We have had many 3 1/2 diskette drive failures lately. Siemens Resale has replacement disk drives - for $995. I wonder if anyone has used an alternative such as this for I think $400 + the USB drive cost -

https://www.plrelectronics.com/floppy_to_usb.php

If not I wonder if there is any other replacement media for the diskette drive? We've got the older (blue eject button) and newer diskette drives.

Keyset6, You have a PM

There are other places to look for replacement parts for this CBX.

There are also other places to go to ask these questions that are more oriented to the old ROLM legacy CBX.

One thing that has worked for me over the years is a "cleaner disk" if you can find one. If the drive will not read/write disks you have nothing to lose except the cost of the disk. Canned air can work wonders.

Doing backups regularly exercises these drives and seems to keep them working. A couple of other thng that has worked is downing/upping the PDC and/or FD. Downing them and pulling them out and reseating them then upping them sometimes works. Running DIAG on them sometimes revives them.

If you do try the reseating thing, be very careful. These old things are getting pretty fragile.

If you do find an alternative drive that works, please post it.

What format does Rolm use?

Not sure what format Rolm uses. There is a company that is attempting to make their USB drive compatible with the Rolm system. We have sent them a diskette drive and diskettes from a 9751 to work with. I've done the usual with canned air, and do have the cleaning diskette Radio Shack used to sell, without the cleaning solution. Don't know if alchohol is a good substitute for the original liquid. As suggested, I have had some luck with the canned air and/or cleaning diskette to clean the drive where backups can be done.

Alcohol is a great liquid to work with the cleaner disk, using one without a liquid can actually cause excessive wear on the head and cause further damage.

PM Sent