Floppy Drive Problem

[Ryan79]

Ok this is a very frustrating problem which I have been troubleshooting in my free time for one of my customers. I recently built a RAID 1 system for a customer in which I used a floppy drive to install the 2 RAID drivers needed for the particular board I'm using (Neo2 Plat). Upon completing the build I had to switch out the floppy drive initially due to a defected one so I purchased one locally (which was white) only problem is his entire PC is black despite the Lian-Li cover you can still tell it was white. Customer preferred a black one which was what I had orginally. So to speed things up I take the one that was defected since I didnt have to return it to Newegg and removed just the cover to try to put on the white one. They were different styles so the cover didnt fit right. So now the orginal drive doesnt work and I take the black floppy out of my RAID 0 box and put it in the PC. Close it up and deliver/configure the PC then the customer notifies me of the floppy not working for his Turbo Tax. So realizing I never tested the drive I was confused to why it didnt work. I checked the cables both power and ribbon along with different ones - all set, BIOS settings are right, drivers updated (SP2) so I get another drive from Newegg.

To accelerate my novel here after this new drive (a retail one) another local one, and a new floppy cable this floppy drive still keeps saying in XP when you open the drive to: Insert a disk like it is not recognizing it. The light doesnt stay on so I know the cable is right. I am totally out of ideas with this, how could all these drives be bad? What else can I do? This PC has 2-SATA CD/DVD burners, 2- 250 SATA HD's in a RAID 0 Array, AMD 3500+, 1 gig RAM, Geforce 6400FX. Other typical things as well. He has several USB devices connected to the machine like handheld ports, card readers, wireless keyboard and mouse. I was thinking maybe a hardware conflict and disconnected all the devices aside from the wireless keyboard/mouse and still nothing.

I am really stuck here, going to try to put one of these drives in my fiance's PC to check if they work there. Would appreciate any help on this topic.

[Hawk]

Sounds like the cable is backwarks either on the floppy or on the motherboard. Another thought, check to make sure the calbe is properly on the floppy connector. I have seen machines where you miss the first set of pins and the cable still goes on.

Testing the drives on another machine is a great idea, but I cannot see that all the drives are bad. . .

[ThugsRook]

enable the FDD in the bios.

[BGP Spook]

You said that you have tried it with two different data cables, correct?
You have tried three or for different floppy drives, correct?

Have you confirmed that all the pins on the motherboard are in proper alinment?

It is getting power, but is it enough power. (A very long shot worth investagating all the same.)

If the drives and cables work in other computers (and it has enough power) then it is possible that the port is dead. (I have seen a few that have died.)

But that would be very very unlikely. I would however, be more suspect of windows. (I know you check for the latest drivers and what not, but in my experience windows is more often the problem than hardware.)

I don't think you said which windows version you are using, however you mentioned SP2 so I am guessing XP.

Try booting in safe mode, and looking for duplicate devices. I have seen windows profile the same device multiple times. But that is usually with monitors or mice. Still I think it is worth a try.

[- wardog -]

Two more ideas:

The Neo2's mb ide/floppy connections are cramped. Double check(re-seat) that the cable is bottomed in the header.

Try uninstalling the floppy and or controller in XP's Device Mgr then reboot and let it re-detect your hardware.

[Ryan79]

Update:

Ok I did these suggestions you guys have said and it still doesnt work. I uninstalled the controller completly reseeded all connectors restarted PC, detects the drive installed the stuff still same message "Insert a disk in Drive A"

I tried one of the 2 that I thought were defective in my other PC, sure enough fires right up no problems. I did notice on the motherboard of the NEO2, my floppy drive port has 2 or 3 pins that arent even there, is that normal? Otherwise i checked to be sure cables are right...I wonder if the port is bad like someone else mentioned?

[- wardog -]

I tried one of the 2 that I thought were defective in my other PC, sure enough fires right up no problems.

So,,,, the controller/cable/drive does work in Win, just not the black one(cobbled up face) the cust preferrs?



Try this if the above is not true:
Grab a floppy bootdisk and answer us if it'll boot into DOS from any one of the 1.44 drives you have there.


From corner of FDD MB Connection of spare Neo2 here. P = Pin, X = Vacant:
P X X P P P etc etc
P P X P P P etc etc

[- wardog -]

I tried one of the 2 that I thought were defective in my other PC, sure enough fires right up no problems.

So,,,, the controller/cable/drive does work in Win, just not the black one(cobbled up face) the cust preferrs?

Ignore my sentence of above.

[RyderOCZ]

Grab a floppy bootdisk and answer us if it'll boot into DOS from any one of the 1.44 drives you have there.

:yup: :yup:

If it works here....the drive is fine...we are running into Windows issues.

[Ryan79]

Ok made and tested a boot disk here at home, I will let you know how it goes once I stop by the customer's house again later today.

[- wardog -]

I tried one of the 2 that I thought were defective in my other PC, sure enough fires right up no problems.

Long shot here, but I'll mention it.

"in my other PC" I'm assuming that this test was in your home(with your disks) with the problem PC(cust's disks) at the cust's.

Consider the cust have bad disk(s?) and take along a known good one to leave them.

[Ryan79]

Yea I tested this boot disk, tried ones I knew worked and tested here.(the raid drivers i used in setup). SO after the boot disk test, no dice doesnt goto the prompt just boots into XP like no disk is in the drive, lights up and tries to read but nothing even after setting floppy boot priority to 2.

My next step after my spring break is to disconnect the 2 - SATA DVD/CD burners and try it could there be a hardware conflict? I did install XP with a normal CD drive because teh SATA was being viewed as a Hard drive. Only thing that changed pre-install to after i upgraded the software was I put a working floppy drive (mine) in the PC and the SATA cd/dvd burner in. Now they have 2 of the same DVD/CD burners.

Guess its worth a shot...

[- wardog -]

In the BIOS under Standard CMOS Features is the floppy detected and displayed as Drive A: 1.44M 3.5 in.?

Your not saying are you that the floppy shows up in Advanced BIOS Features > Hard Disk Boot Priority[Enter], cuz it shouldn't.

But that you set it as "Second Boot Device = Floppy" correct?

Set it as Advanced BIOS Features > "First Boot Device = Floppy" :!: . First priority, above all others and give that a shot.
(I realize this setting is post-POST :p and may prove fruitless here, but it may also change the initialization order of things.)

Um yea... double check in Intergrated Peripherals > Onboard I/O Chip Setup > Onboard FDC Controller that this in fact still set as Enable .


Strange indeed. I'm at wit's end.

[Ryan79]

Alright I will check wardog and post the results, I know I tried it both 2nd and 3rd priority havent messed with this in a while had spring break :)
:coocoo:

[- wardog -]

(I realize this setting is post-POST :p and may prove fruitless here, but it may also change the initialization order of things.)

:beer: Whew, now didn't that make sense to the reader....... hehehe

What I meant is setting it to #1 "maybe' "by chance' "a real long shot' push something into recognizing it.

[Kev_Dawg]

Ok this is a very frustrating problem which I have been troubleshooting in my free time for one of my customers. I recently built a RAID 1 system for a customer in which I used a floppy drive to install the 2 RAID drivers needed for the particular board I'm using (Neo2 Plat). Upon completing the build I had to switch out the floppy drive initially due to a defected one so I purchased one locally (which was white) only problem is his entire PC is black despite the Lian-Li cover you can still tell it was white. Customer preferred a black one which was what I had orginally. So to speed things up I take the one that was defected since I didnt have to return it to Newegg and removed just the cover to try to put on the white one. They were different styles so the cover didnt fit right. So now the orginal drive doesnt work and I take the black floppy out of my RAID 0 box and put it in the PC. Close it up and deliver/configure the PC then the customer notifies me of the floppy not working for his Turbo Tax. So realizing I never tested the drive I was confused to why it didnt work. I checked the cables both power and ribbon along with different ones - all set, BIOS settings are right, drivers updated (SP2) so I get another drive from Newegg.

To accelerate my novel here after this new drive (a retail one) another local one, and a new floppy cable this floppy drive still keeps saying in XP when you open the drive to: Insert a disk like it is not recognizing it. The light doesnt stay on so I know the cable is right. I am totally out of ideas with this, how could all these drives be bad? What else can I do? This PC has 2-SATA CD/DVD burners, 2- 250 SATA HD's in a RAID 0 Array, AMD 3500+, 1 gig RAM, Geforce 6400FX. Other typical things as well. He has several USB devices connected to the machine like handheld ports, card readers, wireless keyboard and mouse. I was thinking maybe a hardware conflict and disconnected all the devices aside from the wireless keyboard/mouse and still nothing.

I am really stuck here, going to try to put one of these drives in my fiance's PC to check if they work there. Would appreciate any help on this topic.

I had this problem 1 time I think try replacing the ribbon sometimes it can be the ribbon. Once I bought a mobo and then the mobo came wif some ribbons etc. Well I used the ribbon that came with the mobo and the floppy drive wasn't working the power was connecting to it and everything. So I asked a friend if I can borrow his floppy drive ribbon for a few mins. Well guess what it was the ribbon I guess the data wasn't running through the ribbon for windows to reconize it. Well I dunno that's how I fixed my problem I hope I am much help.

[Ryan79]

Update:

Well no luck with the priority level I did have it on first already and tried it on all 3 no luck. It was enabled under Peripherals as well. I am going to take apart another PC I have laying around with a working floppy and use the same ribbon cable too ill let yo know what happens but i doubt its the drive or cable I've tried so many. I also checked IRQ's no conflicts so I am at a loss, customer sounds like they want it rebuilt if I cant fix it, <sigh> all that work for nothing because of a stupid floppy drive :smash:

Any more suggestions?

[BGP Spook]

RMA?

If it still dosen't work that is the only suggestion I have.

[- wardog -]

Is it recognized in the bios correctly as Drive A: 1.44M 3.5 in. .

Is it showing up in the POST screen as it "flys' by as Diskette Drive A 1.44M 3.5 in. . Pause key works here.

Consider flashing the bios and clearing the bootblock doing so.
Best bet now :o is creating a boot cd w/ramdrive.
Use the ramdrive to flash from, not directly from/off this cd :!:

[Ryan79]

Update:

Ok this is what i tried now, I took a 100% working floppy and cable tried it in the PC no dice. Then I unplugged it from the PC turned it on to see a floppy drive still showing up in device manager? So i uninstall it, reboot the pc (with it disconnected still) and good old XP detects a floppy and installs it? The BIOS said Floppy Drive Fail since I have it set to Seek Floppy in BIOS. Sure enough drive A shows up in My computer as well. My question is does XP re-install Floppy automatically? Otherwise I'm lead to believe somehow XP thinks the old drive is still there.

Would a reformat of windows fix this? Flash the BIOS? I have never flashed BIOS before and am willing to try but dont want to mess things up more than they already are.

As always, your suggestions/feedback is welcome :)

[- wardog -]

Hmmmm.....

It's not a Windows problem, at least here and now. It's still not(is it?) booting to dos with the boot disk. That takes Windows completely out of the fray.


With the drive yet removed but the FDD controller ENABLED, in Device Mgr uninstall the floppy and then controller again and re-boot till the drive itself dissapears completely leaving the only the FDD Controller showing.

Flash the bios using a bootable cd, one that contains RAMDRIVE.SYS. Boot from this CD and move all files pertaining to flashing onto the ramdrive. /cd to the ramdrive and execute the flasher.

If you need help with this just ask away. I can create a bootable ISO with what you'll need and place it for D/L if ya want. Though, this would be an excellent learning experience for you to complete on your own what with building/selling/supporting.
(That way I don't bear any responsibility should things go south :thumb: )

Remember to flash the bootblock and upon rebooting aftewards clear all, reboot and then continue to set as needed.

[Ryan79]

Ok the problem I have is no matter what I did after uninstalling the drive then controller after a reboot the floppy always comes back. It is only ever gone right after I do it. Once I reboot XP always is finding it somehow with it disconnected.

I will try this flash procedure, your right I should do it myself always thought about trying it anyway.

[BGP Spook]

Windows will go with whatever your bios is set to.

So you don't need to uninstall it in Windows you need to go into bios and change the setting to disabled or none. Even if you remove your floppy and uninstall the drivers and still leave the bios setting on, Windows will think you have a floppy connected (and the bios cant tell the difference). (I just experimented with this to make sure I was right.)

While you are there make sure you are using the 1.44 mb 3.5 inch setting (and that you are setting the A/1 floppy and not the B/2 floppy). Otherwise it won't work. Also if the floppy cable you are using has three connectors (one for the board two for floppy drives) try switching the connector that the floppy is on.

[Ryan79]

So disable floppy in bios and I should flash it? I understand what you mean about needing to do it in BIOS but what do you recommend I do as a solution?

[BGP Spook]

Sorry, the first part of my last post was in regardes to your trouble with getting the floppy and floppy controler to uninstall in windows.

The second part was intended to list some checks in your bios to make sure that your settings were correct.

I had nothing to add about flashing your bios. My experience is it is pretty straight forward, but I have always used a floppy though...

Again sorry for the confusion.