[Coco] original Coco 5-1/4 floppy: how to clean?

[Robert Gault]

Chris Oliver wrote:
> All,
>
> Wanted to see what you would recommend that I do in terms of servicing/cleaning my Coco floppy.  It just started throwing I/O errors last night, out of the blue.  All mechanisms work -- the head just searches the disk, can't find anything, and throws an I/O error.  Am wondering if this is a dirt/dust issue on the read head.
>
> Any ideas on what you would check?  I know that the other components in the chain (the disk controller and cable) are working correctly.
>
> Thanks for any tips --
>
> Chris
>

Chris,

You can't be sure "that the other components in the chain (the disk controller 
and cable) are working correctly" unless you have other floppy drives that work. 
Is that the case?
Do you have a second system with which to test the "bad" drive? Are all the 
floppy disks exhibiting the same "no read" issues with the "bad" drive or just some?

If indeed you have correctly isolated the drive itself as the problem, then the 
first thing to do is open up the drive and examine the insides. Look for any 
parts that may have become loose. Check the index LED and make sure it works 
correctly; is in position and turns on when a disk spins. Are the "tracks" that 
the heads slides on clean? They may need very light lubrication. Does the strobe 
wheel indicate that the drive spins at the correct speed?
There were cleaning kits you could buy to clean the 5.25" drives but rubbing 
alcohol or any other tape head cleaning solution can be used on both the 
read/write and erase heads.

Robert