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I would not alter the hardware of the 512k and keep it as original as possible. It’s the first “usable” Mac, there are so many things you can do with it without upgrading it to something it was not. As for the 400k drive, I personally love them, they are so “musical” :-) The zero track alignment...

It happened to me with a few keyboards. Desolder / disassemble / clean / check / solder the switch back is my way to go.

Silica doesn’t last forever, it’s much easier to keep the machine in a sealed bag.

I store my PB170 vacuum bagged in one of those zipped bags for saving wardrobe space, along with one humidity absorbing pouch. You just need to be careful, as vacuum is really powerful and you don’t want to exaggerate with it.

Excellent video, thanks! I managed to recover my Pb 170 by vacuum bagging it along with silica pouches for a long, long time (I mean: months). When I got the unit, the (severe) tunnel effect was appearing after just a few minutes. Nowadays I get bored at pretending I have to do something with...

Should be just a matter of unlatching the connector at the bottom and crimp in a new ribbon cable.

Grazie! Glad to read you find it useful :)

That’s indeed a great video, thanks! One question, though... I assume this mod will only work along with a Mystic upgrade. But how about plain CC or CC II logic board? Shall I go for the more invasive “Hi Res” mod?

Here some slides I put together explaining the ”zero track alignment“ procedure. As far as my experience goes, 100% success rate in recovering “misaligned” drives. I hope it can help. Zero Track Alignment

Here’s the set up (in the background, the venerable Canon MO Drive keeps a fatherly eye on the two youngsters…)

Two 640 Mb Fujitsu drives, MCF3064SS (Aug 1999, the one that arrived with broken gears), and a M2513A6R (May 1998). They are now housed into Fujitsu 243 (fan less!) and 241 (very noisy fan) SCSI case respectively, both of which nicely match the “snow white” of the Macs. Configuring the dip...

So, here’s the fix. The two pieces bonded back together with epoxy and laminated on top of a 0.2 mm Al sheet. The metal layer now bears the mechanical stress, the plastic pieces ensure the fit. After a good clean and lubrication, the MO unit is now again fully functional and back in the fanless...

It’s of course a possibility, even though the cheapest way wold be to just get another drive. But I like fixing things, so I‘m considering options… Baseline is made of POM, very sturdy plastic, so I doubt a 3D printed repalcement would stand a chance to survive. The failed component is just a...

The loading mechanism is not remaining in open position because there’s a broken piece. Fatigue. Such a lousy design I could hardly believe. Will see if it can be reliably fixed.

I just gave it a quick look, the issue lays in the mechanics of the eject mechanism. As you can see from the picture, there’s a rotating cam, which acts on a pin, translating rotational movement into linear one. Apparently, nothing looks damaged, just kind of snapped out of position (even...

Thanks for the feedback, even though it’s not very encouraging. I’m also convinced it must be something mechanical, as it happens as you power the unit up. Will see what I can do, probably not much.

Hi All, I recently managed to score a couple of MO drives for relatively cheap money. In Japan (where I’m currently based), the format was very popular, so it’s indeed easy to find drives and blank media. One drive has already arrived, the second one is on the way, both SCSI units from Fujitsu...

I should still have some disassembled drives around (in theory: not working, but I just hate throwing away that kind of stuff… Doctors would have a lot to say about it, but that’s another story…), so maybe over the next weekend I will try to integrate a drive and see if it can be used for taking...

I recognize my English is not good enough for giving a clear explanation of the method… I will see if I can find the time for integrating some notes and some sketches. But yes, the principle is valid for 400k drives too, at least as long as the alignment of the stator assembly has not been...

Hi Guys, On the infamous “zero track alignment” issue with the floppy drives… I fixed many drives in the past with the most usual “trial and error”, luck-driven and unnerving approach. This time I opted for something more structured, which has proven to be rather successful (read: not much...