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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:	AMIGA NOTES
Notice:	Join us in the NEW conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:	HYDRA::MOORE

Created:	Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5378
Total number of notes:	38326

2288.0. "NEC 3.5" Drive Problems" by SCUBA::WILTSHIRE (Dave Wiltshire - CSSE Europe) Tue Feb 28 1989 11:17

    I recently tried installing a NEC 3.5" Internal Drive in my
    A2000 (model B), without success......
    
    I noticed when disconnecting the ribbon cable for the floppies from the
    mother board, that one of pins in the board connector was broken off
    and the pin was in the plug (the second pin down on the left hand row,
    looking at the machine from the front).  Is it supposed to be like this
    i.e. to ensure that you can't connect it back incorrectly or is this a
    fault with my Amiga ? 
    
    Anyway, I put a jumper on J301, as instructed, configured the NEC drive
    as DF1: and rebooted.......  On the screen I then had the messages
    DF2:BAD and DF3:BAD, with no mention of DF1: !!!  When I tried to
    access DF1:, the light on DF0: came on and I received a message saying
    that there was no disk in DF1: (which there was!). 
    
    Thinking something was up, I reconfigured the NEC drive as DF0: and
    connected the cables from the original drive to it.  When I rebooted,
    the disk was not accessed at all, although I could hear a gentle
    clicking sound coming from the unit.
    
    Is the NEC drive defective or did I do something wrong ?
    
    -Dave.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
2288.1	Check that Power Connector!	MTWAIN::MACDONALD	WA1OMM 7.093/145.05/223.58 AX.25	`Tue Feb 28 1989 16:21`	20
	Hmm .. sounds like a familiar problem. The little white plastic plug that goes in the back of the drive (the one with the RED wire), should plug into the NEC drive just the opposite of the standard drive that comes with the Amiga. Apparently, not all the drive manufacturers place the voltage pin on the same end of the circuit board plug. I always recommend checking for the "+" sign on the pin. As a matter of fact Commodore has Amiga 1020 drives out there that install differently from one another depending upon the manufacturer (Chinon actually supplies drives that have the circuit boards flipped between drives). You'll also want to check the jumpers for the drives to make sure that you have one set to 0 and the second set to 1. It also matters whether or not the 0 drive is connected to the center of the cable or to the end. Not sure which is which though. It's been a while since I ripped the floppy drives apart. -Paul
2288.2	You're OK	TLE::RMEYERS	Randy Meyers	`Tue Feb 28 1989 19:42`	26
	Re: .0 > I noticed when disconnecting the ribbon cable for the floppies from the > mother board, that one of pins in the board connector was broken off > and the pin was in the plug (the second pin down on the left hand row, > looking at the machine from the front). Is it supposed to be like this > i.e. to ensure that you can't connect it back incorrectly or is this a > fault with my Amiga ? Your Amiga is supposed to be like that: the "broken off" pin in the connector is the key pin to keep you from attaching the connector wrong. A zillion people have been panicked by this after installing an internal floppy themselves. In fact, over a year ago when the 2000 first came out, there was a fellow that sent flaming mail to Usenet because he discovered his new 2000 had a broken pin after installing an internal floppy. The fellow was very distressed because some dimwit in Commodore support misinformed him by telling him that the repair would not be performed under warranty because he had opened the machine's case. The fellow was livid, and took 2000 back to the dealer, got his money back, and sent hate mail to Usenet describing Commodore's poor quality and lack of support. The fellow dropped out of sight and probably never read the mail that he had been misinformed about the warranty, and that his machine wasn't broken in the first place. Caused quite a ruckus, though....
2288.3		SCUBA::WILTSHIRE	Dave Wiltshire - CSSE Europe	`Tue Feb 28 1989 21:34`	10
	< Your Amiga is supposed to be like that: the "broken off" pin in the < connector is the key pin to keep you from attaching the connector < wrong. A zillion people have been panicked by this after installing < an internal floppy themselves. Phew, that's a relief !! I thought I broke the connector when I removed it...... -Dave.