Date:   Wed, 22 Apr 1998 23:30:19 -0500
From: Geoff Oltmans <geoff@sprynet.com>
Subject: Disk drive woes (still!)


Well, I'm still having trouble with my ADAM drive...but I think 
I know what the problem is (maybe).

The reason I posted asking for the files off of CompuServe (rec'd
Apr 26 courtesy ofyour editor) is because I upgraded the drive 
myself, using the Orphanware ROMs  available for download there 
(DRIVE.ARC and DRIVE1.ARC)...the kit was installed as per
instructions. I looked through all of the documentation though,
and found this notice in the 720KIT file:

>You  should not copy at least 400K of files to the new  drive. 
In about 25% of all conversions that I have done, the controller 
will not cause a side switch.  This has, in all cases been  
caused  by the 6803 being bad.  They can be  obtained  from
most  electronics supply stores (not Radio Shack).  You can 
tell you have a problem when it gets to about 370K or so and you 
will get an I/O error caused by the drive not switching sides 
and trashing the directory on the first side as it thinks it 
is writing to thesecond side.

Geoff:
I presume the "not copy" part is simply a typo. :) However, this
is essentially what happens to the drive... When set as either a
254K or 304k (or whatever the size is in TDOS) the drive will 
copy up to approx 254k or 304k and then it just stops. The activ-
ity light is lit, but the spindle motor stops. If you "adjust 
the media" or simply turn the drive off and on, then it will 
work again, until it stops. After a while, you get an I/O error,
and then if you look at the directory, there's nothing there 
(even though it's copied more than a dozen files).  However if 
it's used as a 160k drive, it works fine (presumably because 
it never has to switch sides).

So, this seems to indicate that the microcontroller is bad. My
question is, does the MCU have it's own internal ROM that is 
specific to the ADAM disk drive, or will any off the shelf 
6803 work? Jameco has these for about $5.00, so I may have to 
get one.

*Geoff!*


GEOFF'S EMAIL ADDRESS IS: geoff@sprynet.com   IF you have the
answer to his problem, let him know!


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