trouble with floppy drive!

melvinhc · #1 03-09-2003, 12:48 PM

I replaced the flat cables for my Master, Slave and floppy disk drive (A:\) with new round cables! The hard disk drives accepted the new cables (133's) but I get a message that there is a problem with drive A:\ with a "40" at the end! It tells me to hit F1 to continue booting up. I replaced the new round cable for the floppy with the old, reliable flat cable, but the condition still exists. When I insert a formatted disk in A:\ drive, the drive doesn't recognize it! Device Manager tells me that the floppy drive is working fine? I removed the driver and let Windows XP reinstall, still no drive "A:\" I noticed that the green light on my floppy drive is always on and doesn't blink anymore like it used to! Am I ready for a new floppy drive? There aren't any bent pins and the cable is hooked up properly. (Athlon 1200 with 512 RAM, a Maxtor and Western digital hard disk drives (both 20 Gigs) and a bad (????) A:\ drive!

beeboy · #2 03-09-2003, 12:51 PM

Why did you change the cables? Were you having some trouble previously? Does A drive show in bios?

melvinhc · #3 03-09-2003, 02:29 PM

I changed the cables to take advantage of the 133 speed and to reduce the clutter of the flat cables. Drive A:\ is shown in the BIOS, in Device Manager and when I click on "My Computer," it is appears along with the other drives, C:\, E:\ and D:\. When I insert a formatted disk into A:\ drive, I am told that there is nothing in it and to insert a disk. Wonder if I rolled back Windows to a time previous to this problem, if it would solve it?Remember that I got a message about the CMOS having something to do with the floppy problem. I cleared the CMOS memory per my SOYO manual but that didn't solve the problem! Fortunately, Floppy drives aren't expensive!

Emmett Roberts · #4 03-09-2003, 03:28 PM

Hi,

It has been cold all day here and I may be having a brain freeze.
But trying reversing the connector to the floppy drive. If my memory were working better, I would bet that constant green led is a clue that the cable is on backwards. And make sure you are using the connector at the very end of the cable (the one with several wires twisted between it and the next connector.) This is a stretch but you need to make sure that the connector mates with all the pins on the floppy. Going the long way round to make my point, there are 2 rows of 17 pins. Let's call one row A and the other B. Make sure A mates with A and B mates with B. It is easy to get B on A with nothing connecting the other A and B and not see the problem.

Good Luck

beeboy · #5 03-09-2003, 04:18 PM

It is the logical thing to assume a cable problem because your A drive was ok before the swap. I would'nt count on a System Restore helping. Try another floppy drive and see.

melvinhc · #6 03-10-2003, 01:56 PM

I did as you suggested and reversed the cable at the floppy drive and everything is OK! Always thought that the red side of the cable was always nearest the power source, but the red is away from the power plug?????

beeboy · #7 03-10-2003, 03:33 PM

Right on Emmett!! Thanks for letting us know melvinhc.