WD40 on slow sounding FDD drive motor?

[oky2000]

So I got this STFM and it's a revision 1 machine it says on the motherboard but has blank spots for extra ram and blitter chip marked on the board. Anyway it's my only stock STFM and the drive initially wouldn't even be recognised on boot ie no disk A B or Trash icons but then it would but the drive sounds slow to me. Would spraying the mechanism with WD40 do any damage to the heads? Also any idea why initially the drive light was on permanently made and no desk icons appeared at all?

 

At this point I am not going to spend 20 bucks on a replacement internal drive for the ST so it's kind of like rescue it or leave it broken sadly. I just have too much stuff to collect/maintain and the ST drives are as bespoke as Amiga ones but twice the cost on ebay. Ho hum.

 

Somewhere I have a 2.5mb 520STFM with 1mb internal drive, a regular 1040STF, a 520STE, a 520ST, a 520STM, and two Mega STs (2mb/4mb) so you can see in addition to about 5000 items in my collection of 8 and 16 bit stuff there has to be some sacrifice for stuff I only have one of.

[Charlie_]

It should be OK on the mech.. the moving parts, but I would not get any one the heads themselves.

Some people say not to use WD40 but I have in all kinds of drives for years and never had any troubles.

It has always made them work better and quieter, for me.

[GadgetUK]

If the drive sounds slow, check and replace any caps - particularly surface mounted electrolytics - on the FDD PCB.

 

What make and model drive is it?

 

Edit: See this post, it may or may not help.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/208904-atari-st-floppy-drive-repaired/#entry2699197

 

The fact your drive doesnt appear or is constantly on could be a few things. Logic issue on the drive PCB. Faulty FDD controller on ST PCB - try another working drive to rule it out. Also, if the data cable is wrong way around the drive light will be on contantly, are you sure its the right way around?

Edited February 21, 2013 by GadgetUK