Tandon floppy drive went bad out of blue

[musicforlife]

Just suddenly out of nowhere the Tandon floppy drive started malfunctioning in my IBM 5150. It worked perfectly before but now suddenly it can't read disks anymore and can barely format but the disks are still unreadable. Formatting also makes louder noise so I think the head somehow misaligned or something. Is this something I could fix by software or do I need to bring it for technician for service?

The drive was also serviced already before, by replacing all the caps and lubing the motor.


Also, I almost panicked because at first I thought the floppy was bad but when testing that same floppy which was formatted with faulty drive in other drives, it seems like the floppy itself would make all the other drives misalign too or something. For a moment my other floppy drives had problems to format even new floppies but fortunately by formatting with "formatqm" program they went alright without hiccups anymore hence I was able to determine the faulty drive which still is misaligned after testing "formatqm" program.

I am familiar with "click of death" in zip drives and disks but can same happen with floppies? All of my floppies were also unopened and new before I started using them hence they should be very good quality.

 

[krebizfan]

With a contagious floppy disk, start by checking if the disk is shedding material. The binder (glue) fails over time and the read/write heads may get covered in a rusty goo. That can happen even with never before used disks especially if poorly stored. Look at the disk. Rings in a different color on the cookie could be a sign of disk failure.

A cleaning disk or other cleaning method seems advised. Opening the drive to see if there is a coating on the head might help determine if there is a problem with the disks.

 

[Stone]

Have you cleaned the drive's heads? That's always a good place to start. A head cleaning diskette is the best choice.

 

[musicforlife]

Have you cleaned the drive's heads? That's always a good place to start. A head cleaning diskette is the best choice.

I have been cleaning similar things with isopropyl alcohol. I actually can't remember whether the heads were cleaned or not before. I only suspect mechanical failure because of extra noises it makes when formatting. But of course I could test cleaning it first.

 

[Chuck(G)]

A floppy drive is a dumb device. It has a motor and a head assembly with a stepper motor and some electronics. Think of it as a phonograph that can write. Other than the cookie spinning and the head moving back and forth, there should be no variation in sound, no matter what operation you're doing. Some 8" and 5.25' drives also have a head-load mechanism from the days when disks spun constantly, but your Tandon is not one of those.

So the question comes up: What exactly did you hear? Did the disk making a squealing noise? If so, it probably left a fair amount of oxide on the heads, as it was disintegrating--the head was acting more as a plow than a boat. If that's the case, you need to (a) toss the floppy into the garbage or burn it--it should never come near a floppy drive again. Then thoroughly clean the drive heads--sometimes isopropanol by itself isn't sufficient and you may have to result to acetone or perchloroethylene to get the stubborn stuff off.

If it wasn't a squealing sound, what was it? It might be signaling a mechanical problem with the drive.

 

[musicforlife]

A floppy drive is a dumb device. It has a motor and a head assembly with a stepper motor and some electronics. Think of it as a phonograph that can write. Other than the cookie spinning and the head moving back and forth, there should be no variation in sound, no matter what operation you're doing. Some 8" and 5.25' drives also have a head-load mechanism from the days when disks spun constantly, but your Tandon is not one of those.

So the question comes up: What exactly did you hear? Did the disk making a squealing noise? If so, it probably left a fair amount of oxide on the heads, as it was disintegrating--the head was acting more as a plow than a boat. If that's the case, you need to (a) toss the floppy into the garbage or burn it--it should never come near a floppy drive again. Then thoroughly clean the drive heads--sometimes isopropanol by itself isn't sufficient and you may have to result to acetone or perchloroethylene to get the stubborn stuff off.

If it wasn't a squealing sound, what was it? It might be signaling a mechanical problem with the drive.

Woah! The problem was luckily very easy fix. I checked that I was correct that the heads were already cleaned when the drives were serviced last time by technician and the heads are still clean. The noise was more like "clang/bang" sound of the head banging against wall or something... and no wonder: The problem was that there's this switch which goes down when the head trail comes back (which should make audible "click" sound). In my drive it became dirty or something that it didn't bounce back enough that it was practically always on, ie. the computer was sensing that the head trail was all the time parked back.

Now after some lube, the switch works now and the floppy drive works flawless again.