windows 98 floppy drive

You need to recheck your floppy cable connection.

Generally when the light stays on constantly it means that the cable is connected backwards. Check the cable, one edge of the cable should be colored, blue or red, and that side is to line up with pin 1 of the connector. You can see the pin numbers on the bottom of the drive, or there is a little square marking that indicates pin one. If the connection is correct on the drive then you have to look at the motherboard and make sure it is connected pin 1 to pin 1 there.

That should solve your problem.

If it does this while the disk is out as well then the cable on the back is backwards.
If it stays on only while trying to read the disk it might be dirty. Buy a 3 1/2 disk drive cleaner.

Did you try a different start up disk too? If you don't have one, you can go here and get one.

http://www.drd.dyndns.org/index2.html

If it worked once or you get it to work intermittently then I would say the floppy drive is dead. Since they are only around $10US I suggest you do away with the headache and buy another one.
Good luck!

Mike

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