Floppy Not working

[bobojen]

Hi
I reinstalled my 3.5 floppy drive. I booted up and it dod not recognise that there was a floppy in it (device not ready, blah blah) I went to Device managers and removed the "standard floppy disk controllers", rebooted and the computer recognised that there was a new device and installed the drivers for it. It still will not read the floppy in it. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[spannerman70]

I would double check you cable, I have done similar before only the plug was in 1 pin to left out. Sounds obvious...but is very easy to do on some drives.

 

[bobojen]

Would it be the cable if the computer detected it after the reboot??

 

[edfair]

The device that it found is the controller on the M/B.
CMOS is used to identify the drive installed.
If the cable is backwards the drive ready lite stays lit.
If the cable is installed one pin off either horizontally or vertically the drive won't wiork.
How about going into cmos and verify settings, then in another section enable seek on boot and make sure that the drive swapped isn't chosen.
After this you'll want to watch for the drive select lite coming on during POST and the heads stepping in then out.
You can have power problems to the drive that create the same symptoms.
And if you plugged the drive into the closest IDC header you won't work. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[bobojen]

This is a stupid newbie question, but is the CMOS the same as the BIOS? I had a floppy drive that went bad and replaced it with a new one. Shouldn't all the settings have stayed the same??
I just took 2 plugs out of the old one and plugged the new one in the same as the old one.
It seems so easy, but of course nothing ever goes smoothly.....

 

[edfair]

They are different. Bios is read only memory (mostly, I don't want to confuse you by giving the full range) and CMOS is battery backed up R/W memory that has limited size and access. CMOS is accessible by part of the BIOS programming for modification, and by BIOS in other parts for getting the hardware parameters of the system for the operating system.
The setting would have stayed the same.
Sometimes you get a floppy that has the header turned opposite on the drive interface board. Mostly they have pin 1 identified on the board, but sometimes not. Pin 1 is the end of the header where the red stripe (or other identifier) goes. If it installed backwards on the drive then the drive select lite is continuously on. The power connector is keyed, but in the dark or if you aren't paying attention you can put the power connector on one pin off. Which generally causes the power supply to shut down immediately. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Seegee]

Yes, make sure the floppy power cable is on all 4 pins. just recently I had it only on 3 pins without knowing it, and it burned the coating off of the wire, and broke the floppy pin that shorted. After all the smoke cleared, and I made a small modification to the PSU cabling, I'm back in business!

Notelease do not modify anything with the PSU unless you know what you are doing, or have someone that does help you with it. Luckily I had an A+ certified tech checking mine.

 

[bobojen]

Hi
Thanks for all the replies. I checked the power cord, its on all fours....
The cable is in right, the red closest to the power, in tight. I even bought a new one in case the other one was bad. The new floppy seems to be doing the same as the old one did, ( a:/ is not accessible The drive is not ready) so maybe the problem is not with the drive, but the MB. Is there anything I can check in the BIOS, maybe a setting was changed. I looked, it it set to 1.44 floppy, but is there another one I should be checking?

 

[cdogg]

In Windows Explorer, is the A: drive labeled "Removable Disk"? If so, it sounds like you could have a floppy controller hardware problem which resides on the MB. On an older system I used to own, the MB had to be replaced 2 times because the floppy controller went out. Luckily I didn't have to pay a dime!!

 

[edfair]

In CMOS setup, is swap drives selected? How about adding seek on boot so you get some sound during POST? And on the end connector or adjacent connector, past the cut/twist? And the onboard FDD controller enabled in the revelant section?
What does the mangler tell you about the hardware? Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[bobojen]

Im not acctually sure on how to do that. Under what section in the BIOS do I set the swap drives ?
What do you mean by "And the onboard FDD controller enabled in the revelant section?"
The mangler, I assume is the device manager, everything seems fine, no conflicts.

 

[irishkiwi007]

You could reset bios to factory defaults.Also I would unscrew the floppy and try running it out of the case.In some cases if the floppy is pushed to hard against the case it will not read the floppy drive.