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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: PulsatingQuasar on December 20, 2009, 08:10:20 PM
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I have a strange problem here. I can't write to any floppy disk on an Amiga 1200 here.
Whether I use df0:, df1: or df2: try to format or delete a file. In the end nothing happens. The format on all drives says cilinder 0 can't be formatted.
Copying files or deleting files appears to have worked until you remove the disk and reinsert it. Then nothing has changed.
Am I looking at a defect CIA chip or some other damage?
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The heads are screwed. Replacement floppy drive needed.
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I don't believe that because that would mean the df1: drive and df2: drive are also broken. That would mean 3 drives having the same problem.
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I don't believe that because that would mean the df1: drive and df2: drive are also broken. That would mean 3 drives having the same problem.
The CIA's are surface-mounted on an A1200, so yeah - you're still "screwed", unless you're REAL handy :-(
Have you tried different floppies? Perhaps you have a small batch that have been rendered useless due to magnetism, X-rays or something else? I was going to suggest looking at the tiny read/write switch inside the drive, but you now mentioned different external drives all having the same problem. Sounds like a mobo hardware problem then. Unfortunately, every chip is surface mounted on an A1200 besides the two Kickstarts.
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It might be the power supply. Are you using the lame 15watt power supply or have you got something beefier?
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You're not screwed PulsatingQuasar....buy a 2nd hand Amiga from ebay, there's plenty of them, and cheap. Buy a yellow one and use it's mobo to replace your broken one.
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I have fixed the problem.
Not so long ago I already replaced some electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard because they had either started leaking or did not have the black writing on it. I already figured out that the electrolytic capacitors with black writing on it were quite good but the greens and the blue ones are not.
After some measuring I figured out one of the via's had a corroded trace because of this capacitor leakage. I just repaired this trace and now I can write to the diskdrives again.
Another score for me. :-)