Mac128K internal floppy disk problem

Hi,

I have a Mac 128K that seem to have a problem with the floppy disk drive. When I insert the floppy, it won,t enter correctly.

I realized that the top-metal plate of teh disk drive is somehow down too much to work properly. In fact, the metal plate is visible from the outside of the Mac plastic, which sound not normal.

How can I repair this?

Thanks

PB 12", Beige G3, G4 Cube, Mac II, SE/30, 128K and a few more, Mac OS X (10.4.8), iLife 06

Posted on Jan 6, 2007 7:11 PM

23 replies

Steve-Mac- Author

Level 5

5,804 points

Feb 27, 2007 5:57 PM in response to Alex Dawson

Hi,

One step further! It (almost) work now!

The internal (and external) drive are working just fine. The problem was that I used an HD floppy, that may have problems with the 400K drive. I supposed that since the 400K drive did not know about HD disk, it should not validate the second hole, but maybe it did. I found in the external floppy drive a disk that the seller may have forgeten there, that disk has a OS on it and it booted from both disk.

Now, teh remaining problem, one I could not see before, is the keyboard. The keyboard do not seam to work. When I type on it, nothing happen. I try changing the cable with a standard phone headset cord, but the same.

How would I find out if the keyboard or the cable or the computer (the connector or something else) is the one to blame?

Thanks again.

Feb 27, 2007 7:31 PM in response to Steve-Mac-

Steve,

That keyboard was used for several machines so it will be easier to find spare keyboards than 400k drives. Swapping out parts is the easiest way. Does the mouse work?

Ji˜m

Feb 27, 2007 7:55 PM in response to Steve-Mac-

That drive has no sensor in the place where the second hole is, so it cannot tell the difference. But HD diskettes use a different oxide, so they do not interchange -- you will lose your data!

Steve-Mac- Author

Level 5

5,804 points

Feb 28, 2007 4:31 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That drive has no sensor in the place where the
second hole is, so it cannot tell the difference. But

That was my guest!

HD diskettes use a different oxide, so they do not
interchange -- you will lose your data!

That's possible, and it make lots of sense...

Steve-Mac- Author

Level 5

5,804 points

Feb 28, 2007 4:33 AM in response to Appaloosa mac man

The mouse and floppy ports are working.

Only the keyboard is not. But how can I tell if it is the keyboard or the MB?

Feb 28, 2007 11:24 AM in response to Steve-Mac-

That is hard to say. It might also be the phone cables you have tried. I would suspect the keyboard before giving up on the motherboard. If you are a collector, you have lost nothing by finding another keyboard to try. That keyboard will work on a Mac Plus. Do you have any other computer friends in the area that would have a Plus to test your board? Other than that, you will need some specialized equipment to test just one component like a keyboard alone or a port.

Steve-Mac- Author

Level 5

5,804 points

Feb 28, 2007 3:44 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man

Humm, I do not know anyone with such an old computer or keyboard!

Maybe I'll try to find another keyboard on eBay or something just to try.

Like I said, I used a cable from a phone headset, and it was the same. So, maybe the cable is not to blame...

Mar 25, 2007 10:36 PM in response to Steve-Mac-

I know i'm really late in to this, but apparently the cables from a phone handset do not work with the 128k/512k/Plus keyboard. They need some slight rewiring to be compatible with those keyboards.

I'll try and find a link, but normally Google has some good pages indexed for cable pinouts, rewiring and resoldering.

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Mac128K internal floppy disk problem