The Sinclair QL Forum

Something of an update, for what it's worth...

I ordered a sealed box of "new" HD disks (probably from sometime in the early '90s by the look of the packaging). I tried formatting them with the "good" FDD from my XP PC, and they all gave up with "format failed". I was on the point of giving up and ...

Hi,

PC Floppy drives are all configured as Drive 1, with DS1 hard wired or the jumper in DS1 position and will be seen as FLP2_ on a QL.

To use this type of floppy drive as FLP1_ move the Jumper to DS0 or if a hardwired solder link is fitted to DS1, get a PC floppy drive cable and straighten out ...

If I remember correctly. If you put a PC floppy drive in a QL, it becomes FLP2_. You have to change the drive select on the drive, to make it work as FLP1_


Thanks Martin, that worked! When I put the pc drive in before , I replaced flp1 and left flp2 connected. This time, I removed the old ...

I have an old PC with a floppy drive. I swapped out flp1 for that but it didn’t even light up. Quite a few reasons why that might not work though. But if there was a way to try one of the QL drives in the PC that might get me a bit further forward.


Does the PC floppy drive work OK in the PC ...

I think we can narrow down the problem to one (or more?) of the following:
1) Power supply problem
2) cable problem
3) Disk drives both faulty
4) Gold Card faulty

So I've ordered a USB to floppy drive connector to try the QL drives out and see if they spin up.

I'll update when I get it (in a week ...

It’s a wonder those drives ever worked at all! So maybe all I need is a new power supply giving 12v to persuade the motors to get going?

I have an old PC with a floppy drive. I swapped out flp1 for that but it didn’t even light up. Quite a few reasons why that might not work though. But if there was a way to try one of the QL drives in the PC that might get me a bit further forward.

Thanks for the suggestions. Here's some more info...

The power supply runs to the case for flp2_, and there is no 12V line that I can see.

I bodged a spur off this to power flp1_ and sellotaped the two drives together to make a dual unit.

I have taken it apart and taken photos to show the ...

My QL renovation hasn't progressed very far, although it boots up at least.

It's a JM with Gold Card and dual 3.5" drives. It was working when I put it in the basement about 25 years ago.

When I try to dir flp1_ (or dir flp2_) I get "not found" whether I have a disk in or not. The appropriate ...

If the colours are correct on UHF, the video chip is most likely working as it should.



That's great news! Looks like a go'er then.


It is always worth resurrecting a QL ;-) Just finished my third and last QL with missing keys, pulverised membrane and crusty sockets.
Always fun to finally ...