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Tandy 1000 floppy drive has issues > track 33

smbaker

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
Messages
416
Location
Oregon, USA
I have a Tandy 1000 with a pair of drives, according to the manual FD-55B (though I have not verified). The A drive works pretty well, but the B drive formats fine until it hits about track 33 then I start hearing a noise that sounds like the grind of a seek and retry. Does this on every single track until it hits 40. This is repeatable on multiple diskettes.

Does this sound like an alignment issue, or something else? I haven't pulled the disk and taken a look yet.

Scott
 
I doubt it's alignment. the track zero sensor would have to be WAY off.(7 tracks off)
I would look for a mechanical problem. Dirt, rust, dry grease.. Something preventing the head from moving past track 33.
Inspect and clean.

joe
 
Thanks, The disks that it writes are mostly usable and can be read in the other drive. I'll pull it and look and see if something is obstructing the sliding mechanism for the head. Maybe it's full of 30 year old dead spiders.

Scott
 
"Mostly usable"? :shock:

It should be noted that writing/reading inner tracks is more difficult than outer. Used to be that if a diskette was going to have errors, it would probably be on the inner tracks. (Inner tracks have two issues: lower linear velocity and "bit crowding").
 
If it were alignment, the disk would usually format fine in that drive and then be unreadable in another drive.

Use a different formatter or disk tester to look closer at what sectors are bad. I suspect you will find that the errors are only on the second (top) head. That often means the flexible metal holding the second head has been damaged.

Other things to try:
Clean the heads with a cleaning disk.
Remove, disassemble, clean, reassemble the drive.
Check the drive spindle speed.
While out of the machine, try formatting a disk while gently pressing down on the top head - if that makes it work, that pretty much identifies the problem.
If they are identical drives, try swapping the logic boards - not likely the problem, but good to rule out.
Might also try connecting the drives to a different power source. Power supply noise can interfere with floppy operation.
 
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