possibly a faulty switch in the drive.

It's possible to desolder and open up these tiny switches and give'm a good cleaning.
Spraying them with deoxit or similar generally won't help.

weedeewee wrote on 2021-05-11, 19:54:

possibly a faulty switch in the drive.

It's possible to desolder and open up these tiny switches and give'm a good cleaning.
Spraying them with deoxit or similar generally won't help.

Hmmm, maybe I can practice on the drive, since I want to acquire soldering skills. I think I should try to find a couple of back up drives, in the meantime.

Scythifuge wrote on 2021-05-11, 20:08:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-05-11, 19:54:

possibly a faulty switch in the drive.

It's possible to desolder and open up these tiny switches and give'm a good cleaning.
Spraying them with deoxit or similar generally won't help.

Hmmm, maybe I can practice on the drive, since I want to acquire soldering skills. I think I should try to find a couple of back up drives, in the meantime.

When trying to open the switch, make sure the floor and the desk you're doing it on are clean of all clutter ! There's a tiny spring inside.

Sounds like a typical 5.25" drive experience to me....

weedeewee wrote on 2021-05-11, 20:19:

Scythifuge wrote on 2021-05-11, 20:08:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-05-11, 19:54:

possibly a faulty switch in the drive.

It's possible to desolder and open up these tiny switches and give'm a good cleaning.
Spraying them with deoxit or similar generally won't help.

Hmmm, maybe I can practice on the drive, since I want to acquire soldering skills. I think I should try to find a couple of back up drives, in the meantime.

When trying to open the switch, make sure the floor and the desk you're doing it on are clean of all clutter ! There's a tiny spring inside.

Thank you for the tip!

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-05-11, 20:36:

Sounds like a typical 5.25" drive experience to me....

It took me around 20 flips of the lever to format the last floppy...

I have another 5.25 here, but it is olive drab. I need to get a few back up drives, as they will only become more expensive and difficult to acquire as time goes on, especially with the state of the world right now...

I've never had any such issues with 5.25" drives. Was it ever cleaned? Due to stupid design that makes the PSU suck the air from the case and blow it outside, but no actual air inlets, the floppy drives get dirty/dusty very quickly. Worse yet if someone smokes in the room. This can cause such a buildup as to prevent the write protect and index sensors from working - and that can result in the floppy not being detected. Not to mention what all that dirt does to the floppy surface and heads when disturbed and sucked into the floppy envelope.

Deunan wrote on 2021-05-11, 22:25:

I've never had any such issues with 5.25" drives. Was it ever cleaned? Due to stupid design that makes the PSU suck the air from the case and blow it outside, but no actual air inlets, the floppy drives get dirty/dusty very quickly. Worse yet if someone smokes in the room. This can cause such a buildup as to prevent the write protect and index sensors from working - and that can result in the floppy not being detected. Not to mention what all that dirt does to the floppy surface and heads when disturbed and sucked into the floppy envelope.

I don't know the history of the drive. I picked up a PII Gateway 2000 back in 2007-8 that had the drive in it. I tested it back then and it worked, and the PC sat around for years until I recently used parts from it for this Ultimate P3 Win98 PC project, when I started using it to format a stack of floppies. After the first few, the problem came up. My home is smoke free, but can get very dusty.

Disk surfaces over time can fall apart. Leaving crap in to drive.

Old thread, but im having these issues too, but what ive found out with mine, is dont exactly be gently with it, and so far its worked every time. 😁