Patent ID: 7103442

Claim:
A motor driving apparatus in which excitation current is supplied to windings of plural phases of a stepping motor and said stepping motor is rotatingly driven by successively switching the exciting phases, comprising: means for exciting a predetermined phase winding among the plural phases of said stepping motor for a predetermined time period without switching the excitation phases, and stopping excitation after the predetermined time period, when a power supply of equipment in which said motor driving apparatus is contained is turned ON; means for judging whether there is the possibility of deviating a positional relationship between a rotor and a stator of said motor from a positional relationship determined by the excitation of the predetermined phase winding for the predetermined time period, by an external force, before a rotation of said motor is started; and control means for exciting the predetermined phase winding among the plural phases of said stepping motor again for a predetermined time period without switching the excitation phases, and stopping excitation after the predetermined time period, if the possibility of deviation is judged.