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IBM PS/2 8560-041 Floppy Drive

Joined
Aug 23, 2007
Messages
42
Location
Madison, CT
I picked up an old behemoth tower IBM 8560-041 and almost got a hernia dragging it home. I opened it up and carefully cleaned out the disintegrating
black foam and dirt. I powered it up and the hard drive spun up. The IBM errors were 161, 163, and 601.I noticed that there was NO Floppy disk drive.
Can anybody tell me:

1) What smooth edge floppy disk drive this unit took? I believe it is a 3.5 1.44 mb FDD.
2) What model would this take?
3) Where can one acquire a compatible or original drive?

Thanks for any assistance.
Fred
 
What is a "smooth edge floppy disk drive"?

Yes its a 3.5 1.44 mb FDD.

According to: http://ohlandl.ipv7.net/floppy/floppy.html#Floppy_List

"8560, 8565, 8580 Floppy Drives
1.44 64F0162 (Pin Conn. LED below slot)
1.44 72X8523 (Edge Conn. LED above slot)"

Does your model 60 have the pin connection or the card edge?

You can convert the 40-pin card edge to the 34-pin:
http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/fdadapt.html

They can be found on eBay occasionally, usually for stupid prices. Also the capacitors in them often go bad, so you may buy one and the find it needs recapping.

Its also possible to mod a normal PC drive, but that requires a different cable.
 
You should find one with the drive sled. Unless you have one in the case already. Generally speaking, if you see one on ebay with the correct sled, it will be likely to work with your system. I'd have to open my 80 to see exactly what sled is needed. I don't have a photographic memory.

Cheap drives do come up on ebay. Just keep your ears to the ground.
 
These have become rare and expensive to obtain. There's a dealer down in East Hanover NJ who owns a wharehouse full of this type of stuff and sells some of it on eBay. I contacted him to see what he had and he quoted me $200 for one. Apparently, there is an old PBX/phone system that uses the same or compatible model so they are highly sought after. That being said, I was able to get one for about $60 after a lot of research and finding someone selling one for cheap.

You'll find that these were made by many manufacturers for IBM so if you search far and wide you can find one. For example, the one that came out of my model 60 had an FRU of 90X6766 and was an Alps Electric DFL713A01A. After searching for about a week, I found one on eBay for $60. It's a Sony MFD-77W with an FRU of 15F7570. The auction was titled "VINTAGE SONY MP-F77W 1.44 MB 3.5" FLOPPY DRIVE", notice the model number was wrong... I found it by trolling eBay for days and you'll have to do the same if you can't locate one privately on a vintage computing forum or subreddit. If you use the follow search feature in ebay and check your email often, you can snap these things up as they are listed. Manged to get a 8MB 286 memory option card for $25 that way.
 
I honestly think he is just an ass. $60 is still overpriced imho, but i'm happy you found one.
 
Phantom Eigh,

Thanks for your reply. I purchased a 3.5 floppy 1.44mb unit, a Mitsubishi MF 355C-599MA, equivalent to IBM P/N 72X6068. I attached the card edge (IDC34-pin) on the
microchannel controller to the 34 IDC pin on the back of the floppy drive. There is no molex or electrical connection on the back of the floppy drive.
I did not insert the drive in the bay because of the black plastic insert protector that I can't seem to remove. I started up the 8560 with the floppy external to the bay and got 161,163, and 601 errors. Should the computer recognize the floppy drive externally from the bay?
Is the floppy drive the wrong unit, i.e., non-compatible with the 8560-041?
Does the floppy drive have to be in the bay for it to work?
Please provide some assistance if possible?
Thanks
fred
 
PhantomEigh,

A while ago you posted a reply to my inquiry about a floppy drive for restoring an IBM 8560-041. I found an ebay seller who listed an Sony MFD-77W, part no 72X6056. I purchased it for $41.00 and received it yesterday. It had a huge sled
that I removed and put the drive into the bay. I attached the ribbon cable to the smooth edge connector card extension
on the drive and inserted the p2 electrical connector into the molex input. I turned on the machine and still received
161, 163, and 601 errors. Is the drive bad as no light came on? Is this unit compatible with the IBM 90X6766 floppy for this PS/2 unit?

I would appreciate any assistance for resolution of this issue.

Thanks
Fred
 
mR_ Slug

Thanks for your reply. The unit is the same but there is a small controller card attachment that can be connected to the smooth edge connector. It has a molex input with
the four prongs. Should this card be removed and the ribbon cable be attached to the smooth edge connector on the drive?

Thanks
Fred
 
I purchased the 2nd drive from that auction, I believe :) Had a huge bay adapter to put the drive into a 5.25 bay.

Remove the adapter card, I believe it's only needed for aftermarket controllers that don't send power down the line. I could be wrong, but that appeared to be its function.

I removed the drive from the giant sled, removed the power adapter board, set the drive select slide switch to "1" position, and it worked fine.

You will get a (I think 161) error if you're not connected to the right spot on the cable and the slide switch isn't in the right position. Connect it to the middle position of the floppy cable and set your slide switch to 1. My drive came set to "0" which did not work for the center position of the cable, it would work on the end of the cable, but would not boot.

I used mine in a PS/2 Model 25-004. YMMV.
 
Ok, well further to the PM Fred sent me. If the drive you have is the one zombienerd posted, yes you need to remove the bridge board. That converts the drive to a standard PC/XT/AT floppy connector+power. You need to connect directly to the 40-pin card edge connector on the drive. (That is, unless your model 60 is using the newer PS/2 34-pin-headder connector, in which case there are a couple of options.)
 
To Zombienerd and mR_Slug,

Thanks for your advice. The Sony MFD-77W drive( purchased at the same time as zombienerd's) is P/N 72X6056. It has a 20 pinm double sidedsmmoth card edge connector for total 40 pin.
My floppy drive P1 ribbon cable has a 34 pin smooth edge header and the only way to attach to the drive is to use the adapter, thus converting the connection to 34 pin.
1)what would the next option be?
2) can the floppy drive switch be adjusted
to make the Sony drive functional. If so, where is the drive switch located - is on the drive or motherboard?
3) Should the drive be returned to the seller?
Thanks for your help!

Fred
 
Ok, Well that's weird in a PS/2. Usually there are two options: 40-pin card edge, or 34-pin pin-header. There is a converter you can make:
http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/fdadapt.html

But I wonder if you have the correct cable in the system. I don't have a model 60, but AFAIK the 60's floppy subsystem is the same as the 80. Originally it would have been the 40-pin, perhaps later 60's used the 34-pin. Just to confirm by "34 pin smooth edge header" you do mean "34-pin card edge" right? As far as I can tell from the images, the drive as shown in zombienerd's post, should be testable on a standard PC floppy interface. I don't even know if the drive has DS0-DS1 switch/jumper settings.

I think the next thing to do is look at that cable. The only time I've seen a 34-pin card edge connector in a PS/2 is for an MFM/ESDI hard drive. I think someone's put the wrong cable in.
 
@Fred Schoenbrun

PS/2 Model 8560 BIOS seems to be different from 8550's one.

I wonder you can dump 8560 BIOS via DUMPAT.EXE
 
I have a broken Alps floppy from an 8580. Mechanically it seems ok, but it's not reading disks. I've looked for the obvious stuff, but a full-on repair is a bit beyond my expertise and my currently available free time. It's unsustainable to just keep buying old ones that will eventually go bad as well.

Is there anyone who repairs them?
 
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