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From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm
Subject: Re: Strange Kaypro problems
Message-ID: <1990Nov22.061001.8422@hayes.ims.alaska.edu>
Date: 22 Nov 90 06:10:01 GMT
References: <1990Nov20.201720.5035@techbook.com> <1990Nov20.221811.7383@techbook.com> <5783@crash.cts.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Lines: 38

In article <5783@crash.cts.com> mwilson@crash.cts.com (Marc Wilson) writes:
>In article <1990Nov20.221811.7383@techbook.com> fzsitvay@techbook.com (Frank Zsitvay) writes:
>>
>>   something else i should have mentioned...  is it normal for the
>>drive access led to stay lit even after the drive has been accessed??
>>right now, the machine has been sitting after booting for a good
>>half hour, and the led for drive a is still lit.   of course, the
>>led goes out when i turn the machine off.   if i access drive b, it
>>will do the same for drive b.
>
>     That's the way the D BIOS works.  The last drive selected STAYS
>selected until you select another.  It's not dangerous, it's just the
>way the ROM BIOS deals with the drives.


With the original monitor ROM in '83 machines the heads would also stay
loaded and the disks spinning.  That tends to wear out the floppy.
I don't remember how much of that is a problem with Tandon drives
and how much a problem with the monitor ROM, as I replaced both
in every Kaypro I owned.  At one time I had 4 of them, and now there
is only one left and it rarely ever gets turned on.  So this is
all from foggy memory.

There used to be a significant difference between different brands
of floppy disks when it came to how long they would last in a
Kaypro under heavy use.  I found that one of the cheaper brands
would have the media peeling right off the disk fairly quickly,
and saved several examples to demonstrate the point to anyone who
recommended cheap floppies!  You could see right through the
worn areas!

Floyd


-- 
Floyd L. Davidson                             floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu
Salcha, AK 99714                    paycheck connection to Alascom, Inc.
 When I speak for them, one of us will be *out* of business in a hurry.