1982 · Peripheral

Commodore 1541 (1982)

The C64's slow but ubiquitous 5.25-inch floppy drive.

The 1541 held 170 KB per disk and had its own 6502 CPU and DOS. It was infamously slow (about 512 bytes per second with stock firmware), so third-party fast loaders became a whole cottage industry. Early units were nicknamed 'toaster drives' for heat and jamming, and the head was easy to misalign.

See 1982 in the interactive timeline

Facts

Date: 1982
Kind: Peripheral: Storage drive
Maker or publisher: Commodore
Platforms: Commodore 64
Capacity: 170 KB
Media: 5.25 inch DD
Transfer: about 0.4 KB/s stock
Introductory price: $399
Connection: Commodore serial IEC bus
Works with: Commodore 64

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Manuals and technical documents

Service manuals, schematics and datasheets for this machine, kept in our own library. Check your own board and part numbers against them.

Service Manual, Model 1540-1541 Disk Drive, Preliminary, April, 1986, PN 314002-01 (Service manual)

All 1 documents for Commodore 1541 and 1541-II drive in the library

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Further reading: On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore: eBay · Amazon

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