ZIP SCSI 100MB drive won't eject disk

[elj...@sbcglobal.net]

Hello,

I have a problem with a ZIP disk drive. It is a 100MB SCSI model
(purplish blue color). When powered the eject button won't work. I
thought maybe the power supply was bad. I tried another ZIP PS and it
doesn't eject the disk when pressed. I do not have the device connected
to the SCSI bus right now. Shouldn't it still work (be able to eject
the ZIP cartridge) without the cable plugged to the PC? This one
baffles me.

Mike McWhinney
elja, Inc.

[Ghostrider]

elj...@sbcglobal.net wrote:

With the ZIP drive connected to the SCSI interface, will it
eject the ZIP disk under computer command? That is, if Iomega
tools are installed, does the eject command work? Or in My
Computer, right-click on the ZIP drive icon and click on the
eject command. If the disk ejects, then the manual eject link
needs repair...it is, IIRC, a mechanical link.

[Dee...@ix.netcom.com]

elj...@sbcglobal.net wrote:

It should eject even when it's not connected to the SCSI bus. What
happens when you press the eject button? The drive activity light
should flash a few times before the disk is ejected. Is that light
flashing? If necessary, there is a little hole in the back of the
drive into which you can insert a straightened paper clip to manually
eject a disk. You should probably make sure the heads are parked when
you use that (power the drive off first).

It may be that the eject spring has become too weak to eject the disk.
That happened to my old parallel-port drive once. To fix that, I
replaced its eject spring with one from an ATAPI Zip drive that had
lost one of its read/write heads.

The eject spring goes between points A and B in the photo on this
page: http://www.grc.com/tip/codanatomy.htm I have also seen Zip
drives which have two eject springs - one on each side.

[elj...@sbcglobal.net]

We have several SCSI ZIP drives. This particular one that I'm looking
at now has
both a left and right eject spring.

I am currently working with the unit *NOT* connected to a SCSI bus.

When I insert the ZIP disk into the drive, the light blinks
continuously.
When I press the eject button, the blinking stops and the ZIP disk is
not ejected. I then remove power from the drive, insert an elongated
paper clip into the rear hole of the unit and the disk is manually
ejected.
I then repeated this exercise. This time the drive didn't seem to "spin
up". The
lamp on the right did not light up. The left one remained green. The
eject
button does not work. All springs do seem to look intact and not
weakened
or stretched.

Any other ideas or comments?

Thanks.
Mike

[elj...@sbcglobal.net]

I found the culprit! It was the ZIP power supply. I put a meter on it
and was getting 6.5 volts (these power supplies are over-voltage rated
obviously as the ZIP drive only needs 5V power). The bad supply was a
slightly lower voltage (about .25v lower, but the current being output
did not match that of the good supply...it was 1/3rd the output). That
would explain the weird malfunctioning and the eject not working.

Mike