Help with Apple IIe not loading floppy
Posted by R-fire227@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 13 comments
This is related to my last post. After a system's check, everything for the Apple IIe is in working order. But when I put a floppy in, you hear the hitting sound, it spinning, but nothing happens, stuck at the "Apple ][" screen. I tried 3 different Apple IIe boot disks but none work (so I'm pretty sure it's not a disk problem). Ive also tried cleaning the head but that's done nothing. So I'm almost certain it's a problem with the drive, but for the life of me I can't figure out what. Any ideas?
Similar-Elevator-680@reddit
Pr#6 dude
R-fire227@reddit (OP)
That dosent work.
R-fire227@reddit (OP)
The drive will try to read forever but won't, but drive 2 works.
WebIntrepid3639@reddit
it's a fail from the laser kector, it's a very hard and common failure in very old drives like 5 1/4 diskettes, it's difficult to fix because the laser is very small and it damages very easy, you probably need to clean very well the laser with isoprophilic alcohol and a cotton from ears.
ryguymcsly@reddit
Just a note, you can make (or buy) an adapter that will load disk images from an SD card and plug directly into your floppy drive slot so you don't have to rely on old magnetic media that tends to go bad over time, or drives with parts that tend to go bad over time.
If you feel mechanically inclined you can take the failed drive apart. I've never done that with one of these, but I imagine the problem is likely with the bits that spin the disk. Maybe a stripped gear or something. If you have a 3d printer it could be an easy fix.
siliconlore@reddit
Word of warning:
It is possible to fry components on the drive controller board inside the floppy drive by attaching the ribbon cable backwards or offset on the Apple II floppy controller card inside the computer. You can also fry things on the controller card.
You should verify that the working drive can write to disks as sometimes write functionality is blown but read still works.
There are lots of forums that describe this issue and can help you if you need to replace the blown chips and components.
Always be super careful when hooking up the ribbon cable drives and controllers.
The newer drives used a D connector so the issue was greatly reduced as a problem.
mdgorelick@reddit
Have you tried swapping the drives? They’re both connected to the disk controller by a ribbon cable. You can simply swap the two connections so that drive 2 becomes drive 1 and vice versa. Be careful not to bend the pins on the card and make really sure you note which orientation the cables are in—you need to respect the “pin 1” marking on the card.
Power the machine off first. If you’ve never opened the case before, the top lifts up from the back. No screws, just give it a bit of a tug and it’ll open right up.
R-fire227@reddit (OP)
Just tried it and it works!! Drive 2 works drive 1 dosent. Any ideas for the cause?
mdgorelick@reddit
Hooray! You were able to successfully boot a disk? You’re on your way then. The drive that isn’t working might just have dirty read/write heads. The easiest way to clean the heads is a cleaning disk and some isopropyl alcohol, but those disks aren’t exactly that easy to find these days. I eventually found a new one on eBay. I’m sure there are a dozen videos on YouTube where folks have diagnosed failed Apple “Disk ][“ drives and one of those would show you how to access the heads and clean them without using a cleaning disk.
If you really get into playing with your vintage machine, you might consider one of the many alternatives to physical media. The disks you have are really old and were never all that reliable even in 1983. I have a gizmo called a FloppyEmu that I love and use with all my Apple II series machines. It also works on early vintage Macs. Basically it makes a modern SD card look like a disk drive to the computer. Plugs into the regular disk controller card.
R-fire227@reddit (OP)
I actually just swapped the board in the drives, and it didn't boot, so theirs something wak with the board of drive 1
R-fire227@reddit (OP)
I've cleaned the head but it still doesn't work, allbiet I just used alcohol. Think I might try more searching on yt.
R-fire227@reddit (OP)
Would swapping the boards help narrow the problems down?
mdgorelick@reddit
It would, but try the simple stuff first. Probably just dirty heads.