pouët.net

hey!
I'm trying to get my atari ste back to working condition. the floppy drive repeatedly assumes that disks are write protected. most likely a mechanical problem with the little switch thingy that "detects" the write protection hole. i don't want to mess around with the machine without some reliable resources because I don't want to break anything accidentally. can anyone point me in the right direction? good online resources etc? tnx!

One place to start. Good luck and hope you can find someone helpful.

http://www.atari-forum.com/

With the hardware sub-forum.

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewforum.php?f=15

http://atari-forum.com :)

do you have another working ST / STe handy ? it's easy to swap the drives over, and that will show where the fault lies.

jco has an STE? :) Coolness :)

i have the exact same problem actually, but with a mste4 hd floppy drive.
im at the point where i either want to give it to someone to repair or to keep in good hands.

tnx, will check those forums. if i put the disk in and out a few times it works, if it's possible to disassemble it i hope it can be fixed by cleaning a contact or sth :) sucky coincidence: my minibrute just broke, too (mechanically). damn you chinese cheapo plastic!

I had some weird problems with my 520STfm. I think it was overheating and some games didn't run at all. At the beginning I thought the problem was related to Tos so I changed it + I added extra memory. But it was still acting up. I remember it worked much better when I had fan blowing cold air at it.
It was weird because some games worked fine and other were acting up.
I couldn't figure out what was exactly the problem.

I replaced floppy drive twice.

Does anyone know if it's an optical or switch sensor for the write protect tab?
If it's optical, a burst of compressed air should clear the fluff out...

I had slight problem with 1040stfm, the fact that sometimes I had to load demos/games again for many times, because it would randomly corrupt, getting bombs etc. It was unpredictable. So maybe it's disk drive that needs to be replaced? I thought maybe the Atari was like the Amiga where the disks can get corrupted very easily. But anyway, I just used SDHxC floppy emulator, never used disk again.

After some playing around with it, it turns out that data corruption due to disk drive errors seem to be the most likely cause for my issues. Some of the old disks are practically unusable, even if I don't get warnings about possibly corrupted data during copy they still can happen. Luckily I found some good disks and the Cubase disk was in good condition, running pretty stable with a fresh backup copy now. Will also try the compressed air trick.

btw, I'm positively surprised by MIDI performance and timing. MTC tape machine sync is rock solid, even while editing the arrangement.

pic.twitter.com/Zez1Bt5lSF

jco you are very welcome to give us an impression of your atari powered musical skills at nordlich =)

+t its called NordlichT
(why do I always make the same mistake?)

I really should give my Atari 1040 STe to someone... Hopefully while attending Outline (3 years since last time i attended a party :( ). Anyone interested?

JCO: you should try to "clean" the disks if you want to save data.

Baah: Why do you want to give it away at all?

Would like to know :) Nice tips.
I read on the Amstrad there are many versions of the sensor. Sometime it's a kind of nail (easy to loose), sometime a white (optical) or black piece of plastic (switch)

Baah:

Bring your 1040STe to Outline 2014 if you wish - I'm happy to take it off your hands if it is going for free - it'll be useful to the museum, so it'll get a good home if required.

I'll also be at Revision as well if you plan to go there, of course ;)

@lotek: because, sadly, i won't use it... Emulators are enough for me.
@Felice: i really *MUST* go to Outline... It won't be free, i expect a Fanta in return! :D