Dead 1050? Help please

[mimo]

Can't get my 1050 to do anything. I bought it untested (ie expect it to be broken).

Is there anything I can do/look at to try and get this thing up and running.

I only have one disc btw (Nuclear Nick), but the drive busy light is not coming on, and no noises.

 

[Urchlay]

Can't get my 1050 to do anything. I bought it untested (ie expect it to be broken).

Is there anything I can do/look at to try and get this thing up and running.

I only have one disc btw (Nuclear Nick), but the drive busy light is not coming on, and no noises.

 

 

I'm no electronics genius, but I'll take a stab at it:

 

First thing to check is the power supply... It's a 9VAC supply, so if you have a meter, check it. Without a load, it may read higher than 9 volts, which is OK, but if it reads less than 9V, or nothing at all, you've found your culprit.

 

Even if you don't have a meter: It's the same power supply as the 800, 810, 1200XL, and quite a few other peripherals, so if you have any of the above, you can swap power supplies with the 1050, see if it starts working.

 

If the power supply is good, but the drive is still totally dead, try wiggling the power jack a little. I have a 1050 with a loose power jack that causes it to quit working if it gets bumped (not fixed it yet because I've been using SIO2PC instead of real drives for a while now). If this turns out to be your problem, you can resolder the jack to the board. Probably you can just melt and reflow the existing solder without adding any new solder.

 

If that's not the problem, next step would be to take the drive apart and make sure the drive mechanism is plugged into the logic board firmly... also look for obvious things on the board like burnt traces/components, or leaky/busted electrolytic caps.

 

Depending on how bad you want to fix the drive, it might be worth it to get a copy of the 1050 service manual from Best or B&C. I looked for a copy online (scanned or otherwise), but couldn't find one, back when I was trying to fix my 1050. [*]

 

Questions:

 

- You said the busy light doesn't come on... does the drive power light come on? If so, the power supply is almost certainly good (should check or swap it anyway), and the jack is definitely good.

 

- You said "no noises"... I assume you mean the drive doesn't make its usual seeking noise. What does the Atari do when you try to boot it from the 1050? Does it make its usual "farting" noise and boot to the usual self-test/blackboard/BASIC (like it does without a drive plugged in), or does it make a horrible "radio static" noise, or does it sit silent, or what? Does the Atari say "BOOT ERROR" on screen? I used to have a 1050 that was so quiet that I couldn't hear the seeking noises, but it worked fine (however, the busy light did come on, which yours doesn't...)

 

[*] My 1050's problem was that the drive mech was sitting at an angle in the case (no screws holding it in place), and some metal part of the mech was touching something on the logic board, shorting it out. Stupid me, I left the screws out when I put it in storage 7-8 years ago... Lucky me, no permanent damage was done.

[mimo]

Thanks for the reply.

Ok, I have checked the power supply (well 2 actually) and they are fine, the 1050 power light is on.

 

When I try to boot, I get no noise and BOOT ERROR........., BOOT ERROR.........., BOOT ERROR.......

If i flip the drive door open it goes mad BOOT ERROR,BOOT ERROR, BOOT ERROR.

So I'm guessing that the Atari is 'seeing' the drive- still no busy light or any sound from the drive

 

any more ideas?

 

I have opened the case up again to check all the sockets, everything is in place, but I noticed that the metal shielding around the power jack is getting hot very quickly, is this normal?

Edited March 29, 2007 by mimo

[carmel_andrews]

if you are prepared to do UK posting of your sicky 1050, i might know someone in Ashford (Kent) who might have a look at it as he used to do my Atari stuff way back when (he's very reasonable price wise from what memory recalls)

 

Personally i think someone's tried to u/g the drive somehow and made a hash of it, that's probably why he (or she) dumped it on you

[mimo]

thanks, please PM me the details.

 

not really dumped it on me, I knew it was "untested" but for £8 thought it was worth a shot.

not sure if they have tried to do anything with it, can't see any signs of it being taken apart before me getting in there.

[+bf2k+]

thanks, please PM me the details.

 

not really dumped it on me, I knew it was "untested" but for £8 thought it was worth a shot.

not sure if they have tried to do anything with it, can't see any signs of it being taken apart before me getting in there.

 

Is it addressed as D1: via the jumpers?

[Rybags]

Sounds like it is due to the "Boot Error" message.

 

No busy light sounds like the mechanicals mightn't be getting power. "Boot Error" would indicate that the logic board is alive enough to be able to talk to the computer.

 

Personally, I've pulled a drive open a few times, but never had the need to fix, other than the usual head-clean and blow the dust out routine.

 

 

I'd suggest pull it apart and do the basic checks.

 

My drive has 5 sets of wires going to headers on the rear of the board.

 

And if you lift the cast drive mechanism off the board (you can get about 3 inches lift without disturbing the wiring) there is one going to the front of the board.

Edited March 29, 2007 by Rybags

[mimo]

Yes, set as D1 on the jumpers, if they are changed then computer just boots to self test, so it is definately seeing the drive as drive 1

All the wires from the drive mech look to be in place.

[ijor]

but the drive busy light is not coming on, and no noises.

 

You mean the busy led doesn't turn on when you insert the disk? Or it never turns on at all, not even when you power up the drive?

 

If the latter (and unless the led is not working), then you have a problem in the drive electronics, not in the mechanism. On drive power up, the busy led should turn on, no matter what happens with the mechanism (even when there is no mechanism at all), and no matter the selection jumpers.

Edited March 31, 2007 by ijor

[mimo]

but the drive busy light is not coming on, and no noises.

 

You mean the busy led doesn't turn on when you insert the disk? Or it never turns on at all, not even when you power up the drive?

 

If the latter (and unless the led is not working), then you have a problem in the drive electronics, not in the mechanism. On drive power up, the busy led should turn on, no matter what happens with the mechanism (even when there is no mechanism at all), and no matter the selection jumpers.

the drive light never comes on

[JR>]

. On drive power up, the busy led should turn on, no matter what happens with the mechanism (even when there is no mechanism at all), and no matter the selection jumpers.

 

Um...The drive busy light is ON the mechanism

[Urchlay]

. On drive power up, the busy led should turn on, no matter what happens with the mechanism (even when there is no mechanism at all), and no matter the selection jumpers.

 

Um...The drive busy light is ON the mechanism

 

Yup, it's that way on every 1050 I've ever seen... maybe he was talking about the power LED?

[ijor]

Um...The drive busy light is ON the mechanism

 

You right of course, my bad. I mixed up the more typical behavior when the busy led just turns on briefly. And I was thinking that the led, even when physically located in the mechanism, it was powered directly by the board. But I just checked and even that is wrong.

 

So indeed it looks like something is bad with the 12V.

[+kheller2]

Perhaps the mech isn't connected to the main board correctly.

[+kheller2]

Perhaps the mech isn't connected to the main board correctly.