Editing Floppy Drive Repair (section)

== Before you start ==

* Power off and unplug the machine or enclosure.
* Wear an anti-static wrist strap with a current-limiting earth lead when handling the logic board — see [[Recommended Tools]].
* Note the ribbon cable orientation and the terminator/jumper configuration before removing anything.
* Keep at least one '''known-good''' diskette that you have not used in the suspect drive. Testing a cleaned drive with the disk that fouled it is the classic trap.<ref name="mzd">"Tandon TM100-2 in IBM 5150/5155/5160 — Known Problems/Issues", minuszerodegrees.net. Cited for: silicone-based lubricant (grease or spray) on the head carriage rails; the use of isopropyl alcohol on a cotton tip for heavy oxide build-up, against the manufacturer's caution, and the fact that head cleaning diskettes are themselves abrasive; the trap of re-testing with the diskette that fouled the heads; media requirements (double-sided, double-density, soft-sectored for the IBM controller) and the problem of double-density disks written in a high-density drive; spindle speed 295.5–304.5 RPM, the R4 speed adjustment and the 50 Hz / 60 Hz strobe rings on the spindle flywheel; loose spindle flywheel screw as a cause of speed error; C36 and C43 (4.7 µF / 16 V tantalum) as the first suspects when a drive overloads the host power supply; and Chuck(G)'s observation via VCFed that many apparent alignment faults are a dirty track 0 sensor. A strong community reference for IBM PC hardware, cited here as a secondary source.</ref>