Re: Insides of a Widget disk

I've noticed this same sticky head problem in my Widget, but my solution is different:

1. Turn on computer.
2. Hit space during self-test to trigger STARTUP FROM menu. Wait.
3. If Widget is online, boot from Widget. Done. Otherwise:
4. Enter Service Mode.
5. Reboot computer via option 6 (POWER CYCLE). Goto 2.

With each boot, the Widget tries to walk the read head again, and I've found that it gets a little bit further with every attempt. After enough "exercise", it eventually starts working again.

--Tom

On Thursday, April 3, 2014 3:00:24 PM UTC-4, compu_85 wrote:
>
> That sounds similar to the story of when I got my Widget going. The glass
> hadn't fallen off, but I did grab the head motor and move it end to end a
> bunch of times. I think the bearings get stiff and the voice coil doesn't
> have the power to move the heads.
>
> -J
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 12:48 PM, ogge <alexander..._at_email.domain.hidden<javascript:>
> > wrote:
>
>> Hey,
>>
>> I've successfully reglued an already completely fallen off glass in my
>> widget drive. Here's the story:
>>
>> I carefully opened the drive assembly in a clean, well-lit place, tried
>> to place the glass back as precise as possible where it sat (you could tell
>> by the glue residue left on the glass and the metal) and glued it back on
>> with superglue. When I reassembled the drive, it didn't work right away. It
>> produced the clunking re-seek sounds over and over, didnt seem to find the
>> tracks. I fiddled with it for a while and finally, when nothing else seemed
>> to do it any good, I grabbed the actuator shaft and moved it with my hand
>> while the drive reseeked over and over. At first very carefully, becoming
>> more and more vigorous as I didn't get any reaction of the drive. After
>> maybe 5 minutes of fiddling with the shaft, whatever I did, suddenly the
>> drive started to have success seeking tracks.
>>
>> I took out my LOS floppys and the Lisa Office System reformatted the
>> drive fine. Woohoo! It worked fine for months and didn't seem to get worse.
>> Remember, this was some time before any utility became available which was
>> able to really low-level-format the Widget. I only had the format routine
>> of LOS available to me. Either it was pure luck that I was able to reglue
>> the glass exactly enough for it to work this way or it isn't all that
>> critical, especially when you have a way to reformat it low-level. I've got
>> no idea, maybe one of the Widget experts here can tell.
>>
>> Now for the sad part: The Widget suddenly became problematic again about
>> half a year later and finally completely went bad again: The glass had
>> fallen off again. That's the way it still is, maybe I'll try it again some
>> day, now armed with BLU :-)
>>
>> Hope that helps :)
>> Alexander from Germany
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Am Samstag, 1. Februar 2014 17:37:11 UTC+1 schrieb compu_85:
>>
>>> I was thinking about this more... What is the group's opinion of opening
>>> up a *working* disk to apply more glue to the graticule? I'd hate for it to
>>> fall off on my good drive and ruin it, or at least require it to be
>>> reformatted.
>>>
>>> --
>> --
>> -----
>> You received this message because you are a member of the LisaList group.
>> The group FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/lisa.html
>> To post to this group, send email to lisa..._at_email.domain.hidden<javascript:>
>> To leave this group, send email to lisalist+u..._at_email.domain.hidden<javascript:>
>> For more options, visit this group at
>> http://groups.google.com/group/lisalist
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "LisaList" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to lisalist+u..._at_email.domain.hidden <javascript:>.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jason Perkins
> 313 355 0085
>

-- 
-- 
-----
You received this message because you are a member of the LisaList group.
The group FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/lisa.html
To post to this group, send email to lisalist_at_email.domain.hidden
To leave this group, send email to lisalist+unsubscribe_at_email.domain.hidden
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lisalist
--- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "LisaList" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to lisalist+unsubscribe_at_googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.



text/html attachment: alternate version of message