Strange Floppy Drive Problem

[neofree]

Hi I have an Amiga 3000 I am trying to get up and running.

I have tried many bootable floppies that work flawlessly in other Amigas.

The 3000's floppy drive makes all the sounds like it is supposed to...  But it will not boot any floppies.  

If I put a disk in first then turn the computer on, it will try to read the disk and fail.

If I turn the Amiga on it boots to the Kickstart screen and if I put a disk in there, what is strange it will take about 10 seconds for it to realize a disk is there and then try to boot it and fail.

I've replaced the cable, and tried an Amiga 2000 disk drive with the case open.  Same problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Neofree

[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. :-)

[jiffydos]

Are you trying to boot with Amiga OS disks?  Are you sure your disks match the version of kickstart?  If your A2000 has 3.1 ROMS with OS 3.5 or 3.9, your stock A3000 will have 2.04... and that won't work.

[neofree]

I've tried WB2.1, 3.0 and 3.1 disks.

The 3000 has 3.1 ROMs BTW.

Someone suggested I swap the CIA chips and if it works just replace the bad CIA.  Gonna try that here in a bit.

Thanks,

Neofree

[neofree]

OK swapped CIA's.  Didn't help.

Out of ideas...

Will the 3000 with 3.1 ROM's boot to a CD? I do have an external SCSI cd-rom drive...  Also have a SyQuest optical drive.

Thanks,

Neofree

[InTheSand]

Hi,

As far as I know, a stock A3000 won't boot from anything other than a floppy or hard drive. The Kickstart 3.1 ROMs don't contain a CD filesystem, so you won't be able to boot from CD...

Could it be that you have a problem with Paula? Isn't that chip responsible for floppy access in addition to its primary role as the sound generator?

 - Ali

[Boot_WB]

Have you tried booting from an external floppy? (Assuming you have one).


edit:

rev 7.0
    no SCSI termination is mounted on the motherboard, just sockets for three 8 pin resistor packs
    cannot boot without at least one SCSI device attached

from amiga hw db

I'm guessing you have no scsi devices attached and a rev 7 motherboard.  I suppose that could also explain the long seek time if it is trying to search the scsi bus all the time.

[Methuselas]

Try cleaning the heads of the drive. My old 3k did the same thing. Turns out, it was 'cos the heads were out of alignment.

You should also try swapping your 2k's ribbon cable with the 3k's. I'm not saying it will work, but it's worth a shot.

Another thing to try, if it's possible (I'm not sure off-hand), but test the 3k drive in your 2k. If it doesn't work, odds are, it's toast. :-(

[neofree]

Hmm maybe all it is is SCSI problem?  I do have a SCSI HD attached.  It is a 9GB Ultra Wide from a modern PC.  Am using an 68pin-50pin adaptor and cable to connect it to the Amiga.  It does spin up.. and should work in a PC.  Maybe it wont work in Amiga?  I have another SCSI HD that was used in an Amiga but wont spin up in this Amiga unless I attach the external SCSI drive.  I have no spare terminators for anything so no way to troubleshoot there.

I actually just sold the 2000..But these disks worked in it before I sold it.  Messed with the 3000  first but gave up when had this trouble.  So I fixed up the 2000 and sold it first.

Is Paula a socketed chip I can replace easily?  Can they be found cheap?

Thanks,

Neofree

[Tomas]

I would check the PSU before doing anything as drastic as trying to swap some chips. I have heard that faulty psus can cause both sound problems and problems with the floppy controller, so better check the psu voltages with a multimeter.

[dillinger]

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

[neofree]

Thanks for the advice. Is the PSU specs on amiga hardware?

dillinger:
And you're a member to this site... Because??  

[Amiga4k]

neofree,
  A lot of suggestions, and no fix. OK, here's some more questions, some answers, and maybe, a solution. The simply obvious might have been over-looked.

Answers: Yes, the Paula 8364 ($13.00) is socketed. Has floppy, audio, and RS-232 control. PSU -- not ready to commit to it.
Suggestion: Re-install the floppy cable at the motherboard. Pay attention to PIN 1on the motherboard, and cable PIN 1 stripe. Make sure the drive is DF0, DS0 jumper, and connected at the end of the cable. This is the most common error on re-assembly.

[jiffydos]

Is the scsi termination setting correct on that HD?