Floppy Drive Not Working
- Thread starter DoubleJ$
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Kage
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root said:
Thats why
Is there any way you can borrow a floppy disk drive or replace that one you just got? I'm hoping its not the motherboard floppy disk connector that has gone, and thats why the old one suddenly stopped working
I hope it hasn't though, and it is just that floppy disk.When you said by the way you've stopped it from always coming on, is that after you switched the cables around again? What happened?
I hope it is just something simple
thanks kage. ok well i'll start from the top. My old floppy drive ceased to work for unknown reasons. So, i took it out and bought a new Starlogic floppy drive. I took the drive and put it into my computer connecting all the cables. When i turned on my computer, the activity light on the drive was constantly on. So i looked on the guide that came with it and it said i had the interface cable reversed. so i switched it around and sure enough the light went off. However, the light never came back on even when i tried to read/write something to a disk. Again i looked to the guide for assistance and it told me this time to check and make sure all cables are connected properly. I am quite sure all cables are in fact connected properly yet the activity light still never comes on. Then, i went to the control panel and uninstalled all floppy drivers i had and restarted my computer. The computer recognized the new hardware and said it was building a new driver and restarted. When it rebooted, i still had the same old problem: the activity light stays off and when i try to open the drive it says unable to access; drive not ready. So thats the story, can you help me?
Kage
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I'm afraid I can't It is one of two things, since you've tried everything humanly possible except throwing it out of the window...
Since the other one suddenly stopped abbruptly, and the new one doesn't work either, it is rather worrying.
I would replace that one as soon as possible and test it. if that new one then doesn't work
(and you do have the cables the right way round now, if the light doesn't come on or not. It wouldn't have worked the wrong way round, and that light was a warning that something was up. At worst, having the cables the wrong way, it could cause the PC to run slower at bootup)
So yeah, get a new one (hopefully that ones dead too) and then plug it up the same way.
If it doesn't work, i'm afraid to say you probably have a faulty Floppy connector on the motherboard adn I wouldn't know what to do then.
If you look inside the floppy slot where the ribbon goes into the motherboard, are there any loose pins? Are any bent? Are any even broken off?
These could be answers, and might be able to be salvaged if they are just bent, or maybe even loose. I would have no idea what to do if some were missing.
If nothing seems wrong there, it is something deeper into the slot, and needs either a PC technican, or a new motherboard But seems pretty stupid just for a floppy drive to have to do that...
Any way you could get around the problem by buying a USB drive? These can have 64mb, 128mb, and even 512mb on one chip able to transfer data from one PC to another if you really need it, and this is a better soloution.
What you need the floppy disc for though, could you place it on something else for example? Like a USB pen drive like i mentioned above? They are rather cheap now too
It is one of two things, since you've tried everything humanly possible except throwing it out of the window...Since the other one suddenly stopped abbruptly, and the new one doesn't work either, it is rather worrying.
I would replace that one as soon as possible and test it. if that new one then doesn't work
(and you do have the cables the right way round now, if the light doesn't come on or not. It wouldn't have worked the wrong way round, and that light was a warning that something was up. At worst, having the cables the wrong way, it could cause the PC to run slower at bootup)
So yeah, get a new one (hopefully that ones dead too) and then plug it up the same way.
If it doesn't work, i'm afraid to say you probably have a faulty Floppy connector on the motherboard adn I wouldn't know what to do then.
If you look inside the floppy slot where the ribbon goes into the motherboard, are there any loose pins? Are any bent? Are any even broken off?
These could be answers, and might be able to be salvaged if they are just bent, or maybe even loose. I would have no idea what to do if some were missing.
If nothing seems wrong there, it is something deeper into the slot, and needs either a PC technican, or a new motherboard
But seems pretty stupid just for a floppy drive to have to do that...Any way you could get around the problem by buying a USB drive? These can have 64mb, 128mb, and even 512mb on one chip able to transfer data from one PC to another if you really need it, and this is a better soloution.
What you need the floppy disc for though, could you place it on something else for example? Like a USB pen drive like i mentioned above? They are rather cheap now too
Let's try again.
If you don't have energy going from your power supply to your floppy drive, then you can put a hundred brand new drives, and you won't see any light on.
Be sure that your drive is receiving power.
When you have a light on you can talk about recognition from the connector on the motherboard.
If you don't have energy going from your power supply to your floppy drive, then you can put a hundred brand new drives, and you won't see any light on.
Be sure that your drive is receiving power.
When you have a light on you can talk about recognition from the connector on the motherboard.
nono, i am sure its getting power. kage, on the mobo there is a pin completely missing but on the interface the space for the missing pin is blocked out so i think this is intentional. my next step will be to buy one more drive to give it a go. o btw, i need a floppy so i can back up my drive and move a few files around from diff. computers, nothing special. im new at this rebuilding computers thing and im really just experiementing with it since its my second comp. thanks a lot guys
Kage
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Well in that case if the next floppy drive doens't work (and isn't worth swapping motherboards, which its not really) I honestly think you should buy a USB Pen Drive.
These are cheap and effective ways of backing up data and swapping between PC's (all have USB slots), and can contain many many times more files than a floppy disc of 1.44mb can, whilst Pen drives can start from 64Mb!!!
I would advise you get one, which would be a better and more reliable way of storing you data, honestly
They also work in the same way as a floppy. You plug it in to a usb slot (there only tiny things) and it then comes up as an external drive on My computer. You then simply copy to and from it like you would with a drive, and dissconnect it after use. Simple huh?!
I hope this helps
These are cheap and effective ways of backing up data and swapping between PC's (all have USB slots), and can contain many many times more files than a floppy disc of 1.44mb can, whilst Pen drives can start from 64Mb!!!
I would advise you get one, which would be a better and more reliable way of storing you data, honestly
They also work in the same way as a floppy. You plug it in to a usb slot (there only tiny things) and it then comes up as an external drive on My computer. You then simply copy to and from it like you would with a drive, and dissconnect it after use. Simple huh?!
I hope this helps
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