Author: kurt (host15.bigideas.com)
Date: 09-19-1999 01:44
Have you checked the pot for the drive
motor? I have two 1050 drives...and
one of them has a defective pot that
has to be tuned regularly. The drive
motor starts to spin too fast for the
head to read sectors. If you have
a copy of DOS 2.0F or Scanalyzer
(or another copy utility that allows
you to write bad sectors), you can
see the drive speed on-screen.
HERE'S HOW TO FIX IT...
Carefully open the case to the drive
by unscrewing the screws on the
underside of the drive. Turn the
drive over so that it is right side up
and lift off the top cover. Look at
the inside circuit board where the
power cord attaches. Near this area
you should see a small box (about a
quarter of an inch on all sides) that
has a slot on the top for a screwdriver.
It is colored light-blue in my drives.
This is the pot (potentiometer) for the
drive speed. Connect all the cables
and power up the computer. As it is
trying to boot, slowly turn the screw
(be very careful not to touch anything
else with the screwdriver). If you have
the sound on the monitor turned up,
you can hear the 'pings'. The 'boot
error' message will disappear when
you have got it tuned correctly. If
you have a second drive and a drive
speed utility (mentioned above), you
can eliminate the guesswork by
configuring the non-working drive
as drive 2, and watching the screen
as you turn the screw, until the speed
is 'acceptable'. Remember to turn the
screw very slowly!.
I once paid a tech $76.00 to do this
for me :-(.
P.S. Following these instructions is
done at your own risk. This will void
any warranty that you have if your
computer manages to time-warp back
when they were still valid.
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