Re: yet a VIC-1541 Trouble.


"Harpo" <member1063@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:333$1405473$5061810$1144938237@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harpo wrote:
Hi all!

I have finally dusted off my commodore 64 that has been collecting
dust
in my attic for the past 16 years. I did run into a problem with my
VIC-
1541 disk drive.

TROUBLE:
When i turn on the disk drive the green LED turns on and the red LED
turns on for about 2sec and there's a humming from the drive.
If i reset the commodore the disk drive recieve the "reset" signal
and
the red LED on the VIC-1541 turns on for 2 sec and the drive is
humming.
This means they do at least communicate, yay! =)
When i try to load from the diskette (LOAD"$",8) or (LOAD"*",8,1) i
get
the "SEARCHING FOR $" response from the commodore, but nothing
happens
at the disk drive. The red LED does not turn on and there's
absolutely
no humming from the drive.
not at any time does the reader-head move.

I TRIED THE FOLLOWING:
- Read 2.000 forums and a couple of repair guides.
- Turning everything off and on, checking cables etc etc etc.
- Switching place of the two SY6522 chips in the VIC-1541 (said to
control data flow from computer and to reader-head), no
difference at all.
- Checked for any visual flaws in the 7404 chip (M53296P) and it's
connections. (observe, this is the 154007 circuit card where the
7404
is not a clip-on chip).

What is there left to do?
Will I have to replace the two SY6522 chips?
Could it be the 7404 chip that needs to be replaced? (hope not).

If I do need to try new chips, where (except) ebay can you find
these
things today?

Thanks in regards!
/Harpo

--

Are you sure the C64 is OK too? 1541's are pretty cheap to come by on
eBay, so you may want to just get another drive.

I can't be absolutely sure, but the VIC-1541 has a tendency to break
down while the c64 keep going. I see no reason why the c64 would fail
to load info from a diskette since the connection between them
obviously work.

I've been watching the auctions on ebay, but the price for shipping
abroad is kinda high considering the weigth of the disk drive.

I gave it a last try today bypassing some "flaws" on the circuit board
with some wires, but it didn't do it so I've started to ask around for
anyone selling.

Sometimes the heads suffer from stiction and can no longer move on the
slides though I would expect the drive to give an error in that case. Might
be worth checking though, just try to physically move the heads up and down
and retry the drive.




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