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Need Help With a 1541 that won't format

Id like to throw in my 2 cents about this. I have gathered up and repaired about twenty 1541 drives at this point. Only one is an alps model. All the rest mitsumi. Not a single one of the Mitsumi drives has a problem with the head. The only Commodore drive I have encountered with a bad read head is my SFD-1001 floppy drive. So I realize my 20 are a small faction of whats out there but I think judging by what I am hearing on this thread there is some bias and hype involved with commodore 1541 drives; some more spreading of bad info.

Now I believe there could very well be a problem with read heads but I feel this is just like the MT RAM chip crap people are passing on the internet.

Whenever I see a cheap commodore 1541 I buy it. Bought a bunch at the VCF swapmeets cheap. Fixed every single one. Not a bad read head in the group. What I found was typically bad TTL logic or ROM chips.
I will continute to buy up 1541 drives regardless of brand as I really dont feel there is anything to avoid.
 
VERAULT said:
I..... I have gathered up and repaired about twenty 1541 drives at this point.......
I will continue to buy up 1541 drives regardless of brand as I really don't feel there is anything to avoid....
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VERAULT........I am curious........what vintage systems do you have that are dear to you?
 
I recently parted out a 1541 with the Newtronics style mechanism which had open heads.

Why unnecessarily risk it? I'm going to avoid or only pay scrap value prices on these drives, it's just not worth it.

I may attempt surgery if I find a broken 5.25 drive with head intact, similar to here https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=72923
 
ziloo said:
You revive and keep everything!! I say couple of hundreds😉.....
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Fair enough. But I dont keep everything (to my wifes dismay). My 5160 which I have had since the my father gave it to me in the mid 80's is at the top of my list. My Blue bezel commodore PET is probably second. Apple /// Plus is probably 3rd. Followed by My First Apple II plus. Runners up would be Macintosh II and IIx as they were very difficult repairs, and the macintosh LC with IIe pds card as its my favorite macintosh. Have too many duplicates of commodore, Atari, IBM, and Apple II systems to hold them dear even if I really like them. I could be forgetting what I have at this point too, Many things tucked away in crawl spaces or on industrial shelves... so there is always the ones I cant remember.. Oh how I love them so..


In my collection that I prize but maybe not hold dear. My 1971 Wang 700 series, My Apple Lisa 2, Zx spectrum which I have working now.


In truth when it comes to vintage computing. I much prefer repairing them to actually using them. Its a compulsion at this point. I dunno maybe I am alone in that.
 
VERAULT said:
In truth when it comes to vintage computing. I much prefer repairing them to actually using them. Its a compulsion at this point. I dunno maybe I am alone in that.
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No. I prefer tinkering with them like creating hardware or improving the original hardware like expanding the memory or replacing the CPU with better ones: 6502 -> 65816. I even sold my KIM and Blue bezel commodore PET because I didn't want to tinker with them.
 
Ruud said:
I even sold my KIM and Blue bezel commodore PET because I didn't want to tinker with them.
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Just to clarify.... You sold them because you didnt want to modify them... or because they worked and you didnt have anything to do with them anymore?
 
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