3,5 floppy drive saga - CITIZEN W1D \ VOGONS

3,5 floppy drive saga - CITIZEN W1D

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First post, by ddutra86

Posted on 2018-01-03, 22:47

ddutra86 Offline

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Hello Gentlemans, I need some advice from our friends regarding floppy drives.

I have a EPSON action note 866 from 1994 and I'm facing an issue with his internal 3,5 floppy drive (vendor is CITZEN). The one that was sent inside of the computer came without the rubber belt and with a ruined reading head (those damm ebay sellers) so I got another drive from Germany. This one seemed perfect (reading head was like new and a rubber belt was present), but it is still not working (shows a not ready reading drive A). I've attached some videos showing all the movements of the reading head and it really seems all in order, but for some reason the drive does a low level "roar" (sorry, best word that I could find here to describe it) when I insert the floppy and it does not read anything at all.

Everything that I saw related to this defect online points to belt issues, and since I'm not experienced in evaluating it's quality I cannot judge if this is the issue.

My question is: Have you ever found such issue before with 3,5 drives? What the pictures tell to you guys? The laptop is a jewel, and the only thing missing is the funcitional floppy drive.

Cheers!

Moliterno

Reply 1 of 10, by ddutra86

Posted on 2018-01-03, 22:48

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In time: How can I upload a video in the forum? thanks!

Reply 2 of 10, by SW-SSG

Posted on 2018-01-03, 23:49

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I don't think the forum supports uploading videos; you will want to use YouTube or something.

Anyway, can you verify that the disk is actually rotating upon drive access? Normally, a drive having a "belt problem" == disk isn't spinning at correct speed, or at all.

Reply 3 of 10, by derSammler

Posted on 2018-01-04, 10:45

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Try boiling the belt for about 5 minutes. I fixed many worn belts this way.

Reply 4 of 10, by gca

Posted on 2018-01-04, 12:42

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The drive in my Amstrad PC4386 went the same way (the belt snapping also took out one of the drive heads as well, so it wasn't just me) and I've never managed to find a replacement. It doesn't use the standard (or any in fact) power connector. Everything goes through the ribbon cable including power!

<rant> Thanks Mr Sugar so using so many weird and proprietary parts for which there are no replacements </rant>

So now if I ever have to reinstall the OS I need to cobble together something that will work using an second PSU, floppy drive, ISA MIO with everything except the FDD controller disabled, disable the FDD on the motherboard and so on. Major amount of messing about just to get what should be an easily replaced part bypassed so I can get something done. Thank goodness for NICs and packet drivers which really help transferring files about.

Reply 5 of 10, by moturimi1

Posted on 2018-01-04, 15:16

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I have 4 x w1d floppy drives. I was able to repair all of them.
You just have to replace the rubber with a new one. Boiling will not work.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Riemen-f-Citizen-W1D- … EIAAOSwx2dYFPUo
It works!

Reply 6 of 10, by vvbee

Posted on 2018-01-04, 22:54

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I've some w1d drives laying about waiting for new rubbers. Spent time last summer trying to improvise a diy belt, but ended up getting a pack of 30 or so belts of various sizes from china for $2 shipped. Haven't tried them yet. Those individual belts from germany are so overpriced man.

Reply 7 of 10, by Unknown_K

Posted on 2018-01-05, 22:35

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I have a drive I need fixed as well. What are the specs for a working belt?

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 8 of 10, by ddutra86

Posted on 2018-01-07, 17:36

ddutra86 Offline

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[/img]

SW-SSG wrote:
I don't think the forum supports uploading videos; you will want to use YouTube or something.

Anyway, can you verify that the disk is actually rotating upon drive access? Normally, a drive having a "belt problem" == disk isn't spinning at correct speed, or at all.

Thanks for the inputs. I made a small test here, which is to put the disk, make a marker indication on it and try to load it from the drive, as bellow. No difference from picture 1 (before loading) and picture 2 (after loading).

Then I did a second trial which was to make a small mark in the belt and see after loading if it has movement. Result: no movement.

Conclusion: Bad belt on the drive...and I'm stuck with it.

Before putting more money to it, do anyone has any suggestions on how to fix it? Belt replacement (in this case, a belt from W1D drive) is the only solution?

Thanks!

Reply 9 of 10, by ddutra86

Posted on 2018-01-07, 17:54

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Ah, another question: to get a spare part here in Brazil for the CITIZEN W1D is almost impossible (how I envy you american retro-computing life....), so one thing that crossed to my mind is that is this drive "drawing / project" was outsourced and produced by other vendor. It's more common in Brazil to find Mutsumi drives from Compaq Armada 4110/4120/4220, and they look very like the same as the CITIZEN...any chance that a belt from a Mutsumi works in a CITIZEN?

https://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-68150 … -233553-001-_JM - Link in our strange portuguese language!

Cheers,

Moliterno