Amiga 500 plus not reading floppy discs - any ideas?

[mradam83]

Hello all,

I've recently got my old 500 plus out the loft and it's sadly not reading discs anymore. When you put discs in, it makes disc reading noises as if it's reading the discs but then it stops and then acts as if there are no discs in there.

I have checked the battery in case it's leaked and that's all fine - In fact save a bit of dust which I have cleaned away its pretty spotless in there, no hints of any corrosion at all!

I have also tried to clean the inside the drive with compressed air - the only thing I haven't got is a head cleaner which I'm waiting to get in the post.

What could be causing this issue? Save head cleaning, is there a chance I may need to replace the drive?

Thanks in advance. :-)

[mradam83]

its probably the disk-inserted-sensor in the corner. notice the two little 'sticks' that can be pushed down. pour some contact cleaner, IPA, let dry, and it will be as good as new.

Nice one, will give that a go. :-)

[mradam83]

maybe its gone farsighted in its old age? :p

Buy it some reading glasses :lol:

:lol:

[mradam83]

I agree!
Firstly, take it out, open it up and clean the little guy.  If you hear squeaks, it will need a light oiling in the right places (stay away from the heads).

One thing I've noticed is that when the disc is put in, you can hear almost like a sliding noise just before the disc starts trying to read. I can't describe it very well but it's like the disc unlocks itself from whatever locks it in.

[mradam83]

You might be hearing the "hole cover" sliding.

Sorry if it sounds dense,  but I'm not sure what you mean by hole Cover - is that what orange describes above?

[mradam83]

Plenty of old miggys have issues with their old floppy drives. You can get a pc one and modify it to work with yours but to make it fit you will need to make a custom mount and cut off a piece of metal from the upper part of it. That and of course slightly modding the board.

From my experience, if a floppy drive doesnt read disks even after a good cleaning with a floppy cleaner kit then its most likely rubbish and can't be fixed

PC drives are cheap though and there are plenty of them, the ones that can be easily modded are sony and panasonic floppies. Teacs work too.

I've found a good Panasonic one on eBay incase the floppy disc cleaner that I'm waiting on doesn't work.