Floppy Drive problem

[mrmart]

Hi all

I 'm hoping that someone may be able to help solve a little floppy drive problem.


System is:

Abit NF7

Windows XP.sp1

ok..here goes.

When I got this system just before christmas after my last one was stolen from my house, (so my system specs below are slightly different now and need updating) I never installed a floppy drive as there was no need.

Yesterday someone lent me their floppy drive as a situation arose where I needed the use of a floppy disk.

It didn't work. I'd insert the floppy into the drive..and no matter which disk I used it asked me to format the disk. I eventually agreed to aloow the format but the formats never completed successfully..I tried full and quick formats with the same results.

Its an old floppy drive which my mate doesn't use. so I decided to go and buy one for myself as they';re pretty inexpensive.

This time I inserted a disk, but everytime I tried to open the floppy a message kept popping up asking me to insert a floppy disk.

I aslo noticed that the light on the floppy drive was constantly on and after a quick net search I found a possible cause. It was the fact that the floppy's cable was plugged in the wrong way, and so I unplugged from the motherboard and booted up and YAY!!! no light.

I thought the problem was solved..however..things are never usually that easy for me..I still get the same messages on the new drive..

I took the new drive back, replaced it on the off-chance that it might be a faulty one.


As the riobbon cable was new I didn't think that was the cause but bought another cable just incase. Everything is still the same..

I retried the old floppy drive and this time it doesn;'t even allow me to do the format thing (which I know shouldn't happen anyway)..it just asks me to insert a floppy disk.

I had a look in the bios and everything seemed to be ok in there. I did reset the bios hoping it would redetect the floppy drive as per advice I read somewhere else..no luck with that either..it seems like the system knows the floppy is there.


I was hoping that maybe someone had experianced the same problem or similar and knew of a solution?

Thanks in advance..

[Ryanoffski]

I had a problem similar to that. I just reversed the cable where it plugs into the floppy drive and it worked.

[kranich]

A couple of thoughts. I have had problems installing hardware in XP systems and it turned out that the hardware was not built for XP. If everything else (BIOS settings, drivers, and proper installation) seems to be done correctly maybe you should get a drive that specifies compatability with XP. BTW I had this problem with a NIC recently so I bought one that had Win XP logo on the carton and it worked fine. It is worth a shot anyway. If not, maybe your floppy controller is suspect.

[Undeadlord]

See if you can find a USB floppy, I thought they were pretty cheap nowadays and then you take away floppy cables and floppy controllers right there.

Undeadlord

[Jeordiewhite]

Yeah but he did reverse the floppy cable, you just plug the connector it was on and turn it upside down.
Then it should work fine, if you weren't getting an error before with the floppy cable inserted wrong, then that is quite odd. When you post it will tell you floppy fail (40) However in the bios it should be detected as a 1.44mb floppy, was it doing so?
Also are these brand new disks or old ones maybe borrowed from your buddy?
Floppys tend to screw up easily, I would think your buddy's floppy drive would need cleaning but since you bought a brand new floppy drive that shouldn't be the case.
First check if the floppy media is ok, also since you didn't mention the floppy failing, try having your system hault on all errors in the bios and if your floppy is enabled in the bios.

[mrmart]

ok....thanks for taking the time to reply..I know its not easy to give a solution over the internet and not knowing the full details, and it is equally difficult to explain the problems. However..my problem is now solved..

I explained in my original message that the ribbon cable I had was a new one and didn't think that it was the problem.

So like I said I'd got a new cable and a replacement floppy drive..I've been fiddling around all night with the comp..searching online for solutions..what I failed to do was to try the original cable with the new drive..I'd only tried the new cable with the floppy drive... so I connected the original cable adn voila..I get the message on startup "invalid system disk" or something like that..because there was a floppy in the drive and was trying to boot from it..I removed it, booted up..stuck my floppy back in, clicked on the floppy drive in My Computer and got that sweet little sound of the system accessing the floppy drive..

Thanks again for taking the time to atleast try to help.

mart

[Bovon]

Get this picture...it is not the ribbon cable, its the way it is connected. The LED is not supposed to remain on..it only flashes when it is detected then goes out...until it is reading a disk. If the cable is installed in reverse (it will fit either way).. you get that error...shut down and unplug the ribbon cable at the back of the drive, turn it over and reconnect it...be very sure it is down in the motherboard socket properly as well as in the drive.

Be sure you use the connector at the end of the ribbon cable... if there is two (actually 3, one for the motherboard controllers and 2 for the drives.) If yours has 3 sockets, use only the one at the end of the cable...after the twist of several wires in the cable.

This is how a computer detects drive A: and drive B:

If your system was designed to work without a floppy drive...the drive feature may be disabled in BIOS. You may have to go into your BIOS and enable it. I don't believe this will be necessary however because of what you have already said about the older drive wanting to format a disk..if it were disabled in the BIOS, you would get nothing at all.

Concerning that older drive that wanted to format a disk...that is what will happen when the read/write head inside gets out of calibration... the media in a floppy disk is formatted on a track..not all over, and if the read/write head gets out of calibration..it will look at the media between the formated tracks..and want to format it...again. Sometimes it will actually format and you can put data on the diskette...but it cannot be read by other drives that are within the calibration specs.

Well, heck...after re-reading your last post.. I see where you are up and running good. Thats great, and I don't know how I missed that part...sorry.