df1: bad A500

[curtis]

Okay, working on a rev. 6a A500.

Any diskette I pop into an external floppy drive comes up "DF1: Bad".

Tried 2 different externals with same result.

Diskettes read just fine in df0:

Trying to refresh my memory and can't remember if it's CIA even or odd or some other chip I need to be looking at.

Help please?

Curtis

[mongo]

Swap the two CIAs and see if it makes any difference.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Does the CIA chips have any effect on an external drive?  I'd have to look that one up.  Obvious question would be can you test the external drives on another Amiga?  Before you start yanking chips, that's what I'd do.  

[mechy]

Swap CIA's and see if there are any changes. Check Paula.. swap with known good one.
also U36 and u37 ttl chips.. are any hot? either case one or both could be bad.

[curtis]

Okay, an update.

Swapped CIA's with no apparent effect.

Tried a known good Paula.  Nada.

Ditto Gary.

U36 and U37 at normal temp.

On a whim, I tried a new Workbench (an original diskette) in DF0:.  Don't ask me why, just a gut feeling.

Suddenly DF1: is reading!

Stuck my first WB in DF1: and it reads as bad!  Glad it's a copy.

Tried to copy my real original 1.3 WB to the suddenly bad WB disk and now 2 external drives are saying it's write protected.  And yes, I know which was the tab goes!

I'm thinking it's time to shut down for the evening, eat supper, feed the dogs, and watch Gravity.  Can't beat seeing Sandra Bullock in her space underwear to clear my head a little.

BTW, someone remind why I'm still working with real hardware and not an emulator?

[paul1981]

Because real hardware is real.

[mechy]

real hardware rocks.. emulators are lame..

If you have enough of these troubles you learn what to do to fix them

i hope you get it worked out.

[curtis]

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

So, something in the back of my head told me to switch df0:  Tried another drive and ALL problems cleared up!  Except for the floppy in df1: needing formatting.

Looked at my original internal drive and lo and behold, it's missing a pin!  Guess which one?  Yup, write protect!

Not sure why the write protect pin missing on the internal drive would affect the external drive, but it did!

Do have to admit, Amigas have much more unique problems!