Disk drive tearing sound

[lauri_t]

Hi,

I dug out my A500 and decided to play with it for a while just for fun. I noticed that the disk drive has a really ugly and tearing sound, much worse that I remembered and compared to my A1200. There is also some "resonance" (I am not sure if this is the right word to use). It sounds like the drive is in need of oil or something. The A500 was stored in a warm place and wrapped in plastic so i don't think it could have taken any damage during the approx. one half year it was stored.

Any suggestions in what to do? So long the drive has read all my disks without error but the sound is really disturbing me. I have a drive head cleaning diskette, could that help? I am not good at hardware tinkering so be very precise in your instructions, please.

[Matt_H]

What disks are you reading with the drive? The copy protection tracks on some games make really horrible sounds (Lemmings comes to mind, there are many others), so it could be that.

If you're getting this effect when using disks in general (IE, copying to/from on the Workbench), you may have a problem on your hands. Use the cleaning disk for sure, and if you're feeling brave, take the machine apart.

[lauri_t]

The sound is the same in NDOS-games and WB. I applied the cleaning disk but the sound remains the same.

Now when I think about it, the Amiga was a bit warm to the touch when i took it from storage. It had been stored ~30cm from a warm water pipe. Could this have somehow dried up the lubricant in the drive?

[TheMagicM]

I've had that "resonance" sound thing before... it was either the aluminum housing on the drive or the r/f shield on the A500 mobo that caused this on copy protected software.. just use it till it falls apart... replacement A500's are cheap on ebay.

-alex