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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: alphagemini on January 24, 2012, 10:26:00 AM

Title: Floppy drive click
Post by: alphagemini on January 24, 2012, 10:26:00 AM
I have an Amiga 4000. The floppy drive is always clicking as if the system is
checking it or something. The drive works OK. Is there any way to stop this?
Putting a floppy into it stops it for a while but then the whole disk gets read or looked at without prompt.
Help!
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: mfilos on January 24, 2012, 10:42:35 AM
Don't worry it's a known issue.
Download AntiClick or NoClick from Aminet and run it in Startup-Sequence :)
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Ancalimon on January 24, 2012, 10:49:44 AM
For me the only no-click utility that works is the one built in MCP. I don't know why but it was like this with my old Commodore A1200, with my new Escom A1200 and with my A4000T.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: LoadWB on January 24, 2012, 10:58:33 AM
I use NoClick from AmiNet (another post of mine on this subject has the link.)  Put it in WBStartup, end of click.  I've used it on pretty much all of my Amigas going way back, though ISTR on my systems lacking a WBStartup drawer I put it in S:startup-sequence.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: foleyjo on January 24, 2012, 11:11:25 AM
Nothing wrong with a bit of floppy clicking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUunL6vMbY
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: alphagemini on January 24, 2012, 01:20:06 PM
Thanks, I will do it
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: matthey on January 24, 2012, 01:30:51 PM
Here is my version of NoClick...

http://www.heywheel.com/matthey/Amiga/NoClick.lha

It's 176 bytes, system friendly (no hacks) and runs from icon (WBStartup) or shell. Won't work with AmigaOS 1.x and maybe early versions of 2.x. Includes assembler source code.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Johan on January 24, 2012, 01:36:06 PM
There are small utilities that *produce* such a click. Specifically designed for AmigaONE-users, who don't have floppydrives...

johan
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: VuData on January 24, 2012, 01:38:42 PM
Am I the only person who likes the drive click?
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Matt_H on January 24, 2012, 02:20:28 PM
Quote from: VuData;677265
Am I the only person who likes the drive click?


Nope :)
I like it, too. It reassures me that everything is working right.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Brian on January 24, 2012, 02:36:29 PM
Quote from: VuData;677265
Am I the only person who likes the drive click?

Nope, it's to great help when working with the Amiga hardware. :D

@mfilos
It's not an issue but a feature. ;)
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Bamiga2002 on January 24, 2012, 03:10:40 PM
I find it annoying after all the good'ol clickety-click years. No more thank you! :hammer:

EDIT: now that I have a modded PC drive that utilises noclick, I still hear a faint click sound from it, but it's best of both worlds: I know that the miggy is alive but the sound is so low that it don't bother me.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: desiv on January 24, 2012, 03:55:53 PM
Quote from: Brian;677270
It's not an issue but a feature. ;)
+1!!!!

desiv
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Daedalus on January 24, 2012, 04:07:21 PM
Quote from: Matt_H;677266
Nope :)
I like it, too. It reassures me that everything is working right.


Yep, I remember back in the day - if things looked like they were frozen, I'd stop, lean over the case and listen for the click. No click meant it was properly frozen with no hope of recovery.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: save2600 on January 24, 2012, 04:09:51 PM
I generally run NoClick on all my hard drive based Amiga's, but it's nice to still hear the familiar "heartbeat" on my A1000 and A1010.  :)
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: runequester on January 24, 2012, 04:41:06 PM
Not sure of the exact utility but classicWB includes a noclick utility, which works excellently.

The clicky sound bugs my wife more than it does me, though she got used to it...either that or my IBM model M keyboard drowned it out :D
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: SpeedGeek on January 24, 2012, 04:50:27 PM
The trackdisk.device module from the BB3/BB4 updates eliminates the click also. You can install it with LoadResident or make a custom 3.9 ROM. Here is the link: http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/ROM_modules.htm
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Ancalimon on January 24, 2012, 05:14:47 PM
Quote from: SpeedGeek;677293
The trackdisk.device module from the BB3/BB4 updates eliminates the click also. You can install it with LoadResident or make a custom 3.9 ROM. Here is the link: http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/ROM_modules.htm


It doesn't do anything here.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: SpeedGeek on January 24, 2012, 10:06:04 PM
Quote from: FaLLeNOnE;677298
It doesn't do anything here.

It works great on my A3000 with original 880K floppy drive. But some floppy drives may not work with the no-click patches. Has your drive ever been replaced?
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: bbond007 on January 24, 2012, 10:35:29 PM
Quote from: Johan;677264
There are small utilities that *produce* such a click. Specifically designed for AmigaONE-users, who don't have floppydrives...

johan

I attached a buzzer to to my minimig on pin 5 and 6 to get simulated floppy sound as the excellent firmware supports that.

It turned out to be too loud, so now I have covered the hole on the buzzer with electrical tape to reduce the noise :)
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Jeff on January 25, 2012, 01:39:36 AM
We need a USB thumb drive that's sole purpose is to make the "floppy clicking noise" for those of us that miss it! :)
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Drummerboy on January 25, 2012, 06:45:30 AM
Its interesting, how we can recognize who never had any Amiga before!

The Disk Drive Amiga "Click" its part of the hardware idiosyncrasy.

Yeah, its the only Computer tell to you "i am alive!".

For me any Amiga without  Disk Drive "click" sound, its like death Amiga.

In 1985, that came with Amiga. Later with CDROM Drives in PC Computers, start to use something similar to that in Amiga. If you insert a CD in any CDROM start to read a CD, you know like the Amiga`s Disk Drive.

Anyway, The Flicker in high resolution, the DD "Click" sound, " Guru Meditation", and other things are Classic Amiga Features, and came with all the Package Amiga is.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Ancalimon on January 25, 2012, 07:37:36 AM
Quote from: SpeedGeek;677340
It works great on my A3000 with original 880K floppy drive. But some floppy drives may not work with the no-click patches. Has your drive ever been replaced?


The one in my A4000T is the original Escom one  (which is connected to disk module via a dongle). I just bought a high density drive but haven't tried it yet.

The one in my A1200 is replaced.  The one I used with my old A1200 was also not the original one.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: psxphill on January 25, 2012, 09:03:24 AM
Quote from: SpeedGeek;677340
It works great on my A3000 with original 880K floppy drive. But some floppy drives may not work with the no-click patches. Has your drive ever been replaced?

It's possible that even commodore supplied drives don't work with noclick. It was the reason that they never made it the default.
 
The click is caused because the drives only report a disk change when the head is stepped. Turning on "noclick" still steps the head, but it is moved to the outside of the disk first. If the drive is compatible then it will not move the head as it can't go any further, but because the computer tried then the disk change still works.
 
On drives that still make a noise, then it is trying to move the head even though it can't move further. It is feared that this could cause damage to the drive.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: dougal on January 25, 2012, 09:12:13 AM
The click does not bother me but i did once try the noclick option of blizkick and it did not work on my a1200.

Its an escom a1200 and there is a small board connected to the floppy drive pins on the motherboard and then the floppy drive is connected to this board.
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: Daedalus on January 25, 2012, 10:20:37 AM
A couple of people have mentioned the Escom drives now - it's quite possible that their PC drives did as psxphill said, and simply drive the heads against the endstop, meaning the click still happens. I've never had an Amiga drive that it *didn't* work with, but I have noticed that effect with modified PC floppies...
Title: Re: Floppy drive click
Post by: weirdami on January 25, 2012, 10:31:22 AM
Quote from: Daedalus;677285
I'd stop, lean over the case and listen for the click. No click meant it was properly frozen with no hope of recovery.


I used to do something similar with Commodore 64. If some long loading game wasn't making any disk drive noise, I'd flip the lever up on the disk drive and if it clicked a bunch then you knew it was still loading. No clicks = reboot.