Floppy Drive Not Working

[Mickey4Paws]

Hi guys,
I recently put this computer together and everything is working except my floppy drive. First off, the floppy is recognized both in the bios and in WinXP (and in device manager it says it's working). But when I put a disk in, it says "please insert a disk". Also, the light on the drive is constantly on. Any help is very much appreciated.

[ThugsRook]

> drive cable is upsidedown
> FDD is disabled in bios
> report no FDD to OS is enabled in bios
> try new FDD cable
> try new FDD

:beer:

[RyderOCZ]

If the light is constantly on....reverse the interface cable at the floppy drive.

[sodface]

Don't want to insult you but just FYI, the wire on the ribbon cable with the red stripe is the pin 1 end and there should be a mark on the floppy drive as well marking the pin 1 end. Sometimes a little arrow or triangle point at pin1 sometimes stenciled with a number. The two drives I have in the closet are both numbered with the pin 1 end being on the left as viewed from the rear of the drive looking at the pins.

I've hooked a floppy drive cable up backwards before and had the steady green light even after I correctly oriented the cable when I realized I made the mistake.

[Mickey4Paws]

Thanks very much for the replies! and Sodface, you definitely didn't insult me. This is my first computer build and I need all the help I can get :o

I bet you're right about the cable being upside down. I'm going to flip it over and see. As to the BIOS setting, I'm pretty sure the FDD is being recognized there but I'll still check that.

[Rukee]

I`ve gotten three floppy drives brand new in the box that the included cable was no good. Used the ones from the MB box and they worked like a charm.

[Mickey4Paws]

Ok, seems like I did have the cable upside down and that's why the light was staying on :hide:
However, even putting the cable the right way, the drive still doesn't work. It's recognized in the bios and in WinXP, but when I click on it, it tells me to insert a disk even though a disk is in the drive. I tried several disks and no luck. Then I tried different floppy cables and no luck either :help:

[joeMan]

Maybe try (not physically, but in device mgr) removing the device from your system - then upon reboot XP will recognize and reinstall it. Sometimes that has fixed little hardware weirdnesses for me...

[Mickey4Paws]

Thanks, JoeMan. I just tried that and no luck. I think it's a hardware problem because if I put a Windows startup disk in the drive, it doesn't even get recognized. I was searching around and came across this reply to someone else who was having floppy problems and I think I'll try it. At this point, I'll try anything :cry:

"Hi, can you try to unscrew it and test it out of the case? Simply, some cases have the frame and faceplate misaligned, and when the front of the floppy is pulled a little up, the floppy does not lower, so the heads are not in place. I saw it alot of times."

What's interesting is this floppy drive was working fine until I installed it in my new case.

[sodface]

As long as your not using all the same disks you were using before you got the cable flipped back over, I'd say it's a bad floppy drive. I read many places that getting the cable upside down won't damage the drive but I know I had a known good drive that stopped working after I hooked the cable up backwards.

[Mickey4Paws]

I did use different disks. I'm going to give it one last shot and try it outside of the case, just for kicks, but I have a feeling you're probably right and the drive is shot. :beat: At least they're cheap enough to replace.

[joeMan]

Imagine if there were big 5.25 floppy drives with disks that were the size of CD jewel cases, and they weighed like 2 lbs. each and held 1.44GB of data each...and they go SHU-KLUNK when you plug it into the "Giga-Floppy" drive.

Maybe those will be standard floppy drives by the time my other invention comes out: OCZ PC32000 DDR4000 for the dawning of the new A256 tripleZ (tZ) series AMD processors (with built in micro-phase change cooling). It will take only one of them to assist in powering video games that are on par with "real xyz mapping +4D" technology powered by 240 pipeline RRU's (reality rendering units) - all optical based.

We gamers will play games suspended in a suit something similar to those boucny baby swings you can hang in the doorway and let your baby bounce and play - except they will be body suits suspended gyroscopically with hundreds of sensors on it to relay our movements to to "the BORG" (that's the name of my super computer I'm inventing here - of course I'll have to do some licensing clearances first - I'll let legal handle it) - anyway back to the suit.

It will also display output everything to "ethervision dementia" series goggles (called evD's) that display an immersive 360 degree spherical 3D environment for us to game in. Microscopically, they will display holographical images against a spherically rendered background, and all of this only fractions of an inch from the surface of the eye. These goggles are designed to immerse us so deeply into the experience that we forget all sense of time and space whilst utilizing them.

The sound will be on par with the visuals of course - but will incorporate vibration technology as well as controlled airflow technology that will blow air over various parts of the body at varying velocities and temperatures depending on the coding of the software.

Games will look like movies look now - that is; real, except in 3D to our senses - wth the added dimension of "synthetic time" or "negetive time" as it will also be known because of the time it steals from our awareness in and of the real world. This is what the time is called that we spend suspended in our gaming environments.

These games will make HL2 look like a text-based adventure for the TRS-80, or "Fracas" on the Apple II.

I like to play imagine :yup: .

...I'm weird :coocoo: :help: :scratch: :bonk:

[ThugsRook]

Imagine if there were big 5.25 floppy drives with disks that were the size of CD jewel cases, and they weighed like 2 lbs. each and held 1.44GB of data each...and they go SHU-KLUNK when you plug it into the "Giga-Floppy" drive.

Maybe those will be standard floppy drives by the time my other invention comes out: OCZ PC32000 DDR4000 for the dawning of the new A256 tripleZ (tZ) series AMD processors (with built in micro-phase change cooling). It will take only one of them to assist in powering video games that are on par with "real xyz mapping +4D" technology powered by 240 pipeline RRU's (reality rendering units) - all optical based.

We gamers will play games suspended in a suit something similar to those boucny baby swings you can hang in the doorway and let your baby bounce and play - except they will be body suits suspended gyroscopically with hundreds of sensors on it to relay our movements to to "the BORG" (that's the name of my super computer I'm inventing here - of course I'll have to do some licensing clearances first - I'll let legal handle it) - anyway back to the suit.

It will also display output everything to "ethervision dementia" series goggles (called evD's) that display an immersive 360 degree spherical 3D environment for us to game in. Microscopically, they will display holographical images against a spherically rendered background, and all of this only fractions of an inch from the surface of the eye. These goggles are designed to immerse us so deeply into the experience that we forget all sense of time and space whilst utilizing them.

The sound will be on par with the visuals of course - but will incorporate vibration technology as well as controlled airflow technology that will blow air over various parts of the body at varying velocities and temperatures depending on the coding of the software.

Games will look like movies look now - that is; real, except in 3D to our senses - wth the added dimension of "synthetic time" or "negetive time" as it will also be known because of the time it steals from our awareness in and of the real world. This is what the time is called that we spend suspended in our gaming environments.

These games will make HL2 look like a text-based adventure for the TRS-80, or "Fracas" on the Apple II.

I like to play imagine :yup: .

...I'm weird :coocoo: :help: :scratch: :bonk:
just pass it, yo! :cool:

[Mickey4Paws]

These games will make HL2 look like a text-based adventure for the TRS-80, or "Fracas" on the Apple II.

The Trash 80 was my first computer :D

[RyderOCZ]

...I'm weird :coocoo: :help: :scratch: :bonk:

UH....Yeah.....Glad you said it not me. :hide: :chit:

j/k JM ;)

[Shaitan]

Hey Mickey, I had the same problem like you and one day I tried again and the floppy was working. Check how many drives you have on that cable and if they dont interfere with each other. On mine I never changed the cables, I tried with another FDD and it worked for a while. Then something misterious happened and it wouldnt accept my disks, then I tried again the original FDD in the case and it worked fine. It is most probably the sequence of the cables you plug in it. See if you can isolate it somehow and try again. Hope it works, its all in the cables, imho. cheers

[Mickey4Paws]

Hey Mickey, I had the same problem like you and one day I tried again and the floppy was working. Check how many drives you have on that cable and if they dont interfere with each other. On mine I never changed the cables, I tried with another FDD and it worked for a while. Then something misterious happened and it wouldnt accept my disks, then I tried again the original FDD in the case and it worked fine. It is most probably the sequence of the cables you plug in it. See if you can isolate it somehow and try again. Hope it works, its all in the cables, imho. cheers

Thanks, Shaitan. I am actually getting ready to try it again. I went out and bought a new FDD this morning in case mine is really dead. I believe the floppy cable is hooked up right this time and the power plug. I'm thinking maybe I burned it out when I had the floppy cable in upside down :beat: But I guess it's worth a try one more time. Thanks for your reply and I'll let you know what happens.

[Mickey4Paws]

Quick update - it works!!!! :D
Apparently, one of the pins on the back of the drive was bent. :o So I straightened it out and now it works. Thanks everyone for your help, I really appreciate it!