Floppy Drive Trouble 1

[Grassman1]

I'm working on a new system I just put together. I've yet to get the floppy drive to read a diskette for driver and bios update.

With the floppy set to first boot device in bios and a boot disk in the drive I reboot. Floppy light comes on then back off after post. I get a black screen with a flashing cursor, as if there was nothing on the diskette.

I have checked the floppy drive and cable in an older system and all works fine. Also have tried a couple different diskettes.

Any Ideas here im stumpted.

 

[Johnpfw]

Bad cable from A-Drive to motherboard?

-J

 

[edfair]

Sounds like boot order. If the a: was in boot order it should tell you no OS. It is on the end of the cable (past the cut and twist)? And do you have it set up for seek on post? Should have two distinct seeks that way.
CMOS setting for 1.44?
Possible FDC error on M/B. If it doesn't recognize that there is a floppy installed, then it won't tell you that there is no O/S.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Grassman1]

The cable from motherboard to A drive works fine in my other system so I would say it works fine. Haven't actually tried a different cable though.

The cable has only one connector and there is a twist at the drive end. Pin 1 is aligned properly on both mobo and drive.

The only setting I have in the bios is LEGACY DISKETTE A it is set to 1.44m, 3.5in.

Update: I disconnected all opticals and hdd's. Booted system with only AGP card, RAM, and Floppy connected and boot diskette in A drive. I get a beep after post (before there was no beep). Floppy lights up then off with this error message:

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key.

pressing any key repeats this message.

 

[mcall]

silly question but does floppy boot disk work on diff system. If you are creating boot disk with floppy dupe prog like Floppy Image with disk not formatted correctly you'll get same symptoms. If so, format floppy and then create boot disk.

 

[Grassman1]

No that's not a stupid question. I thought the same thing myself, possible corrupted boot disk. Checked the boot disk on my working system it boots just fine.

Just to be sure I reformated the disk and confirmed a successful boot into dos on my working system before trying it in the new rig.


"do you have it set up for seek on post?"

I don't have a setting in the bios for this option, I assume enabling legacy diskette A in the bios will force a seek to this drive?

Any other ideas?

 

[techkiwi]

What is the boot order set to? It kind of sounds like it's trying to boot from something else like LAN or external ZIP.

When the floppy light comes on, do you hear it make a noise (which it should do if it's trying to read the disk), or does it just light up briefly then go off without making a noise?

 

[Grassman1]

Boot order is set to floppy drive. When I disconnected all the optical and hdd's the bios defalted to this as there was no other boot options. The bios on this board seems to be smarter than bios I'm familiar with. I checked before letting it boot up.

The drive does make a click noise like it is spinning up but does not click multiple times as if it were reading the disk. Its mostly inaudable, I have to watch for the light to be sure its running.

It seems the drive is operating just not actually reading the disk.

What are the chances of having a bad floppy contoler on a new mobo?

I don't have a problem RMA this thing back to New Egg if this is the only option for a fix.

 

[edfair]

Slim possibility, but not a zero on the controller.
Do you have seek on post on the other machine? If you can use a machine with that capability you get an idea if the drive can seek. During post it steps in then back out. Sounds like zip, zip.
And if it reads there it just about pins the problem on the controller chip, which is surely sounds like.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Grassman1]

Yep the drive does seek on post in my working system. I get the zip zip as you described.

Does this tell us I have a bad chip on the Mobo?

 

[edfair]

pretty well points to it. Next step would be to cripple the on board and put an expansion card in place to verify everything is correct.
YOu might also want to try another cable, of a different length. I've seen several machines that were sensitive to length, and yours may be also.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Grassman1]

I'll try a longer cable if it's a no go I'll just replace the board.

Thank you for taking the time to help me with this.

 

[Grassman1]

I thought I would give ya'll an update on this thread. I RMA the board, recieved a new one with the same simptoms as the previous board.

The only thing I have not tried is trying a different brand of floppy drive. Not for sure if this is a possible problem or not.

Any suggestions on a reliable floppy brand? I'm using a mitsumi drive right now.

 

[micker377]

Before replacing the floppy, can you check it in another computer? Also, is the cable plugged in correctly at BOTH ends? Don't laugh, I have one motherboard that the floppy port is backwards from the IDE ports.

 

[Grassman1]

Micker377- Cable and drive is good to go on another system. I've tried everything I can think of (see posts above) except a new drive.

 

[edfair]

You might put the drive in another machine long enough to create a boot disk on it. And verify that it works there. Then swap the drive back and see if it will boot.
You can get some tracking problems between drives and it will drive you to , well , distraction.
Drives are pretty much generic now, no one brand that stands out.
And before you spend money, why not put the drive from your other machine in to test.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Grassman1]

Floppy drive problem solved!

I can't believe I didn't check this earlier.

I'm using a floppy bezel with this drive to give my aluminum case a clean look. I installed the floppy from the back of the drive bay without a floppy disk inserted into the drive and flush with the bezel.

Now here is the problem, when a disk is inserted and the eject button pops out the bezel did not allow enough movement for the button to completely extend so the disk would completely seat in the drive (it was very close but not quite enough to drop the disk down onto the heads) therefore I didn't notice it as not being inserted all the way.

Loosened the drive screws, inserted a disk, flushed up the drive and retighten the screws. What do you know, it reads the disk!

Thanks all for your help and suggestions.


__________________
Lian-Li PC60 W/4 Panaflo 80L1A fans 2 front, 1 rear, 1 blow hole
Lian-Li T-4 LCD thermometer
Lian-Li 3.5" silver Floppy Bezel
Enermax EG465AX-VE (W)FMA
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
P4 2.8C 800MHz FSB W/HT
Thermalright SLK-947U W/panaflo 92mm fan-FBA09A12H1ABX
Corsair TwinX1024-3200LLPRO (2x512)
ATI Radeon 9800PRO 128MB
2x 74GB WD SATA Raptors for Raid-0
1x 120GB Maxtor SATA for back up
Plextor PX-708A DVD-RW/+RW
Plextor PX-116A 16X DVD-Rom
Mitsumi 3.5" floppy
XP Professional

 

[techkiwi]

Thanks for posting back and letting us know, glad you finally tracked it down.

Isn't it amazing how often it's the simple things like that which catch us out? And yes I include myself!

 

[thejackkel]

I have a Dell Poweredge 600SC server and my floppy drive is not working.

By accident, I placed a disk in the drive that was formatted by a Linux machine. Now when I try to use the floppy drive I get the following:

C:\>format a:
Insert new disk for drive A:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
The new file system is FAT.
Formatting 1.44M
Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk usuable.

C:\>


I have used brand new disks and able to format and use with other workstations. The server has Windows 2000 advanced server. Any suggestions?