to have developed what I think is an alignment problem. I have some floppies that I know are good, but the drive only reads a track or two before it starts to give sector errors.

Is there any method available for trying to adjust the drive mechanics?

-Tor

 

[RetroHacker_]

My NEC 1.2MB 5 1/4" drive (FD5711C) seems to have developed what I think is an alignment problem. I have some floppies that I know are good, but the drive only reads a track or two before it starts to give sector errors.

Have you tried to take the drive apart yet?

These NEC drives have a little tin shield glued to the top of the head with some foam. Over the years, the foam deteriorates and the shield falls off, and interferes with head movement. Usually it results in the disk getting stuck in the drive, since the head won't retract all the way, but it'll also cause read errors. If you tilt the drive around and hear something clanging around in there, there's your problem.

Take the metal cover off the top of the drive (three screws, IIRC), and look for the loose shield. I just remove it - it's technically there to reduce magnetic interference to the head, but since the whole assembly is already under a metal cover, I don't really think it's critical. In any event, removing it has never caused any problems for me.

-Ian

 

[Tor]

Thanks for the tip. The shield is indeed loose. I'll try to remove it and test the drive again. Will report back!

-Tor

 

[Tor]

Drive works! Thanks again for the tip. I also took the opportunity to use the tiniest amount of oil on a couple of those moving parts.

Back to my regular save-old-stuff project.

-Tor