General Category > Lisa Troubleshooting and Repair
Will the Lisa return an IO error without the "Lite" Interface Card
sigma7:
--- Quote from: friedboard on August 16, 2025, 01:56:36 am ---it came from eBay this way and I assume the machine must have been in a working state
--- End quote ---
It is certainly possible that I'm wrong that it shouldn't work (or maybe there are more specifics as to where it does and doesn't)... can someone else comment on this:
Does a mechanical 400k/800k floppy drive work in an otherwise normal 2/5, except with a 2/10 I/O Board installed?
edit: from a brief experiment, it seems an 800k drive will work, while a 400k drive does not.
friedboard:
I actually think you are right! But this might not be a 2/10 IO board, but a 2/5 board. Just not the common version that we see
stepleton:
--- Quote from: friedboard on August 16, 2025, 03:25:50 am ---I actually think you are right! But this might not be a 2/10 IO board, but a 2/5 board. Just not the common version that we see
--- End quote ---
I'm pretty sure this is a 2/10 I/O board. 820-4033-A, the IWM chip up at the top left corner --- it's just like the one in my 2/10.
sigma7:
--- Quote from: friedboard on August 16, 2025, 03:25:50 am ---But this might not be a 2/10 IO board, but a 2/5 board. Just not the common version that we see
--- End quote ---
Although it isn't impossible that new boards will be found, I don't think this is one... here is the schematic for the 2/10 I/O Board for verification: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/apple/lisa/hardware/Lisa_2_10_IO_Board/
sigma7:
--- Quote from: sigma7 on August 16, 2025, 02:18:20 am ---It is certainly possible that I'm wrong that it shouldn't work (or maybe there are more specifics as to where it does and doesn't)...
--- End quote ---
I've now done some superficial testing and found that I was mostly incorrect.
In summary, the 2/10 I/O Board in an otherwise stock 2/5 does appears to work with Sony 800K drives, but doesn't work with a 400K drive.
With a Sony double sided drive, after swapping in the 2/10 I/O Board, the drive did seem to run normally and the floppy was readable (since this was a very superficial test, there could be more subtle issues such as slow performance, or not). I tested an MPF75W and MPF51W.
With a 400K single sided drive, after swapping in the 2/10 I/O Board, the drive did clearly misbehave; the motor would run, but not at the usual speed, or with the usual variations, and the disk was not readable. Upon swapping the Lite Adapter for the modified version described in the LisaFAQ http://lisafaq.sunder.net/lisafaq-hw-io_substitution.html, the 400K drive worked again.
I expect any Floppy Emulator won't need the motor speed signal, so would work like the Sony drives.
I didn't test any off-brand drives, such as the Chinon drive sold by Sun Remarketing for a while.
Apologies for the misdirection; I'll correct my previous post on this topic.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version