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Commodore 1571 disks won't format or read

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First post, by lowlytech

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I have a post over on VCFED since they have a commodore section, but didn't get any replies. I have a 1571 in nice shape that I have connected to a 128 machine, but for the life of me I can't get it to read or format any DS/DD disk I have tried. I have cleaned both heads and I am starting to think it is something in the drive mechanism section. I saw a youtube video of someone having the exact same issue on a 128D computer since the disk drive section looks identical. He was adjusting the tension spring as the top head wasn't perfectly flat. Any floppy I do put in the drive, it does make several groove on the disk surface so this may be whats going on with this drive. Anyone have any pointers before I jump into this uncharted territory with commodores? I know it is a long shot, but didn't know if someone had a 1571 that had a bad logic board or something like that but still maybe had a good mechanical section in it?

Thanks for any suggestions..

Reply 1 of 2, by Vynix

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I'm not an expert on FDDs nor Commodore stuff but the drive heads aren't supposed to make grooves or scratch the surface of the disk, so that's probably something to check.

Proud owner of a Shuttle HOT-555A 430VX motherboard and two wonderful retro laptops, namely a Compaq Armada 1700 [nonfunctional] and a HP Omnibook XE3-GC [fully working :p]

Reply 2 of 2, by Jo22

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Vynix wrote on 2020-07-27, 14:30:

I'm not an expert on FDDs nor Commodore stuff but the drive heads aren't supposed to make grooves or scratch the surface of the disk, so that's probably something to check.

Commodore hardware never was really reliable, I think.

Especially the typical C64 floppy system is a sluttish patchwork.
The whole serial interface is a mess and there's no edge detection (bang! bang! Crrr...)

Personally, I wouldn't even bother to fix a 1541.
Use it as a museum's piece, burn it for fun, or use the drive for floppy music. 😉

An external floppy drive made for C128 (the 1571) is a total different beast, though.
Same goes for third party drives with optical edge detection.

The 1541 was never good, but popular.
The serial interface that runs in VC20 compatibility mode is crap at best.
While it's possible to add parallel mode (or use user port since recently), the default DOS is poor also.
Unless it's memory upgraded, it is not ideal for Dolphin DOS etc.

Anyway, I'm no Commodore expert, so I'm speaking under correction.
Just dislike certain pieces of crappy, shortsighted Commodore hardware with a passion. 😉💜

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

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