Floppy drive not working

[MC]

I installed a new floppy drive on my system as my old one was toast (old and probably mechanically bad from the way it sounded). Hooked the new one up to the power and motherboard, and it runs constantly. Busy light never goes off. Computer thinks device is working properly (it's not). Computer can't access drive and gives me the "device is not ready" message. I shouldn't have to install drivers for this right? It is a different brand, etc. than the old one. This should be really straightforward but I can't figure it out. Probably forgot to do something obvious, which I imagine someone who posts a reply will tell me /forum/smile.gif...

Thanks in advance.

- MC

[Pantion]

Be sure you didn't put the cable wrong. You may have put it wrong either be on the floppy, motherboard or even both.

[BFlurie]

That's what happens when the cable is reversed. Wire #1 on the cable goes away from you when connecting to most floppies.

[xtant]

Did this one myself, here's the easy way to tell: the pink wire on the ribbon cable should be facing the power supply of the pc. It's probably on backwards now.

[welsh wizard]

Hate to be prophet of doom but if you have made sure the following are correct.
1 red cable marker ( may be pink dotted or what ever) is lined up with pin 1 on drive.
2 your drive is not jumpered to be slave( some drive have a micro jumper thats soldered some have proper jumpers)
then your old drive could have when it failed overloaded the data transfer IC and cooked it, this happens more often than some people realise. /forum/frown.gif
WW

[RAR]

I just had a problem like the one you described. I had the cable on correctly but I discovered there was a small cut in one of the wires on the floppy cable which caused the light to stay on and the floppy not being recognized. I would definitely try another cable if you have one laying around.

[XT]

I agree, sounds like the floppy cable is reversed. Switch positions with your cable. make sure connections are tight. If that doesnt work, your cable may have bit it.

XT

[Axel]

Welsh - I haven't seen ANY floppy drives with master/slave pins - Hard drives , CDROM drives - yes << just heard from an old-timer that NCR used to make a pin-able M/S drive, but I wouldn't use one - give me a good sealed Toshiba any day >>

Another thing you might try after that exhaustive check to see that you got the ribbon cable on the correct way at both ends, is to boot up into safe mode and delete the old drive out of device manager. It might have required a driver which could be causing the problem.

Then reboot and allow the system to auto-detect the new floppy drive. Have your windows CD-ROM handy as it will probably ask for it after it auto-detects the drive. There are currently only a hand-full of floppy drive manufacturers out there and the windows CAB files have drivers for all of them.

Check both the mobo and hard drive for bent or missing pins - check the IDE cable to see if a missing pin lodged in the cable. Old floppy drives are bad about dropping pins in a cable when you forcefully disconnect them.

If that still doesn't work, go back to the store and get them to test/replace the drive. While you are there, might be a good investment to pick up a new floppy IDE ribbon cable.

An EXTREMELY remote possibility is that your system caught a BIOS virus which might possibly be causing this issue. But as I said - that's extremely remote - most BIOS viruses kill the system out-right.

Best of luck - Most of us tinkers came up the same way /forum/wink.gif


[This message has been edited by Axel (edited 12-01-1999).]

[welsh wizard]

Axel
even the new drive have a jumper on them, they are now mostly soldered, but every now and then some one wants one for an Atari ST so you have to unsolder it and set jumper to slave, it's and old hag up from the early days, (Mitsumi are the worst to change, them little B%$$@rs are only about 1/16 inch long, real pain to do. /forum/smile.gif
WW