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Floppy drive fail

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13 replies

by cornishman

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While changing the duff CD-ROM on a Mitac DV5120V, I disconnected the floppy drive and stupidly forgot to reconnect the IDE cable (although power cable was left connected). I got the obvious 'floppy fail' but after powering down and reconnecting, I still get the fail and the light on the drive is on continously. Tried the drive on another machine - OK. Tried another known good drive on the Mitac - still get 'floppy fail'. In setup, floppy is detected and I can't see anything else wrong. Have checked and triple checked all cable connectors, if I bypass floppy in setup the rest of the machine works fine - what am I missing here?

13 replies

by bean baggins

An "always on" floppy drive light usually indicates the cable is reversed. Check both ends for correct alignment on pin 1. Check also for bent pins on the floppy drive itself and on the mainboard if it's not a socketed plug. If that fails try another cable. Good luck.

by cornishman

The connectors at both ends are 'keyed' - cannot be reversed. Bent/misaligned pins were the first things I looked for. Haven't sourced another cable yet.

by acoada

I honestly agree with what the previous Peer said about reveresed cables..i have being in a similar situation. I had to reverse the cables before I got it to work again. Also check to make sure you have the FDC controller tuned on in the BIOS.
Hopethis helps.

by cornishman

See above reply regarding the cable connectors - there is no reason for the fdc to be turned off - I only changed the CD-ROM !!!!

by tels

Were you using a 'twisted pair' cable? If the floppy light was constant, this indicates a cable misconfiguration. I take your point that the cable only goes in one way, but some computers demand that a 'twisted pair' be plugged into FD0. (and some really don't like that at all)

HTH

by goh weihan

Since you are sure that every pin entered the floppy connector, then I would presume you reversed the cables.

A general rule though, the IDE cable's red or blue corner is always the opposite of the floppy cable's red corner

by cornishman

Yep, cable WAS reversed. In my defence, the connector had to be connected AGAINST the keyway which goes against all the rules I have ever been taught about cables ans connectors!! Thanks to all.

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