Is My Floppy Drive Dead?

[carvedeye]

Hi all i am having problems with my floppy drive when i first boot up my miggy my DF0 works fine for a few minutes reads disks fine but after that it does not read them i have the amiga (1200) towered running 3.9 OS got a 4 way buffered interface with cd-rom hdd
and i have the original floppy connected to a pc floppy ribbon (could this be the cause) so i thought i would ask you guys and gals for some help.

[Tripitaka]

i have the original floppy connected to a pc floppy ribbon (could this be the cause).

I had the same issue once and changing the cable to an Amiga one fixed it. I don't know why, but it worked.

[carvedeye]

ive also noticed that it is making a clicking noise even when it is not in use? could this still be down to me using a pc floppy cable. the pc floppy cable i am using is a double ended cable that allows for two floppy drives to be connected. i am using the second connection as the first has a twist and i know the twisted end is not compatible so i am using the straight connector.?

[abbub]

The clicking noise is probably the diskette auto-detection.

[carvedeye]

So its more than likely the cable then. i will have a hunt for the cable i bought from amkigakit as i have it somewhere, if i cant find it i may aswell buy a new floppy drive as the cable comes with it from amigakit.

[carvedeye]

Well ive ordered a new floppy and ribbon cable from amigakit just hope it is just the floppy playing up and not my board i will let you all know when i recieve it

[carvedeye]

Well i just recieved my new floppy and cable and hooked it up and it has eliminated my problem i can now enjoy my miggy once again

[carvedeye]

Well, my problem has started again and that is with a new drive and cable anybody got anymore ideas ive also noticed that my serial ports for my mouse and joypads is playing up also ?

[carvedeye]

Anyone?

[shaf]

If your Ports are also giving problems the it's likely to be a problem with one of the CIA 8520 chips. There are 2 CIA chips the second CIA (A500- U8 , A2000 - U301) is probably the problem.

Sorry you're using an A1200 I think the CIA Chips are Surface Mounted and cannot be replaced. I've never opened up an A1200.
Shaf

[carvedeye]

so what will i need to do? replace my motherboard with another?

[carvedeye]

Well i stripped my miggy (again) and pressed down on all my chips etc built it back up and was able to format and install workbench 3.1 from floppy so goes to install IDEFix 97 and it is now saying DF0:? on all of my floppys including the workbench disks i installed with?

[tone007]

As generally every chip (besides the KS ROMs) on a 1200 is surface mounted directly to the board, pressing them down really won't do much for you.  Unless you're familiar with desoldering and changing surface mount components, it's probably a good idea to try a different board if you've eliminated the floppy drive as a possible cause. (Tried cleaning it and/or another unit?)

[carvedeye]

well it turns out its my CIA chip which is causing the problem as it is heating up so i bought a can of compressed air and turned on my miggy and as soon as it started its usual problem i sprayed the can of air onto the CIA chip it and it was able to read the disk until it heated back up so i have came up with a solution (if it will even work?). mount a 80mm fan onto the side of the psu and allow it to blow directly onto the cia chip so it does not cause any problems in the future or am i wasting my time?