On 3 Dec 98, at 13:57, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 03/12/98 17:31:45, you write: > > > > > > > > > > I thought the drive light doesn't go out on a Sam drive until you put > > > a disk in. > > > > perhaps one day when you get around to using your Sam you might find > > differrntly > > Moves to other side of room. > Switch on Sam. Both drive lights on. > Insert disk in drive 1, disk spins, light on drive 1 goes out, light on > drive 2 stays on (and will until a disk is inserted). > > Bill.
Well, from what i remember when i used to play about, these are the symptom of the disk-reset bug in Sam, and the reason behind a few of us modifying the reset circuit to work around the bug. The lights stay on because the drive(s) are in an undefined state. If your lucky you can put the disk in and it will cntinue to reset itself into a working state, but if your unluck the heads could be in a write state, which may well trash any data on the sector it finds when the disk is inserted. If i remember rightly, if the machine was reset and the drive light was on and the motor was spinning, i had to reset the machine a few times before it would leave the drive light off, then it would be usable, if i didn't it would trash the floppy. -- Dean Liversidge
