Pianodisc PDS32

[Ted Barnett]

The PianoDisc PDS32 has been working, but a few nights ago the system quit. 

When push “play”, the green light comes on but only last a few seconds and goes off. Nothing plays.  Any ideas for troubleshooting are greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Ted

[Randy Mangus]

He probably needs a new floppy drive. I'd suggest finding somebody that repairs computers and see if they could replace it for you. There's no way to get anything from Pianodisc. 

Randy Mangus 

Sent from my iPhone

[Ben Bradley]

I'd first try cleaning the floppy drive heads (with rubbing alcohol on
a long q-tip type stick). The heads getting dirty can make the drive
stop reading disks, and this might be what makes the green light go
off.

This stuff is too old for most modern places that do computer repair,
but if you can find someone who does classic or vintage computer
repair, they'll know about things with floppy disk drives and may be
able to help. I'm a member of the Atlanta Historical Computing
Society, and there are several members with such knowledge, and there
are likely such people wherever you are.

You might ask on this forum:
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum.php

[Douglas Gregg]

The safer and easier way to clean a floppy drive is to get a floppy drive cleaner disk and bottle of alcohol that comes with it. you will find them on e-bay. 

Doug Gregg

[Larry Fisher RPT]

Hi Ted, It sounds like the disk is being read OK.  If it wasn’t you’d most likely get a *disk read error* msg in the window.

 

It sound like the switcher power supply is working OK because the unit come on and reads the disk.

 

After the green light goes out does the screen say anything?  You should see the name of the song and an “index” running.  If the screen is blank, you have a faulty read out.

 

The rail cover has a power button located near the treble end on the back side.  There’s a small LED ..... push the power button and see if the unit starts to play.  I don’t remember if the LED is supposed to green or red for it to be on.  I think green.

 

Tell us what the screen says  .........  that should be the place to start.

 

Last I checked, disk drives were no longer being made  ..........  as I recall Teac was the last one.  PDS units are very specific as which type of disk drive they’ll take.  A regular computer drive won’t work .... as I recall.

 

[Jeffrey Velez]

Did you ever get your PDS32 to work again?

I have a PDS32, and for the longest time, it had a high pitch squeal every time the power went to it.  Suddenly, yesterday, it finally started to work correctly!!

Hope it's working again for you.