🚀 go-pugleaf

Excuse me if this is slightly off topic, but I think this is the news
group where there has been discussion on problems with Syquest EZ135
drives, at least for Mac users.

I have a beloved Syquest EZ135 drive and a significant investment in
disks.  I have been suffering from increasingly erratic errors which I
suspect were not actual disk defects but more likely to be a dirty head or
something.

Then a few days ago the drive refused to mount any disk I gave it. 
Encouraged by someone who said cleaning was possible (sorry I have lost
your email but thanks for your nudge) I have managed to resurrect this
drive.  Right now it is happily running a diagnostic as an exercise.  In
the flush of success and while they are running I thought I would share my
�how to do it� knowledge.

Firstly, if your drive is sort of working, but you are getting errors,
make sure you have the latest (and sadly last) SyQuest Utilities, v4.01,
which are a huge improvement on the previous SilverLining Light SQ.  Use
the utility to check the driver version on the disk, and update if
necessary to the latest ProsoftSQ 4.0.1.  I put a marker on the disks I
have updated (well on the case actually :-) so I can keep track of which I
have done.  It seems that the latest driver is larger than the previous
ones, and may need a larger partition.  About 2/3rds of my disks needed to
be completely reinitialised to accommodate this.  For those that were
back-up disks I could afford to do this (relying on my other back-up
meanwhile).  Then verifying the disks at the �Heavy� level gets an
up-to-date defective sector map.

If you are still getting problems, or disks refuse to mount, as mine
eventually did, then it�s time for the screwdriver.  This is written from
memory, as my unit is safely assembled, and I am not taking it apart again
unless I have to.  Proceed as follows:

1. Disconnect the drive from the system and power supply.
2. Turn the drive upside down and remove the four rubber feet.  Two of
them have a Phillips screw under them.  Remove these two screws, and then
the plastic base of the outer cover.
3. Now you will see four nibs that can be prised out to release the
plastic top cover.  This you can now remove, revealing the inner works,
which comprise: a sealed silver metal box containing the mechanical works,
an electronics board, a metal support panel and a back-plate which carries
the rear connectors,  The electronics board is sandwiched between the
sealed case and the support panel.  Because I didn�t know my way in I took
all this apart, but it is not necessary.
4. Turn the unit so that it is lying on the support layer, with the silver
metal sealed case upwards.  You should see two white sticky labels saying
�do not break seal�.  These cover two recessed screws.  Break through the
seals and remove the screws.  Also slit round the sticky tape sealing the
sides of the silver box.  Now you should be able to remove the silver
metal cover and expose the mechanical works.
5. You will see the head and its supporting white plastic �fork� at back
left.  If in doubt, start to insert a disk and you will see the head start
to move into the disk case.  Now you can clean this head with a cotton bud
soaked in disk cleaner (iso-propyl alcohol).  I saw no visible sign of
dirt removed from mine.  Be very careful not to leave fluff on the head
mechanism.
6. Now plug in the power supply and switch on.  You can carefully insert a
cartridge and watch it engage and, hopefully, spin up until the steady
green light appears.  Then you can dismount it with the button and retry
this a few times.
7. If all is working well, switch off, take out the disk, and replace the
silver cover and its two screws, and then re-instate the plastic outer
case, and its two screws and the rubber feet.
8. Reconnect everything and system test.

Ah!  The diagnostics have just finished with �no defects found�.

Best of luck
Tony
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Tony Voss  <tv@antipole.demon.rats.co.uk>
Tel: +44 (0)1749 880324   Fax: +44 (0)870 164 0384
Address: Dean Cottage, Dean, Nr. Shepton Mallet,  Somerset, UK - BA5 5SA
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