Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!husc6!m2c!wpi!profesor
From: profesor@wpi.wpi.edu (Matthew E Cross)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Sick C64
Summary: Drive aligned?
Keywords: C64, 1541, Drive Alignment
Message-ID: <4630@wpi.wpi.edu>
Date: 10 Oct 89 02:45:01 GMT
References: <936@amc-gw.UUCP>
Reply-To: profesor@wpi.wpi.edu (Matthew E Cross)
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA. USA
Lines: 31

In article <936@amc-gw.UUCP>, marty@amc-gw.UUCP (Marty Akerman) says:

>I have a C64 that I recently purchased second-hand.  While it seemed fine
>at first, it quickly developed a couple of problems that I don't understand.
>I'm hoping you more experienced people could help me out.
>
>The unit apparently had been shelved for several years before I bought it.
>
>The problems:
>
>  1:  It seems to have trouble running canned (purchased) programs from
>      disk.  Sometimes the program will never start up correctly, sometimes
>      it will spontaneously crap out, even when the program is in an idle
>      state.  Looks like a disk drive problem to me.  I bought a cleaning
>      disk (Allsop) and tried that, but no change.  Programs I have written
>      and stored to disk load and run fine, but they are all (so far) in
>      basic, and much smaller than the canned programs.

If it is a disk drive problem, it is probably the alignment if it's a 1541. 
I've owned my system for about 7-8 yrs., and the alignment of the 1541 is a
constant problem. It's caused by the way the drive resets the head - by banging
it against the track 1 head stop. There is an article in an old RUN magazine
that shows you how to fix it, but it's actually not that difficult. You
basically just have to disassemble the drive, look for the stepper motor
screws, loosen them, adjust motor a little (twist), tighten screws, and try
to get a directory. If you get a directory good, try reading the inside and
outside tracks (1 and 35). If it reads those quickly and easily, then it is in
good alignment. If you can get a hold of Vorpal utilities by Epyx, it has a 
drive alignment checker on it that helps a lot!

Hope this helps...