Amiga 1200 floppy drive servicing / cleaning.

[wrestletube1]

Gotta give the working floppies a gameplay sometime think it deserves some love after all the work you did getting that skanky drive clean again.

[RetroGamerVX]

@wrestletube1 Lol, yes, most of the games ended up in the scrap yard :o(

[sackus]

cheers - I just revived an A1200 with enough fluff in it to stuff a small childs toy with this guide and now it works like a charm

[RetroGamerVX]

@sackus Hoo hoo, thanks, glad to know this video has been of use, and well done :o)

[MagikGimp]

Is this the same reason why my ST's drive doesn't write properly? Thanks.

[RetroGamerVX]

@MagikGimp It is quite possible, but I don't know sts much. First thing I would always try is cleaning the drive :o)

[doubledragonuk]

i used to go to the Amiga Club in Norwich & i am a Amiga 1200 Nut, , sometimes the drives pack up even after a good clean, heres :a good fix: buy up amiga 600`s cheap that are faulty or scuffy as they got less use than the 1200`s & the drives fit with a little adjustment & moving the anchor bit about on the side of the drive, i have 600 drives in 1200`s, u should be able to pick up 600`s not complete/missing leads for £5 or less

[glavias]

Good video, Just got my Amiga down from the loft, DIsk drive seems very temperamental, got some old game I wanted to test before selling. Moonstone, Commando, Hostages, Looked at a few forums, Can you play Amiga games on a PC!! Although I have Vista.. Anyway good video! Tempted to try and clean my drive.. But don't wanna bugger it up.

[linuxfanman]

Hey Steve... Been a long time.. hehe...I don't think the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 500 are completely compatible... I believe you have to enter the boot menu"hold both mouse buttons down" you can choose the chip set to boot older Amiga 500 games... Thats if I remember right.. It's been a long time my friend...That may be your problem...

[MrStephen182]

Maybe you should come around mine and clean my Amiga.

[RetroGamerVX]

@MrStephen182 Got enough trouble cleaning these buggers lol

[daafies2]

Nice job :-)

[markvergeer]

@UKRetroGames I share similar fears about cosmetic products like the face cleaner contain additional things like moisturizers and perfumes that may actually leave a corrosive film behind. I believe the isopropanolol kind of alcohols are best as these evaporate completely.

[markvergeer]

A shame about the use of proprietary floppy drives in those systems, replacing them with a newer drive is not really possible. Still it is very good to see how one does service the a1200 drive. May have to do that myself someday in the not too distant future.

[TheEPROM9]

MMMM dust, anybody!, nobody!. I have used face cleaner to clean electronic before. Reminds me of when I made a floppy disk shooter. I never worked how I wanted it to, the disks just fell out.

[electricadventures]

Good video, some useful tips there. Good news on the Amiga 500 too. Hope you can get some more of the floppies working.

[james42519]

think you would have been better just using compressed air to clean.

[RetroGamerVX]

@james42519 I prefer not to have dust airbourne in the lab :o(

[james42519]

@RetroGamerVX then take it outside :p

[james42519]

i am guessing it is jut a regular floppy and can be replaced with any?

[RetroGamerVX]

@james42519 Nope, it's a bespoke design for the amiga :o(

[28steryan]

Just get a HD or CF Card on the the IDE and then you don't need to fanny around with disks, it's much quicker loading to.

[RetroGamerVX]

@28steryan Yes, I've heard of that, does it work on the 500?:o)

[28steryan]

@RetroGamerVX No they do on A600 and A1200 though or an SX32 expanded CD32.

There is an external HD for the A500 but internal no Idea, possibly???

[DLiberator78]

@RetroGamerVX Yes it does Steve. Check YT for the HxC Floppy Emulator. This works on many systems. Check out a channel called JeffHxC2001 you will see it in action. It is not cheap (Circa £60) but I am going to treat myself to one at some point for my Amiga 1200. I have a CF Flash Card for a HDD and soon I can use an SD card for a floppy. Nice video mate. Sorry the fix didn't work. You can also use isopropyl alcohol this is my preffered choice when cleaning electronics.

[nilz23]

I can't wait, I want to see what's on all those disks!

[RetroGamerVX]

@nilz23 So far, out of the over 100 I've tried, 5 work, so don't hold too much hope, but I've been researching how to fix some of the others :o)

[TheUnbiasedGamer]

Huh huh! You're rubbing the heads! Huh huh!!! Lol. Awesome video! I'm not sure what more nerve racking. Disassembling an extremely old system or disassembling a really expensive new system. I recently took apart my ps3 and cleaned all the parts and put it back together. That wasn't so scary but i could imagine i might be a little more scared if it had ancient parts.

[RetroGamerVX]

@TheUnbiasedGamer I'd prefer to dissassemble the old one, cheaper to replace parts if it goes wrong :o)

[LarryBundyJr]

alcohol also doesn't leave a film after it dries, unlike water.

[RetroGamerVX]

@LarryBundyJr Very true, forgot to mention that :o)

[LarryBundyJr]

@RetroGamerVX Sweet, I believe the film is calcium or something. So not a good thing to leave on electronics. Esepcially on circuit boards as it conducts electricity.

[thomas3120]

Nice job Steve :)

[TheBladeJunker]

Thanks for these Amiga service / cleaning videos they are most helpful. I didn't have a paintbrush but I did get a bunch of dust out of my Amiga 500 keyboard using a toothbrush. How is the galvanizing on your shielding, mine is prone to blackened fingerprints easily? First time with an Amiga, very easy to take apart is my first impression. :)

[RetroGamerVX]

@TheBladeJunker I really did not notice any fingerprints on the shield on this one, but the 500 I've just picked up has a perfectly clean shield, looks like new, I imagine that would get covered easily :o)

[izaurralde]

Ahhh more floppydisk geekness!!

Nice tip on taking a picture of it so it makes easy reference=}

[RetroGamerVX]

@izaurralde Glad to be of service :o)

[Zagroseckt]

Here's a vid of a 5 1/2 drive cleaning and cleaning the big disks this can be used on the smaller ones to you might wana give it a try on a few. HINT use scotch tape to keep the disk flap open...

[RetroGamerVX]

@Zagroseckt I may have to try that with the ones I am more desperate to play :o)

[AtsumaKarin]

Definitely a very interesting video this one...a couple of blackouts and finally an end to the long-running saga that was: RetroGamerVX getting an Amiga that actually works! :P

In any case: glad to hear you've finally sorted that out and you're right: I shouldn't attempt what you did in the video as it's not exactly my forte...wouldn't know where to start, actually. :P

[RetroGamerVX]

@AtsumaKarin This stuff is so easy, if you can work out how a lego house is built, you can work out how these are built :o) Yes, had some processing problems with this, they are definatly not on the original render, I watched it all the way through :o(

[RetroGamerVX]

@UKRetroGames Yes, strange that, just checked the original render, not on there :o(

[RetroGamerVX]

@UKRetroGames Probably not if you use the cheap one :o) Yes, I've always used this cheap stuff on carts etc, works a treat, I don't think it has moisturiser in it at all :o) the 500 is working a treat, shame the disks are not, been through about 100 disks so far, 4 games working (nice games though) :o(

[Jamiepr]

mint video mate hope 500 runs well for you

[RetroGamerVX]

@Jamiepr Thanks Jamie, it's working a treat :o)

[Polaventris]

Good luck!

[RetroGamerVX]

@Polaventris Yep, teh 500 is running nice Pol :o)

[EASTWICKgames]

nice vid as always mate :)

[RetroGamerVX]

@EASTWICKgames Thanks Eastwick :o)