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Writing to Floppy Causes ReBoot

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13 replies

by mr_joey

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I have a Compaq Armada M300 Laptop running Win2k (SP2) that is having a problem writing large files to the floppy drive. I am also having the same problem with a similar notebook made by Dell (inspiron 8000, also running Win2k (sp2)). The computer will write files under 50k but anything over causes the computer to automatically re-boot. I can't find a virus on either computer so I am suspecting it is windows, or possibly my Novell Client (4.81 (SP3)). Please Help!

13 replies

by timthetoolman

Wierd. Especially for two independant, different laptops in your care to experience the same problem. I wouldn't entirely rule out a virus...

Does the same problem happen when reading large files?

Cheers,
Tim.

by mr_joey

I have not completely ruled out a Virus, and no, the problem only happens when writing to the floppy. I can even burn a cd on the dell but not the floppy.

by thechas

It is strange for this problem to show up on 2 different laptops at once.

Are the batteries getting old?

Are these removable drives?
If so, carefully clean the connections with contact cleaner or a soft pencil eraser.

Are the drives dirty form being hauled all over the place?
A good cleaning wouldn't hurt either.

by mr_joey

The drives are not modular and the batteries are only about 6 months old. Good thought but those laptops are not very old. The only thing I can come up with from your suggestions is that the chlorine in the environment is affecting them. The laptopsbelong to a water treatment plant and are in a chlorinated environment a lot. I'll look into this.

by timthetoolman

And the problem doesn't happen if you completely fill a floppy with relatively small files in one go...say 20k each?

Tim.

by mr_joey

The Problem persists when writing multiple small files to the floppy. Anything over about 50k.

by pggoodwin

Sounds like a virus because the identical thing is happening on both laptops..Are your virus definitions up to date?

by mr_joey

The signature files from Innoculate are up to date as of the 13th of this month. Unless there is some new virus out there that does it, I have to rule it out. I trust innoculate, I've used it for years, and it has not failed me yet.

by dpalsen

Try swapping out the floppy drive and see if that solves it. Also, can you format the drive, or is it just that the drive has problems accessing for long periods of time? Further, can you copy files from a disk?

by mr_joey

Thanks for your suggestion. I can format the drive with a disk in it and I can take stuff from a full floppy. The problem also happens with varying files of over 50k.

by mm212

To keep the systems from rebooting, right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Go to the Advanced tab and click on the Startup and Recovery button. About in the middle of the page is a checkbox for Automatically Reboot. Uncheck this box and hit OK. You may need to reboot for this to take effect. What this will do is prevent Windows from rebooting when it encounters a critical error. Now when it finds the error, it may bluescreen and show you some details, but it won't just reboot. NOW you can start troubleshooting.

My workstation ran into this same problem so I did the above steps and allowed the error to occur. The error ended up being Inoculan. I removed and reinstalled Inoculan and didn't run into any further problems. We switched to Norton AV not long afterward so I don't know if it continues to cause problems with Win2K or not.

by mr_joey

Innoculan was the Culpret. They have a patch burried within thier website that will fix the problem with the ino_flpy.sys file. The Patch seems to be fixing the problem. Thanks a lot for your help!

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