Author Topic: First Amiga 1200 but... (Read 3250 times)

Sutty100 · « **on:** July 30, 2011, 06:58:30 PM »

Just picked up my first 1200 had a 500 for a while. It boots up and loads into workbench off the harddrive although I first thought it was completly dead but it turned out the power lead had to be wiggled about abit before it would start...not great! Anyway the floppy disk drive whirs when a disk is put in put on workbench it just displays

? and cant open the disk or format it. I know the disks are good as the load just fine on my 500 any ideas?!

SamuraiCrow · « **Reply #1 on:** July 30, 2011, 07:10:23 PM »

It's possible that the floppy drive is dirty or failing from old age. But before we go down that path, did you insert the disk before you booted Workbench? Some games don't use the Workbench at all and have custom boot sectors. Also, some games use copy protection that is incompatible with Kickstart 3+ or AGA. What kinds of disks are you putting into the A1200?

Sutty100 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 30, 2011, 07:21:56 PM »

No I tried it after workbench booted from the HD I dont know how to stop it booting from the HD! most of my disks are copies I tried secret of monkey island, the tutorial disk "The very first" for workbench 1.3 as that's an "official" disk and another game that I knew could be loaded from workbench on my A500. No joy with any of them just

? it wouldn't even format them :-( I am a little suspicious as the person selling it said he had no floppy's to test the drive with which makes me think he said that being as he knew the drive didn't work! An external floppy that came with it seems to be dead as well didn't work with the A500 either.

desiv · « **Reply #3 on:** July 30, 2011, 07:43:02 PM »

Quote from: Sutty100;652256

...I dont know how to stop it booting from the HD!

It should boot from a floppy if it's in there first..
But you can temporarily disable the HD.
Power up the 1200 holding BOTH mouse buttons down.
You will get a boot menu, and you can choose to disable the HD there.
(It's not battery backed up or flash, so that change is for that power cycle only.)

desiv

HotRod · « **Reply #4 on:** July 30, 2011, 08:38:58 PM »

Quote from: desiv;652258

It should boot from a floppy if it's in there first..
But you can temporarily disable the HD.
Power up the 1200 holding BOTH mouse buttons down.
You will get a boot menu, and you can choose to disable the HD there.
(It's not battery backed up or flash, so that change is for that power cycle only.)

desiv

Nah, if Workbench has loaded just pop the disk in and do a reset and it will boot from the disk if it is bootable, if not it will boot to workbench again from the harddrive.

HotRod · « **Reply #5 on:** July 30, 2011, 08:39:45 PM »

Quote from: SamuraiCrow;652254

It's possible that the floppy drive is dirty or failing from old age. But before we go down that path, did you insert the disk before you booted Workbench? Some games don't use the Workbench at all and have custom boot sectors. Also, some games use copy protection that is incompatible with Kickstart 3+ or AGA. What kinds of disks are you putting into the A1200?

It shall always be possible to format the disk though?

Sutty100 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 30, 2011, 09:09:00 PM »

Had it apart used a cotton bud on the drive heads also tried to boot from a floppy before and after this and no joy :-( does this mean I need to buy a new internal floppy? Anybody got any other ideas before I spend some more money! There seems to be different makes of floppy on ebay does this matter or will any work?

Cammy · « **Reply #7 on:** July 30, 2011, 10:37:45 PM »

If you can't even format disks, it sounds like your drive is dirty. I have bought, picked up and been given quite a few old Amigas over the years, and every one of them had the same problem reading and writing floppy disks. I thought they were all wrecked, until I got myself a cleaning disk kit and ran that through them, now they all read disks perfectly. I think every Amiga user should have one of these!

UK: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floppy-Disk-Drive-Cleaner-Wet-Dry-Cleaning-Kit-/190406236846
US: http://cgi.ebay.com/Gemini-3-5-3-1-2-Floppy-Disk-Drive-Cleaning-Kit-NEW-/200614297787
AU: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Halloa-3-5-Floppy-Disk-Drive-Head-Cleaner-Kit-/260775532907
HK: http://cgi.ebay.com/3-5-Floppy-Disk-Drive-Cleaner-Wet-Dry-Cleaning-Kit-/160623234636

I hope this is all that needs to be done, it's a simple fix but it's such a common problem.

desiv · « **Reply #8 on:** July 30, 2011, 11:43:24 PM »

Quote from: HotRod;652267

Nah, if Workbench has loaded just pop the disk in and do a reset and it will boot from the disk if it is bootable,

er.. That's what I said... :confused:

Quote from: desiv

It should boot from a floppy if it's in there first..

desiv

stefcep2 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 31, 2011, 12:59:13 AM »

check the ribbon cable on the floppy. If its not connected 100% to the floppy or to the motherboard header, it will cause the DF0:

? thing to show up. There is probably a lot of dust/fluff inside the 20 year old drive. See if you can clean it through the floppy slot with a can of compressed air. Try some isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud tip to clean the heads.

If it still doesn't work, the drive is probably worn and needs to be replaced. The drives don't cost much. Or you could just take the one out of the A500, or get an external one and boot from that from the early boot menu (hold both mouse buttons on power up).

Anyway its not a huge problem, as these days its quicker to get a PCMCIA flash card and with ADF's of games not hard to acquire, you can use whdload to play games off the hard drive.

mbueler · « **Reply #10 on:** July 31, 2011, 03:48:08 AM »

I had a problem like this with a A600 before,everything worked as it should exept for the Floppy Drive.Turned out to be the PSU due to a Flatmates Rat getting lose and chewing the Cord a bit.

Maybe that lose connection in your power lead is causing a similar problem that I had?

Sutty100 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 31, 2011, 05:50:21 PM »

I swapped in my A500 floppy drive and it happily loaded disks. The 500 Disk drive doesn't fit in the case though so I can only test with that :-( I want to use my new Amiga NOW!!! tried cleaning the dodgy drive with a floppy disk cleaner with alcohol on and it made a horrendous noise!! it still doesn't read the disks so I'm going to buy a replacement drive they only seem to be ~£15 does it matter which make I buy will they all work? I got a CD Drive with it and that works so I am trying to work out how to install WHDLOAD so I can get some games going!