1050 Drive Problems

[PileofBones72]

Hello All, new to the forum. After Searching different threads, I couldn't find quite the answers to my questions so sorry in advance if you have heard them a million times. Anyhoos, Inherited a large Atari Lot from a local family the other day. They mentioned that some of the stuff had issues, particularly the disk drives. I cleaned the heads, cleaned and lubed the rails, Checked the belts ( They Seem Fine?? ) dusted everything, ECT on all the drives. Two of the 1050 Disk Drives AND the RANA Systems 1000 drive, do Read, but do not Write or Format. I Have no software to check the speeds however, Any Suggestions on where to go from here? The Other Two 1050 Disk Drives, Power up but do not read, write, Nor Format And seem the spin Sluggishly, almost 1/2 speed. Like I Mentioned, any help for a guy just getting back into Atari 8-Bits after 35+ years would be greatly Appreciated. 

[Dopeyman06]

Maybe the belts are worn out?

 

https://console5.com/store/catalogsearch/result/?q=1050

 

[_The Doctor__]

Do not attach sio cables between drives with any power blocks attached to the wall, as that may blow a chip out.

You may need to free up, lube and work the bearing, both top and bottom at the hub.

Might need to work ID selector switches with deoxit as they sometimes get corroded internally and gunked up.

Scrub the head being careful not to damage pressure pads.

Then when all are spinning freely and smoothly check the cleanliness of belts and paths, followed by checking voltage and rpm's.

Remember to set each drive ID, Use the best one to boot as ID 1 so you can assign a different ID to the others for RPM checks.

After that, if all checks out and there are still issues, it's clean and reseat chips time.

after that things get more involved. Starting with that chip that normally gets blown when connecting SIO cords live

 

 

Edited May 28 by _The Doctor__

[PileofBones72]

Thanks for the responses! Can you explain " You may need to free up, lube and work the bearing, both top and bottom at the hub " more? Where/How/With What ECT.? How to check voltages and RPMS's? Been checking out youTube Videos and just downloaded the field Manual to help but any little hints ECT. would be greatly appreciated. Forgive me fellas, I am starting over at Ground Zero again.

 

[TZJB]

9 hours ago, PileofBones72 said:

Hello All, new to the forum. After Searching different threads, I couldn't find quite the answers to my questions so sorry in advance if you have heard them a million times. Anyhoos, Inherited a large Atari Lot from a local family the other day. They mentioned that some of the stuff had issues, particularly the disk drives. I cleaned the heads, cleaned and lubed the rails, Checked the belts ( They Seem Fine?? ) dusted everything, ECT on all the drives. Two of the 1050 Disk Drives AND the RANA Systems 1000 drive, do Read, but do not Write or Format. I Have no software to check the speeds however, Any Suggestions on where to go from here? The Other Two 1050 Disk Drives, Power up but do not read, write, Nor Format And seem the spin Sluggishly, almost 1/2 speed. Like I Mentioned, any help for a guy just getting back into Atari 8-Bits after 35+ years would be greatly Appreciated. 

 

Welcome to Atari Age.

 

In summary, you have four 1050 disk drives and one Rana Systems 1000 disk drive. I can't help you with the latter but definitely can with the 1050 disk drives.

 

You do not mention what computer you are using to boot the drives and what disks and DOS you have to hand so please elucidate.

 

The 1050 CPS diagnostic disk is available from here:-

 

 

Regarding the two 1050 disk drives that do not boot at all. Does the head seek and step back to track 0 when powered on? Are they set to device D1: at the back of the drive?

 

You said they are spinning the disk slowly. That would also prevent them from booting. The voltage to the motor may not be stable, the motor itself may need careful lubrication, or the belts are slipping.

 

Fault symptoms can also be caused by corrosion of the larger socketed IC chip legs and a good clean may resolve the issue.

 

These larger chips are on the board hidden beneath the screening can, which would need to be removed by dismantling the drive completely. Access to the bottom of the board will be required to twist open the retaining metal lugs.

 

Regarding disk write and format, what error number do you receive from DOS? Is the disk you are writing to write enabled i.e. have a visible notch in the left hand side?

 

A multimeter would be very useful to continue electrical diagnostics of the disk drives.

 

Perhaps if you could individually label the drives we could concentrate on one drive at a time?

 

[cwc]

[xrbrevin]

welcome PileofBones72 🙃

the common symptoms of these drives coming out of hibernation is:

• dirty read/write head - clean with alcohol
• spindle motor sticktion - operate it manually to free it up
• head rail sticktion - clean and apply a little light grease
• grubby drive # select switch - use switch cleaner and operate manually to de-clag it

its good practice to do the above even if theyre not in a bad way

the read/write head is ceramic so its not fragile. you can often see a dark spot on dirty ones with the naked eye

[+kheller2]

2 hours ago, cwc said:

Reading this again, decades later from when I got my first 1050, it implies you only need to set the switches "If your system includes more than one disk drive".  Which is not the case.  You must always set the drive switches.  Granted, they came from the factory set to 1 but it is interesting to me how this bit of wording could trip someone up.  Atari drives aren't THAT smart.

 

[PileofBones72]

Thanks for the replies, Sorry it took so long to answer some of the questions, been a long day. I am currently using an Atari 130XE and a Indus GT Disk Drive. Used the 130XE to test the drives while using good ole' DOS 2.0S. I have a 40+ year old disk with SmartDos on it, but its shot. Always liked DOS 2.0S. I was getting Error-173 and/or Error-144. I tried formatting disks from a New Old Stock box of Disks along with a few old ones and the same thing happened with all of them, although they all Formatted, Wrote, and Read fine with my Indus GT. Ordered some new belts and some Deoxit to use. TZJB, you mentioned carefully lubricating the motor(s) How do I go About doing that correctly? Are Not some of them sealed? As far as your question about the drives that do not boot and if " the head seek and step back to track 0 when powered on? " I will have to get back to you on that, as I am quickly running out of time to tinker on them tonight. I Appreciate everyone being so helpful on the Forum so far 🤘

[_The Doctor__]

for tight space lubrication I use a needle oil pen with suspended synthetics, often marketed as precision oilers.

the so called sealed bearings (most are actually not but rather precision bearings) will still take in the oil with manual working and gravity.