Date   : Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:46:30 +0100
From   : beeb@... (Kris Adcock)
Subject: Wires cut in floppy ribbon cable?

Evening all!

I've just tried to replace the ribbon cable on a 5.25-inch floppy drive. 
The drive works fine, but the cable was manky, so I swapped it for a 
nicer one.

But when the Beeb accesses the drive, it makes an awful grinding noise!

On closer inspection, it seems that the first two wires of the old cable 
(the one with the stripe, and the one after) have been cut deliberately 
(there's a one-centimetre section very neatly clipped out).

So what does the cutting do? An idiosyncracy of the drive? I know that 
alternate lines in a floppy cable are 0v, so presumably it's just the 
one wire that is actually important.

Not a big deal, I suppose - just something else to look out for when I'm 
trying to build working drives from assorted non-working ones. :)

Cheers,

Kris.