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From: lee@sed170.HAC.COM (John Lee )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Floppy select light stays on forever, disk is hung.
Keywords: Trackdisk Bug
Message-ID: <299@sed170.HAC.COM>
Date: 19 Jul 89 18:47:43 GMT
References: <429@tardis.Tymnet.COM>
Reply-To: lee@sed170.UUCP (John Lee (ird))
Organization: Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, CA
Lines: 39

In article <429@tardis.Tymnet.COM> jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes:
<Recently, I have been seeing problem with the LED on the floppy disk not
<going out.  The disk stays selected, but is not reading or writing.
<Sometimes putting a floppy in the OTHER disk would clear up the problem,
<but not always.  It seems to have started after I installed a hard disk.
<
<Sound familiar?
<
<I found the answer in Amazing Computing, Vol 4 #2, Feb, 1989, page 38.
<Central Coast Software, creators of DOS-2-DOS and QuarterBack, found a bug in
<the trackdisk.device.  When the system is polling all empty drives to check if
<a new floppy has been inserted, sometimes it releases a different floppy
<drive that should still be busy.  The task accessing the disk waits patiently
<for a signal that never arrives.
<
<The workaround is to keep disks in all floppy drives at all times.
<
<(The harddisk made it more likely for me to have a floppy in one drive but
<not one in the other.)
<-- 
<Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: JMS@F74.TYMNET.COM or jms@tymix.tymnet.com
<McDonnell Douglas FSCO  | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms
<PO Box 49019, MS-D21    | PDP-10 support: My car's license plate is "POPJ P,"
<San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | narrator.device: "I didn't say that, my Amiga did!"

Curious.  On my 1.3 ROM 2000 I have three internal drives (df0: & df1: are 3.5",
df2: is a 5.25") and since I frequently boot off RAD:, one or more of my
drives are usually empty.  I don't have a hard disk, and I have yet to
encounter this problem.  Are there any other conditions needed before this
bug manifests itself?

--John Lee
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