[Coco] original Coco 5-1/4 floppy: how to clean?

[Luis Antoniosi (CoCoDemus)]

try cleaning the head with a Qtip and isopropil alcohol. If you put an old
floppy with mold it will cause this problem.



On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 8:05 AM, Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net> wrote:

> Chris Oliver wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> Wanted to see what you would recommend that I do in terms of
>> servicing/cleaning my Coco floppy.  It just started throwing I/O errors
>> last night, out of the blue.  All mechanisms work -- the head just searches
>> the disk, can't find anything, and throws an I/O error.  Am wondering if
>> this is a dirt/dust issue on the read head.
>>
>> Any ideas on what you would check?  I know that the other components in
>> the chain (the disk controller and cable) are working correctly.
>>
>> Thanks for any tips --
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
> Chris,
>
> You can't be sure "that the other components in the chain (the disk
> controller and cable) are working correctly" unless you have other floppy
> drives that work. Is that the case?
> Do you have a second system with which to test the "bad" drive? Are all
> the floppy disks exhibiting the same "no read" issues with the "bad" drive
> or just some?
>
> If indeed you have correctly isolated the drive itself as the problem,
> then the first thing to do is open up the drive and examine the insides.
> Look for any parts that may have become loose. Check the index LED and make
> sure it works correctly; is in position and turns on when a disk spins. Are
> the "tracks" that the heads slides on clean? They may need very light
> lubrication. Does the strobe wheel indicate that the drive spins at the
> correct speed?
> There were cleaning kits you could buy to clean the 5.25" drives but
> rubbing alcohol or any other tape head cleaning solution can be used on
> both the read/write and erase heads.
>
> Robert
>
>
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>



-- 
Long live the CoCo