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MP-F75W wont write to disks/initialize disks

Posted by: feltel on 2023-06-04 02:55:39

Another part in my SE30 journey. I assembled the machine and tested it. A few days ago I cleaned/lubed the floppy drive, a Sony MP-F75W, as per https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LWfjsvc8OA. In the assembled machine the drive worked at first. I could read data and write data, initialize disks an so forth. Out of the blue I no longer can initialize disks. When I want to initialize a disk the formatting starts but when it switches to "verifying ..." there is an error stating that the initialization has failed. Also I cannot copy any data to a known working disk. Reading disks works as before without any issues.

I took it out of the machine and re-cleaned the heads, but this doesn't cure the issue. What went wrong with the floppy drive?

Posted by: zefrenchtoon on 2023-06-04 09:38:51

Did you check the sector zero probe ?

Posted by: feltel on 2023-06-04 09:49:15

Do you mean the photoelectric barrier next to the floppy cable connector? I didnt clean it after the write errors. I'm sure I cleaned it initially. I'll check.

Posted by: zefrenchtoon on 2023-06-04 10:23:46

I mean this:

800K Floppy Drive Head Issue — Track 0 Misalignment?

I have been exchanging dialog with a viewer of my YouTube channel who has been servicing his 800K drives in conjunction with my video on that subject. In particular, he has two 800K drives which show the head moving all the way to the back but then the heads stay there. If the head is then...

68kmla.org

Posted by: volvo242gt on 2023-06-05 03:09:51

Another link, on the other forum: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/superdrive-floppy-maintenance.549/ Talks about adjusting the Zero Track Sensor. Been able to get my drives working after doing this.

Posted by: feltel on 2023-06-05 04:18:47

Okay, thanks. But could be a mis-aligned Track Zero sensor be the cause for not writing at all? I would assume if the sensor is mis-aligned wont read at all. Mine does read without problems. If I interpret https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/superdrive-floppy-maintenance.549/post-5984 correct a mis-aligned Track Zero sensor would result in a non-working drive at all.

Posted by: volvo242gt on 2023-06-05 11:00:31

If it's slightly off, the drive will read a disk, but won't write to it. So, it may still need adjustment.

Posted by: feltel on 2023-06-05 11:06:46

Okay, than I have to do the inevitable. I'll follow the linked PDF and hope for the best not to make things worse.

Posted by: jmacz on 2023-06-05 12:40:04

Aligning the zero track sensor is time consuming and super annoying. I went through it on one of my machines that could read known good disks from my other computers but could not write (error), or could write but resulted in floppies that my known good drives could not read. Took a while finding the sweet spot but eventually I got it resolved. I think I spent hours on it.