ScuzzBlog: Diaries October 2019
Entry 1st October 2019: Post 01: Amiga 600HD - Ready the floppy for the hard.
Amiga 600HD - Ready the floppy for the hard.
I am awaiting on a 2.5" internal hard drive for the 600HD from
China. I have successfully used these drives on half a dozen
Amiga 1200s, so the challenge now is to get one working on the A600.
I chose the HD version of the 600 cus I know the motherboard will
support the hard drive. Not all Amiga 600s supported hard drives
even though they were designed for them. I had a heck of a time
trying to get one working before I found out it wasn't possible.
The Amiga 600HD that I want to use isn't the best as I have had
problems with the floppy drive and the keyboard, so I need to look
into both these issues.
This computer has had a history of floppy problems. I can tell this
from the inside of the case. There is a rogue floppy ribbon cable
which is quite enormous. Next their is no shielding or bracket
for the floppy drive. The screws to the case are incorrect and
there is one screw missing from the floppy drive. All sadly points
to a possible failure.
So what are the symptoms. The computer boots from floppy no problem
if the disk is in the drive. Unfortunately the drive will not detect
a disk once the machine has booted. Nor will the disk requester
fire up any disk that is inserted. The drive does not click.
First up I took the floppy apart and cleaned the two little switches
to the front of the unit that detects disks. I also cleaned out all
the dust plus the heads were cleaned. I couldn't detect any mechanical
problems with the drive. Sadly still didn't work.
Next I hooked up an old A2000 drive to see if that worked, and it
did. I then connected an external floppy which also worked no problem.
The videos show the current floppy drive booting a disk from switching
on the A600. Also I show the A2000 floppy ticking away and working
no problem. The last videos show the A600 booting from the main
floppy from a hard reset switching the machine on. It picks up the
external floppy. And then I show the reverse with the floppy booting
from the external floppy.
All tests show that the disk detect to the floppy is not working
and yet the computer detects the disk from switching on from cold.
Could be a solder joint. I doubt its a capacitor. There are two
jumpers which I may have a play with tomorrow.
The keyboard ribbon on the 600 is an odd beast. Most are brown and
golden. They suffer from a poor connection for the most part. The
A600HD had none of the first line of keys working, or the very
lowest and the space bar. So I removed the ribbon from the white
plastic clip and cleaned the ribbon and brushed it to abrade the
connector. And that worked a treat and the keyboard is working just
fine. Sadly the LED is broken though the caps lock works.
So do I continue with this computer to install the hard drive even
with a broken floppy. Why not ? Should be interesting. I haven't
given up on the floppy just yet. I will have another play and
give it a better clean. Plus I need to clean the motherboard. So
tomorrow may be a short blog, unless the drive arrives.
V I D E O S
Floppy drive running - A2000 floppy working on A600
Booting floppy picking up the external and vice versa
Ready the floppy for the hard.
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