First post, by VinylCounterattack
Is anyone familiar with the Matsushita EME‑263MG 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk drive, the type with the 26-pin ribbon cable still factory-attached? It apparently only (?) appeared in some Tandy or GRiD laptops. I'm refurbishing a Tandy 3800HD laptop, and the original drive has failed due to a dead stepper motor. I wasn't sure whether I should continue looking to replace the entire floppy drive, or if there is a non-rocket science way to replace the stepper motor with something more current (2010s, 2020s, etc.), or if these things from the 1990s are nearly impossible to replace. Also, is it typical for a technician at a computer repair shop to be able to even handle such a job? Usually replacing a motor isn't a big deal, but with the precision required of a floppy drive, it may require more expertise than is worth even repairing. I'm finding that attempting to repair a Tandy laptop is a daunting task because of all the rare and proprietary parts (even the Conner CP2064 hard drive has a non-standard connection). My is assumption that any Tandy laptop enthusiast would have run into problems like this because of the 30+ year age of these machines. Comments and technical advice welcome, and thanks for reading this post. - Steve