Hi all,

I have two Panasonic/Matsushita EME279 floppy drives for two laptops I own:
- EME279-TC for a Toshiba Satellite Pro 410CDT, case model PA2653U (rectangle design, with a push button on the back)
- EME279-TD for a Toshiba Satellite Pro 440CDT, case model PA2611U ("pinch to eject" design)

I know that some Toshiba external drives (not USB!) are not belt-driven (like TEAC ones), but where I live (France), no one is selling those, except in definitely not cheap machines (and eBay is too expensive as usual, where everything's way too much overpriced).
I bought a belt for the EME279-TC and it kinda worked, but the drive itself has trouble reading disks I throw at it (same goes for the 279-TD with the same belt). I do not know what causes this, as I have no original belt to test them. I do not really suspect the belt itself, but I'm not sure.
Both laptops are working fine.

For example, here's what happens when I use the EME279-TC with my belt:
I insert a good known working disk, it's being read (and sometimes not). I change the disk to another working one and type "dir", but the contents shown are the ones from the first disk. To get the contents of the second disk listed, I have to make the drive fail to read in between the two, otherwise it will act like "caching". I've already cleaned the switches in the drive, that did not change anything.
When I change the disk to a 720K one without rebooting the computer, the 720K disk is not read at all, I get "not ready" errors. Same goes for the other way around.

When I use the EME279-TD (also with my belt):
Disks are somehow read, but I cannot copy files off of them. Also, after two or three disks, I have to unplug the drive from the machine, and plug it back in to kinda get an index. But the same copy issues happen.
Both drives are clean, and do not have any residue of their old belts that disintegrated.

I do not wish to replace my drives with a "Gotek" one, or similar.
I'm also not a professional, and do not have an oscilloscope or machines like that to calibrate my drive and such, only a multimeter.

I've seen lots of people having issues with belt-driven floppy drives over the years, and I'm pretty sure my issue is not that "uncommon".

I'd gladly take help from anyone that wishes to help me. Ask if you need any photos or additional information, I'll provide them with pleasure.
Thank you in advance!