Apple Unidisk problems

[swissarmytin]

I currently have two Unidisk 5.25 drives hooked up to a //e Platinum, and after a thorough cleaning, Drive 1 decided to crap out on me. When the system is booted, the drive lights up, but it doesn't spin at all. I've tried running the built-in diagnostic, and it came back fine. Drive 2 works perfectly, so that definitely rules out anything wrong with the //e itself. I've searched through troubleshooting guides, forums, and I can't find anything like what's wrong with my drive. I've opened the drive up several times, and nothing looks wrong, but something must be awry...

All I can think of is something inside died. I'll try swapping parts from Drive 2 tomorrow to see if I can pinpoint what's wrong...for now, any other ideas? I'm a bit on the poorer end of things right now, so I'd rather try and repair it than search out a replacement. Any help in the meantime would be greatly appreciated.

[MarkO]

I currently have two Unidisk 5.25 drives hooked up to a //e Platinum, and after a thorough cleaning, Drive 1 decided to crap out on me. When the system is booted, the drive lights up, but it doesn't spin at all. I've tried running the built-in diagnostic, and it came back fine. Drive 2 works perfectly, so that definitely rules out anything wrong with the //e itself. I've searched through troubleshooting guides, forums, and I can't find anything like what's wrong with my drive. I've opened the drive up several times, and nothing looks wrong, but something must be awry...

 

All I can think of is something inside died. I'll try swapping parts from Drive 2 tomorrow to see if I can pinpoint what's wrong...for now, any other ideas? I'm a bit on the poorer end of things right now, so I'd rather try and repair it than search out a replacement. Any help in the meantime would be greatly appreciated.

I have never opened any of my Unidisks up, but I believe there is a Belt that Drives the Spindle..

 

I would try SpeedyG's page on Disk ][s at appleii-box.de.

 

SpeedyG is most commonly found at AppleFritter..

 

MarkO

[swissarmytin]

I have never opened any of my Unidisks up, but I believe there is a Belt that Drives the Spindle..

 

I would try SpeedyG's page on Disk ][s at appleii-box.de.

 

SpeedyG is most commonly found at AppleFritter..

 

MarkO

Thanks for the links, sadly repairs seem to focus more on the Disk ][ drives' shoddy cables...

The belt looks fine, and everything still visually looks fine...I did a ton of part swapping with my second Unidisk drive, and everything from Drive 1 worked fine in Drive 2, so it's probably either the cables or one of the motors. I hope it's not the latter...I'm already treading unknown territory.

It's strange, it originally worked fine, if a bit touchy on certain disks. When I first opened it up, it was just to clean the head, didn't touch anything else. Now it refuses to do anything; even with a disk inserted, it remains completely dormant during bootup.

[MarkO]

 

Thanks for the links, sadly repairs seem to focus more on the Disk ][ drives' shoddy cables...

The belt looks fine, and everything still visually looks fine...I did a ton of part swapping with my second Unidisk drive, and everything from Drive 1 worked fine in Drive 2, so it's probably either the cables or one of the motors. I hope it's not the latter...I'm already treading unknown territory.

It's strange, it originally worked fine, if a bit touchy on certain disks. When I first opened it up, it was just to clean the head, didn't touch anything else. Now it refuses to do anything; even with a disk inserted, it remains completely dormant during bootup.

 

 

It won't even Reset to Track Zero??

 

I would post a Question to SpeedyG at AppleFritter... He will give you some Specific Trouble Shooting steps to try... He might even know off the Top of His Head, what the problem is...

 

MarkO