NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/sys/amiga/hardware/14645

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-29 | 1.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!stl!crosfield!jc
From: [e-mail] (jerry cullingford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Spurious Write Protect
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 28 Aug 92 12:17:49 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Crosfield Electronics, Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom.
Lines: 29

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Rico Jansen) writes:
>I just bought an Amiga 500+, now I have a problem.
>The external drives give spurious writeprotects, when the disk is not write
>protected. This disables me from formatting or copying disks in the
>external drives.

>Anybody got any idea what can be the problem ?

Two possibilities:

(1) A cable/connector fault

(2) sensor fault. Have a look in the drive to see what it uses to detect
the write protect hole. It should either be a small plastic "finger" or
an LED/Sensor arrangement. If it's a mechanical finger, it may be worn,
stuck, or bent.

I once had a similar problem with the internal drive on my 1000 - only
with one particular brand of floppy - which turned out to be a combination
of the shape of the WP shutter on that brand and the mechanical sensor in the
drive. I got the drive replaced under warranty.

Another problem with the optical sensor versions, is _Not_ noticing that a
disk is write protected because of crud building up on the optics...

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