For those that are interested:


			Old Microdrives			New Microdrives
Power Requirements 	+3.3 v, 5.0 v +/-5%		+3.3 v, 5.0 v +/-5% 
-Spin up 		260mA 				260mA 
-Read/Write 		300mA 				250mA 
-idle 			220mA 				140mA 
-Stand by 		65mA 				20mA 


It looks to me that  the problem was definately a phyical one, and was
definately a shortage of current. It wasnt the spin up however, but the 
current required to sustain read / writes.


Marc Rogers