Strange Floppy Drive Problem

[dillinger]

Hi Neofree,

I would first suggest that you try cleaning the drive with a cleaning kit. http://www.amigakit.co.uk sell them and they've worked well for me in the past. Over time the magnetic field reading head thingy inside the drive can become dusty and this kit will help to clean it.

If it's not a problem of dirt then I guess the head could be out of alignment...not sure how you go about fixing that.

Another idea that might sound insane but could work is to remove the drive, place it inside an airtight plastic bag of some description and then place it in your refrigerator for a few hours (1-2 hours). The cold temperature will cause your drive's components to expand slightly and then shirk again when you remove the drive. this little-known trick works _great_ for old non-booting harddrives whose drive-heads and platters have become "stuck". And I'm guessing it may help also with floppy drives, although I have never tried personally. But it might be worth a shot as a last resort.

[dillinger]

opps, just noticed your last line: "'ve replaced the cable, and tried an Amiga 2000 disk drive with the case open. Same problem."

so you have actually tried an alternate working floppy-drive! so it's not a floppy drive issue I guess. Perhaps the floppy controller chip is duff. Anyway, my above post maybe useful to any one who's reading this and having problems with a "dead" floppydrive or HD. So I'll leave it there. :-)

[dillinger]

Just put the whole Amiga in your freezer for 1 hour. that'll fix it  :-)