9114 disc drive issues

[rprosperi]

Tom,

The drive in your 9114 probably is actually OK. The mechanisms on the drive for retaining and ejecting the media get "gunked-up" and the old grease & dust dry out to form stiff, sticky junk that prevents the mechanism from working properly. Once the case is open, carefully remove the drive and then clean the mechanism arms, slots and pivots using alcohol and Q-tips and it will probably be OK. Once clean and things move freely, add a tiny bit of lubrication (I use sewing machine oil) to the places where arms/pivots meet and using a sacrificial (bad) diskette, simply work it in/out many times and the action will become smooth and reliable. I've 'revived' 4-5 drives at this point, all seemingly broken (disk will not stay inserted) at the start.

That said, it's also possible that someone manually forced a stuck diskette out by grabbing with pliers and yanking, and this almost always damages the magnetic read/write head, which of course is in contact with the media when fully inserted. You just wont know until you get to the drive.

And note that HD media (2MB but commonly called 1.4MB) will NOT work.

Holler with issues or questions.