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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: English Invader on July 18, 2009, 12:24:07 AM

Title: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: English Invader on July 18, 2009, 12:24:07 AM

I've just bought an Amiga 1200 and discovered that neither the hard drive or the floppy disk drive work -- all I get is the purple disk screen.
 
Anyone have an idea of what the problem might be and how it can be resolved?

Title: Re: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: tone007 on July 18, 2009, 12:39:23 AM

Probably best to start at the floppy. Does it make any noise or does the FDD light come on at all?

Might have to pop the system open to check it all out.

Title: Re: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: English Invader on July 18, 2009, 12:47:07 AM

The FDD makes some noise, but nowhere near as loud as I'm used to on my A600.  An amber coloured light comes on also.

Title: Re: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: tone007 on July 18, 2009, 12:49:48 AM

Sounds like it's not dead, maybe just dirty?  Wouldn't be the first floppy drive to fail, though.  You could also try swapping the drives between the two for testing since they're compatible.

Title: Re: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: English Invader on July 18, 2009, 01:11:07 AM

Is isopropyl alcohol suitable for cleaning a floppy drive?  This is what I use to clean my VIC-20 datasettes.

Title: Re: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: tone007 on July 18, 2009, 01:41:38 AM

Sure, that's what they give you with the head cleaning diskettes as well.

Title: Re: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: ChaosLord on July 18, 2009, 02:32:21 AM

What is the proper way to clean a floppy drive?

Title: Re: Amiga 1200 Emergency
Post by: tone007 on July 18, 2009, 03:01:44 AM

Those head cleaner floppies always worked well for me, but you can also use a q-tip with alcohol on the heads (never tried this on a 3.5" drive though, could be tricky.)

I've even gotten away with wetting an old floppy with alcohol and running it for a few seconds when nothing else was an option.