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dead floppy drive

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by eschwartz 1 view

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Sometime between now and the last time I had the computer open, my floppy drive stopped working. I've replaced the floppy drive itself with a know good one, I've replaced the cable, I checked, double checked, and triple checked that all my connections are tight and seated, I'm sure the drive has at least some power because when I install the data cable the wrong way the floppy light stays on (this is typical of every PC in existance)... my BIOS shows the floppy drive controller is enabled, andthat it's setup for a 1.44MB 3 1/2 drive... However I can not boot to it, access it, or do ANYTHING with it... My thoughts at this point are that the floppy controller integrated into the mobo has some how crapped out...

Is this possible? Wouldthe POST report some failure at bootup if that were true? Any suggestions short of replacing the mobo or getting an LS120 drive?

The last time the case was open was to replace the power supply (upgrading from a generic 250w to a pc powercooling 300w)... is it possible that I'm somehow not getting some crucial +12 feed? I would think that it would manifest itself in other areas of the machine tho...

6 replies

by stngfan1

Your HDD's and/or CD-Rom drives use the same power cables. If these work you can move one of the power cables to the floppy and test it. You may need an adapter, because the physical size might be different, but the power is the same.

If you can disable the floppy in the CMOS, you can buy a I/O controller, disable everything on it except the floppy drive controller. You will need an available ISA or PCI slot for this.

If the power supply had the same connectors as the MOBO then I doubtits wired wrong. If you spliced wires together, then maybe something is fried. You can test the connections with a cheap volt meter.

TM

by paul d. masley

I know that this is simple, but I ran into the same problem. Your information stated that you have tried these but a second check wont hurt.

Check your bios (if an award - first page) and make sure that you have the floppy enabled. Check the box for floppy seek. Also move the boot sequence to C,cdrom,C. Check the pin setting on the floppy and make sure that you have it installed on the very end connector. Change the cable. You may have gotton a bad one. all it takes is for one wire not to connect and "No Pizza."

One last thing. Borrow a known good floppy and try it. You may have bought a bad one. I have seen pins broken out or not soldered at the board.

Good luck

Paul.

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