520 STFM floppy drive issues

[Goddy]

Hello there

I was wondering if someone can help me with my 520 STFM i just got today and being my first ST ever i am very clueless as whats happend.
I will do my best to describe the issue the ST powers up ok takes a few moments to load up GEM but when I try to load a game from the a floppy disk icon its says Drive A is not responding and it dosent load from a reset either the drive doesnt seem to do anything at all but the drive light is on all the time any ideas as to whats going on I hope its the user doing something wrong not my new ST.

Cheers
Goddy

[Goddy]

After a hour or so of looking around on here i see you can get replacement floppy drives i think i will try that out

[Guest]

well does the floppy make a noise???
and the disk lock up when inserted
if so
i would look to something to do with floppy access and the head sled..
i usualy take the top off the atari and the top of the floppy drive
then you can see whats going on inside as it accesses
could just need cleaned
if the head moves over to begin to read and then stagger then the drive is trying to read

tell us the make and model of the disk drive

or perhaps the header for the floppy cable to the drive and mainboard has an issue
or a chip is loose
so try pressing the ic's that are in sockets back home to the socket
you get oxides build up on the pins of the ic's in sockets

my guess would be the dma controller is loose
happens in transit also

[Goddy]

Thanks i shall have a look tonight and let you know the details of the floppy drive

[Goddy]

I pulled the ST apart and I took the floppy out and removed the metal case it seems the drive belt is very lose it fell off

[Goddy]

Oh i forgot to say the drive is a chinon model f-353at rev a

[Guest]

ok there is a few things you can do
i take it its one of the flat belts

about 80mm-180mm circle

you need to measure it as its still in one piece and get one from ebay
easy to get ill help you

here you are on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floppy-Drive- ... 23217eaf69
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floppy-drive- ... 2573c852d4



check your belts size against this one 18 cm when opened up

just cut the old belt its no use anyway and measure it
expect 20 or so cm as its expanded and perished

if you find a rubber band will do fit it and atari on!!!

[Guest]

ps if the drive disk mount does not go round the machine will report on a motor on signal no motor on no disk or drive unavalible

[Goddy]

ok there is a few things you can do
i take it its one of the flat belts

about 80mm-180mm circle

you need to measure it as its still in one piece and get one from ebay
easy to get ill help you

here you are on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floppy-Drive- ... 23217eaf69
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floppy-drive- ... 2573c852d4


check your belts size against this one 18 cm when opened up

just cut the old belt its no use anyway and measure it
expect 20 or so cm as its expanded and perished

if you find a rubber band will do fit it and atari on!!!

Thanks for your help and the link simbo2 I put a rubber band on for now and ordered the replacement flat belt

Time to try out the games that came with it