New x68k User, new problems

[Neshek]

Hello!


I'm an old geek (40 years old tomorrow so feel free to send me presents , from France, i've been using Amigas and MSX for... Remember playing Metal Gear in 1987 on MSX2... Still owning couple of Amigas and a MSX Turbo R. Owning some consoles and i love my PC Engine Duo that probably needs a new lens and cap refresh. Growing old.. I've been aware of this "Japanese Amiga" existence for some time and dreamt of owning it but was out of my league back then.


Finally, the dream has come true, couldn't skip an interesting ad for this original venerable x68000. Must be 25 years old or something... As these things are hard to come by in Europe, no choice but to try to have the x68k travelling a lot.


I see there are some skilled users so please forgive my low level of knowledge and also my English. Can be awkward sometimes.







US Post has been faster than expected, faster than UK post which borderline is across the channel so my SCSI setup is not ready (missing SCSI-1 centronics cable)

Thought the old x68k would come in one piece but that is not the case internally i guess. Missing few screws and break key needs fixing , which is not a big deal. More than second hand and probably had some repairs i guess, but advertised as working unit. Still good looking and i'm thankful to the seller for the nice deal.

So my mood is so so as customs hit my wallet of course (add 20% of the package value, great), big package spotted, easy money. Expected. As long as the beast is alive, i won't care that much.

But...



This message looks normal to my totally lame Japanese and seems to mean "Me x68k hunger! Feed floppy disk!"
So i happily try to feed the grand father.

Then comes the BSOD (Blinks & Sounds Of death? Ok that was lame)... Blinks, noises, and the impossibility to insert disk...


x68000 no like floppies


x68k does not want to eat floppies, both drives, and i don't think pushing to the point of bending them will do any good.
I also tried to push disk eject button behind. That can be seen on the video.

I'll gladly try to have the thing open and fix this. I can solder, break things, sometimes fix them too ^^'. Need a bit of guidance. Anybody has a clue about these symptoms and where/what to check on the floppy disk drives?


Thanks a lot for your advices!!


Disk of Cho Ren Sha was included with the computer, now it's a torture not being able to boot it! Chorenshaaaaaaaa T.T

[BlueBMW]

Is that the system I sent you?  Did they damage it during shipping?  It was booting disks just fine before I sent it.  Make sure you are inserting the disks the right way.  Try flipping them over and try again.

[Neshek]

Yes it is this system. There is no apparent damage. Besides missing screws and one side panels (right one when look x68k from front) is a bit loose. It is of old age so might already like. Up to you to confirm.

Thing is i just can't insert floppies in the drives. :/ They go a few millimeters into the drive.

I'll have to open it tonight to check why it won't swallow the damn disks.

[sharp]

Hello, and welcome.

I am new here also, but I have already learned a great deal from the great people here.
I have a feeling your #0 FDD is out of whack. Is there a disk in the FDD in your video?

You will want to take the side off of the FDD side of the machine.
There are 3 screws in the back holding the side cover on, take those out, and then apply a little pressure on the side to slide it backwards.
Then remove the FDD enclosure, and then remove the FDD that seems stuck.
My guess is that the gears got where the heads are clamped but the power died.

Has your PSU failed?

Someone with more experience will have to chime in.

[Neshek]

Thanks for the advices Sharp! The procedure to take off the side went great

No there are no disks in the units that i know of, and yes it's like something is blocking insertion more efficiently than a chastity belt and for the PSU, i'll check the voltage once it's disassembled. I get the insert disk message on screen though the bottom of the screen has a bar of pixels but it must be due to the lcd display.

I think i'll have to take apart the whole machine to access floppy drives. Gonna take some time i guess

Thanks for your answers guys

[sharp]

You are quite welcome.

To disengage the heads you just have to turn the little white threaded part on the rod coming out of the clamp drive motor.

BlueBMW is much more familiar with the x68000 than myself.
Report back when you figure something out or if you have any questions.

[Neshek]

Thanks Sharp.

So i took the machine apart. It's quite compact in there.
I was about to check your idea of disengaging the heads.

When i took the drives out, what was invisible became pretty obvious as i took something out of them...
BlueBMW, don't look further for these Akumajou Dracula disks
They were stuck inside. I couldn't see that from outside as they were way too engaged in the drive.
If you forgot about them maybe you could offer them for my birthday

Otherwise the thing works great

[BlueBMW]

Ahh, did I leave some disks in the drives?  I probably got in a hurry to pack it up and forgot to eject them.  I certainly dont need them back

So the system is working good now?

[Neshek]

It's working great and thanks for the disks

I formatted a dozen floppies that have been resting for 20 years. To my surprise format.x reported only bad sectors on one of them. I thought they couldn't last that long. I had more casualties with old 3,5 inches disks.

A minor problem though, as i was formatting the disks, some wouldn't eject at all and i had to force it with eject disk button behind the machine. Just did the formatting batch on drive B for now.
I guess it can be fixed easily. Probably has to do with sensors?

[SuperDeadite]

I had one drive in my machine wear the disks would get stuck trying to eject.  I just gave the gears a fresh lube, and it's been fine since.

[Neshek]

I'll check that SuperDeadite, thanks for the advices guys

Free download included, don't know if that might be useful to anyone but sharing anyway.
Hope it hasn't already done, if so i'll google search next time