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From: mjv@brownvm.brown.edu (Marshall Vale)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Having problems with my Spectre GCR
Message-ID: <63913@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 6 Feb 91 18:56:28 GMT
References: <123@klg.UUCP>
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Organization: Language Resource Center
Lines: 41

In article <123@klg.UUCP> pavneet@klg.UUCP ( KL Group Inc.) writes:
> Ever since I purchased my Spectre cartridge last year, I have had 
problems
> with it reading Mac floppies.  I have run gcrtest a number of times and
> I get different read/write failures each time.  Has anyone else had these
> types of problems?  (I had sent the cartridge back to GBS to let them


 Howard Johnson posted a very good explanation about the problems and I'm
going to add some more ideas.
 
 One thing to check is if your drive is a NEC mechanism. Those have 
known problems reading GCR disks and require a hardware modification
to work properly. If it is a NEC drive, contact GBS for the fix info.

 You also didn't mention whether you are having the problems with an
internal drive (especially a Mega internal). If it is an internal drive
you should try adding extra shielding around the drive and its cables
and then ground the shielding to the motherboard. The ST generates lots
of RF and on some machines (Mega2's particularly) it just drones the
Mac signal out. Although this mod never worked for my Mega2, I know
lots of cases where it has cured the problem. 

 Another idea is move the monitor farther away and even a different angle.
When moving my system around, I placed the monitor on the floor to make
some temp room. This caused my rock solid external drive to stop reading
mac disks. Moving the monitor back to its old spot (which was in fact
closer to the drive but had a shelf between them) cured the problem.

 Also check your drive speed is 300rpm.

 Hope these suggestions help!

Marshall Vale

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