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From: erk@americ.UUCP (Erick Parsons)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Flakey A1020 5 1/4" floppy
Message-ID: <erk.1368@americ.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 91 00:03:25 GMT
References: <12509@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Lines: 34

>In article <12509@darkstar.ucsc.edu> bigben@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Benbuck Nason) writes:

>My A1020 5 1/4" external floppy is misbehavin'.  The head doesn't seem to move
>correctly.  After I mount it, if the head is located in the middle (track 19
>or 20???) there is nothing I can do to get it to recognize a valid DOS disk.

   I reproduced your problem by blocking the homing IR sensor inside the drive.

>So why isn't the head resetting?  (Any educated guess would help)  Should it
>reset automatically on power up or diskchange?  How should the jumpers be set?

   The head should retract fully to the sensor and stay there whenever you
   remove a disk.

   Either the sensor is blocked by dust or it could be bad. When I worked on
   office machinery a few years back the new machines were using the heck out
   of these sensors and I can't remember ever seeing one go bad, so it might
   just be dirty. The best way to clean the thing is to hit it with a blast of
   compressed air. Camera shops sell a product called "dust off" for cleaning
   lenses that would work just fine for your purposes.


>Please email me any help you can give.  Thanks,
>BigBen

   No sweat..

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