Atari 1040STF Drive Issues

[Tenorman]

So I recently purchased a 1040STF off eBay. The seller advertised that the floppy drive was not working and that I would need an external one. When I received it, I found out why he said to get an external one and not to replace the internal. The floppy connector cable has been ripped off the motherboard leaving only the two rows of pins. It is not possible to connect a new internal floppy drive without a new ribbon and some careful soldering.

 

I connected an external floppy drive this morning, and most of the time, the computer just hangs on the gray screen and won't finish booting up. I did get it to boot once, and I could not read either of the drives.

 

My theory is that the controller expects the internal floppy to be there, acting as a master, and if only an external is connected, the external will not work. Is this correct? Thanks.

[Dal_1978]

So I recently purchased a 1040STF off eBay. The seller advertised that the floppy drive was not working and that I would need an external one. When I received it, I found out why he said to get an external one and not to replace the internal. The floppy connector cable has been ripped off the motherboard leaving only the two rows of pins. It is not possible to connect a new internal floppy drive without a new ribbon and some careful soldering.

 

I connected an external floppy drive this morning, and most of the time, the computer just hangs on the gray screen and won't finish booting up. I did get it to boot once, and I could not read either of the drives.

 

My theory is that the controller expects the internal floppy to be there, acting as a master, and if only an external is connected, the external will not work. Is this correct? Thanks.

 

Depends on the TOS version I found. TOS 2.06 will bomb (2 bombs) if Drive 0 isn't detected while earlier TOS versions may boot to the desktop after 40 seconds but you have no drive icons.

 

To use your external drive, you can swap the Drive Select lines over inside the ST (I have documented this mod on Atari-Forum's Wiki - currently down though). Essentially for a hard wired 'permanent' mod, snip pins 19 and 20 of the sound chip, solder pin 19 to pin 1 of W301 and pin 20 to pin 1 of W300. This will ensure the external drive always behaves as Drive 0.

 

If you want to fix the machine though, then I suggest using a soldering iron and solder pump to remove all the pins left on the board and fit a header socket to the board. This will allow you to use a standard floppy ribbon cable inside the ST to the internal drive.

[Tenorman]

Thanks. Not sure what I want to do with it yet. I might just try and get a good deal on a different one and then get rid of this thing.

[Dal_1978]

Thanks. Not sure what I want to do with it yet. I might just try and get a good deal on a different one and then get rid of this thing.

 

Damn wanted to double check the schematic on the STF but the links at http://atari4ever.free.fr/ seem to have been orphaned

 

I have done this mod on two STE's with a switch so that I can toggle normal and inverted drive select for use with a HxC emulator. It's really quite a simple mod if you have basic soldering skils. Also, it would be nice to keep as many machines running in some way or another as possible.

 

Where are you based?

[Tenorman]

I'm in Iowa. I really don't have good soldering skills at all and I don't really know if it would be worth it to ship it anywhere to have it fixed. It would be nice to have both drives working, but soldering a new header onto the motherboard especially isn't appealing to me. Anyway, if you are interested in trying to fix it, PM me and maybe we can work something out.

[Dal_1978]

I'm in Iowa. I really don't have good soldering skills at all and I don't really know if it would be worth it to ship it anywhere to have it fixed. It would be nice to have both drives working, but soldering a new header onto the motherboard especially isn't appealing to me. Anyway, if you are interested in trying to fix it, PM me and maybe we can work something out.

 

I would gladly sort it all out for you, however I'm in the UK, so the cost of shipping would make it uneconomical I expect. Maybe there is someone else on the forum based nearer to you with the necessary skills to help you out?

[Tenorman]

I've got a guy at work who says he can soldier a new header to the motherboard for me. So, problem solved, hopefully.

[Dal_1978]

I've got a guy at work who says he can soldier a new header to the motherboard for me. So, problem solved, hopefully.

[wongck]

 

Damn wanted to double check the schematic on the STF but the links at http://atari4ever.free.fr/ seem to have been orphaned

 

 

Try this Atari Documentation Archive

[Tenorman]

Just a followup on this, it is finally fixed. The machine now has a standard floppy header soldered onto the motherboard. The original drive was actually bad, so I got a replacement and everything is working fine now. I just need to cut some of the plastic off the top half of the case so that the eject button will work and everything will be golden. So one more Atari ST saved from the garbage heap.