Faulty Dual Floppy Disc Drive - Repair?
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 5:48 pm
I'm new to the forum so please bear with me.
Way back in 1983 I bough my first Dragon 32 and a year later bought the 64. Many happy hours of computing stretched out before me.
Every year I visited a Dragon Computer Fair at, I think Eastbourne on the south coast, purchasing the latest hardware and software and looking and discussing the latest developments. I bought all the Dragon User magazines and a 5.25" floppy disc drive to expand the capabilities of this wonderful machine. I then looked at getting a better and enhanced screen display and the FLEX OS was the answer. In '88 I purchased an additional drive (an Opus, I think, from S P Electronics somewhere in north Kent) and fitted it myself with a little help from S P. Great satisfaction all round. I learnt to use FLEX with all sorts of software both games and utilities that opened up with the use of a dual floppy drive. A connection with a dot matrix printer further added to its use. I even splashed out (in those days) to buy the alternative operating system OS9 but never really got the hang of it. The Dragon 64 served me well for many years. The DOS Controller went on the blink at one point and a very helpful repair man, in Hothfield just outside Ashford (Kent) put it back into working order for me.
There was a Dragon Use Group run by someone I believe was called Paul (may be wrong about the name) who lived somewhere on the south coast. He was always helpful with information and queries I had.
In all I built an extensive collection of tapes and floppy discs - all in regular use until, in 1993, I eventually fell for a Windows pc and the Dragon got packed away and forgotten. But I kept it - you never know when a Dragon revival might once again stir an interest.
Well, now it has. Brought about by packing up to move house. There it was all boxed up together with that heavy box containing the dual floppy drives as well as three large crates full of floppies and cassettes, Dragon User Magazines and all those clips and cuttings I carefully retained to help me on my way during a glorious decade of use. I loved going to the annual computer fairs.
Anyway, I digress. The unpacked Dragon 64 works fine. I even bough a monitor lead to connect to an old TV that I suspect gives a better picture than the TV lead that originally came with it. Sadly I cannot get the dual floppy drive to work. When switched on the red light at the front flickers on an off and stays off and there is no sound from the drives. Looking inside the bottom drive has a band drive that still appears to work. The top Opus drive does not appear to have a band. Inserting a floppy result in momentary activity on the head but only for a second, more just a click than anything else, so not sure if it is the power supply, the circuit board or the drives themselves.
I would love to have use of the floppy drives again as most of my old records etc are on 5.25" floppies. I know of no-one in my area that could offer a repair and hoping that someone on the forum may be able to point me in the right direction. Here's hoping.
Way back in 1983 I bough my first Dragon 32 and a year later bought the 64. Many happy hours of computing stretched out before me.
Every year I visited a Dragon Computer Fair at, I think Eastbourne on the south coast, purchasing the latest hardware and software and looking and discussing the latest developments. I bought all the Dragon User magazines and a 5.25" floppy disc drive to expand the capabilities of this wonderful machine. I then looked at getting a better and enhanced screen display and the FLEX OS was the answer. In '88 I purchased an additional drive (an Opus, I think, from S P Electronics somewhere in north Kent) and fitted it myself with a little help from S P. Great satisfaction all round. I learnt to use FLEX with all sorts of software both games and utilities that opened up with the use of a dual floppy drive. A connection with a dot matrix printer further added to its use. I even splashed out (in those days) to buy the alternative operating system OS9 but never really got the hang of it. The Dragon 64 served me well for many years. The DOS Controller went on the blink at one point and a very helpful repair man, in Hothfield just outside Ashford (Kent) put it back into working order for me.
There was a Dragon Use Group run by someone I believe was called Paul (may be wrong about the name) who lived somewhere on the south coast. He was always helpful with information and queries I had.
In all I built an extensive collection of tapes and floppy discs - all in regular use until, in 1993, I eventually fell for a Windows pc and the Dragon got packed away and forgotten. But I kept it - you never know when a Dragon revival might once again stir an interest.
Well, now it has. Brought about by packing up to move house. There it was all boxed up together with that heavy box containing the dual floppy drives as well as three large crates full of floppies and cassettes, Dragon User Magazines and all those clips and cuttings I carefully retained to help me on my way during a glorious decade of use. I loved going to the annual computer fairs.
Anyway, I digress. The unpacked Dragon 64 works fine. I even bough a monitor lead to connect to an old TV that I suspect gives a better picture than the TV lead that originally came with it. Sadly I cannot get the dual floppy drive to work. When switched on the red light at the front flickers on an off and stays off and there is no sound from the drives. Looking inside the bottom drive has a band drive that still appears to work. The top Opus drive does not appear to have a band. Inserting a floppy result in momentary activity on the head but only for a second, more just a click than anything else, so not sure if it is the power supply, the circuit board or the drives themselves.
I would love to have use of the floppy drives again as most of my old records etc are on 5.25" floppies. I know of no-one in my area that could offer a repair and hoping that someone on the forum may be able to point me in the right direction. Here's hoping.