"Will you buy me a shotgun, Dad?" FDS ERROR 22

[newkillergenius]

Hello!

Basically, this is a really, really short version of a long, aggravating story.

Got a FDS, seller promised it working once I replaced the belt.
Scraped gooey old belt off, cleaned surfaces good and installed new little black belt.

ERROR 22.

I have read all of the guides on famicomdisksystem.com about  this error, seen all of Luke's advice on YT about it,
and have searched far and wide for help to no avail.  We've tried "re-seating" the spindle hub (or whatever it's called) over 60 times.
We've "turned the gear until it clicks".  We've looked at the little hole in the white gear through the steel.  Blah, blah, blah.
I own only 2 FDS games, Kid Icarus and Metroid, niether of which will ever boot.  This has been going on for days.
I'm starting to think that it just doesn't want to work.  

Anyway,  I'm just a humble guy stuck in the midwest that wants to play some FDS games.
Anybody care to weigh in on this?  I've had plenty of speculations, none really seemed to cure the issue.
I'm almost ready to just send it to some good soul for repair.
In return, I have a lot of console stuff, and I'd be happy to give you some if you want it.  I'm otherwise broke.  

Thanks for reading this-

PS:  inb4 'cool story bro'  LOL
NKG

[petik1]

Just so you know, nobody here will ever say "cool story bro" (until now. I guarantee the next post will say it)

Get in contact with Xious, a member here. He can fix it, or tell you how to.

[newkillergenius]

 

Just thought maybe I rambled too long.
This indeed is the short version though.

Thanks for your reply petik1!

[Parodius Duh]

yea, send it to Xious.

[Xious]

This is what I do, that they are referencing:  FDS Restoration.

Anything I did in trade would need to be either for something very obscure (for my personal collection),or items that I can easily flip. 

P.S. Nice image insert P.D..

[security16]

yea, send it to Xious.

Don't send him that bra unless it has a nice set of boobies to go with it and well 32AA they are tiny titties!
One thing i might suggest is see if you can get your hands on a different disk the ones you have might be dead. I'm also seriously considering sending him mine cause i have no clue where to start especially since i found random things that don't belong in there.

[Xious]

It's very likely nothing to do with the disks. Out of hundreds, I have a very short stack of disks that are bad, and all of them have a physical defect, such as a pin-hole or a dent in the media. Err.22 is almost always a mechanical problem, and as he just tried to replace the belt, I would never suspect the media.

On rare occasions, the head assembly can be defective, or dirty, which will also generate this error, which generally means that either the data on the disk can't be read, or the header or files table can't be read, or that the data is of the incorrect format. (GD games, and possibly MIDI disks will cause ERR.22 for these reasons.)

Usually a media defect, IIRC, is Err.28 or something else along those lines. I'd need to load one of my truly bad disks to check. On a side-note, if the media defect is in the right spot, it is occasionally possible to write a very small game such as 'Galaxian' to the disk, assuming the files it terminate before the defect, for FDS disks read from the initial position in a spiral (as a single track).

Some media problems are only on one side as well, permitting use of the other disk side without a problem.

I often ask people with very few games to send them with the drive mechanism when having it serviced, as I can then check the validity of their disks as well, just as a precaution, but I almost never get bad disks, even in lots by the hundred. 

[fredJ]

I couldn't fix this error either before I learnt you have to fasten the screws on the drive...

[newkillergenius]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies!
I laughed at the bra pic too- pretty funny.

Worked with the FDS some more today, made several more adjustments.  No dice.

I feel like I'm possibly missing something.  It's frustrating to say the least.  Would it be helpful
if I upped a short video to show you the drive in operation?  Perhaps it could serve as an aid in a diagnosis?
If so let me know and I will.  I'd love to get this beauty going!  Thanks everyone-

[Xious]

It would not be useful; we all know this problem. Some of us can cure it blindfolded, whereas others can shift parts until it works, and the rest just can't repair the drives.

Yet another classical example of why buying bargain 'fix-it yourself' drives is such a bad idea. If it was simple to get them running, then these eBay guys selling dead drives with belts would be repairing them first, and selling them for a greater mark-up.

You can't even be certain that the included belt is either in good condition, or the correct replacement part. If it's the wrong belt, then you will never get out of ERR.22-land.

That is why I refuse to restore drives with a customer-provided belt: I know that my belts are correct, but the one you have could be anything, for anything.

One customer repair arrived with a  hand-cut, uneven, heat-fused black band that was off in every dimension and cut at an angle.

He spent weeks mucking about with his FDS, as I recall, to no avail, before sending it to me.

Other people meddle with the factory-set head position because of bad information in one of the guided on the Internet, then they pay extra for me to manually re-adjust and re-seal it.

The bottom line: This is not a job for the amateur!

[newkillergenius]

Xious, thanks for your post.
You know, it just seems crazy that I have been unable to fix this thing.  I usually have about 98% success rate with electronics.   As a video engineer myself, and with the machine
at work on our test bench, I have had several other co-workers looking at this as well that have experience with older computers, and it is baffling everyone.
I understand that you have been able to earn some money fixing these, and I have read some of your other posts stating 'do not reveal your strategies in fixing these' or something to
that effect, however just maybe a hint, or pointing me in the right direction would be entirely appreciated.  As I said, I am flat broke right now and couldn't afford another bill.

Also, at $100 plus shipping/ costs, was this a 'bargain' drive in your opinion?  I am unsure of the cost of FDS', working or otherwise.

Thanks so much for your feedback- cheers

[ericj]

Wow, for $100 is should have worked. I paid around $20 for each of my drives and one worked fine and the other needed a new drive belt. Both work perfectly.

Can you tell if the drive head has been adjusted. If so, you're in for a frustrating time getting it to work.

[newkillergenius]

No, can't really tell, though I really don't think that it has.  Of course this is just speculation- though it has never once been touched by me.

[fredJ]

Xious does give a lot of feedback and hints, he even has a pdf to exactly detail how to change the belt and tune it. It's not a secret...

I think he has given you at least three pointers in the right direction (belt, factory-set head position ,  dirty head assembly)...

There's no magic button.

[newkillergenius]

Hi Fred

I have never adjusted the factory set head position.
The head is not dirty.
The belt was sent to me from Hard-Off in Japan, who stated it was the correct belt.

So, I'm still stuck here...thanks for your post though.  
I do feel like the seller raked me over the coals now, to the tune of about 75$, after doing some more research on these.  Total bummer.

Thanks everyone for your messages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPgYWjwu9b0