Floppys no work!!

[brainchild]

I built a new system here goes
FIC mobo
750 Athalon Thunderbird
16 meg video blaster 3d
4.3 gig hd
It took me two days just to get it to post.Finally it does post, but no beeps, and a floppy disk(s) fail 40 error comes up. I have switched the cables around. Differnt cables,set bios ten times. Still no floppy.I tried three floppy drives, one out of a working system, and all I get is a light coming on if the cable is inserted backwards.It has voltage to the supply, it just don't work.
Sorry for the long post, just want to tell it all.
thanks in advance for you help!

[SPEEDO]

Check The cable that goes to the floppy and make sure that the single end goes to the motherboard.
The double end will go to the floppy, Make sure you put the last connector that will fit the pins on to the floppy.

Also check you bios to make sure floppy A is 1.44
And floppy B is disabled!!

[brainchild]

Axel;
I only have one stick of PC100 64 mbram in it, and the ribbons I tried were both new. It also has a 250 watt PSU. Anything I haven't tried would be helpful. Also the system speaker doesn't work, could this be connected? The speaker itself is good, but no signal to it I guess. Maybe this is partly to blame.

[Bovon]

The light coming on has nothing to do with the drive itself, that is just indicating it has power applied. The floppy drive controller on the mainboard could have died.

[Axel]

I know many will argue with this - but I've had this issue myself and it turned out to be badly miss-matched RAM - That was on an old ASUS 200mHz motherboard - had 3 different types of RAM in it - two different manufacturers - Once I stripped out the odd RAM and went with two single sticks by the same manufacturer, the floppy started working - went through several ribbon cables and 3 known good floppy drives - definitely wasn't that or the BIOS -

So you might try different RAM and making sure you haven't got mixed RAM on the motherboard.

I'd also replace the ribbon cable with a new one - that usually doesn't cost much. You've tried so many different known good drives - I'd suspect the ribbon cable or the motherboard at this point.

Next - take a look at your power supply - is it at least a 230Watt power supply?

[brainchild]

I have done that. I can't seem to get it to work, I'm wondering if my mobo is bad,but would the light come on at all if the controller was bad? I have never ran into this before. I have to have the floppy to boot into windows setup.
From all appearances, it is set up right, nothing I do seems to make a difference.
Thanks!

[TonyMan]

For some strange reason I've been through this with FIC motherboards also. Insure that the ribbon connector is seated on the floppy correctly, I've had one on only one row of pins. Check orientation of teh cables. I was also under the impression that FIC uses a special cable pinout. Make sure you have the cable that came with the mother board.

Good luck.

[TonyMan]

For some strange reason I've been through this with FIC motherboards also. Insure that the ribbon connector is seated on the floppy correctly, I've had one on only one row of pins. Check orientation of teh cables. I was also under the impression that FIC uses a special cable pinout. Make sure you have the cable that came with the mother board.

Good luck.

[GrimBo]

The only thing I can offer is this: Make sure pin 1 matches on the mobo matches pin 1 on the floppy drive. When you mentioned earlier that you had a light that was on the floppy drive. I'm assuming that it's staying on constantly and this is what leads me to believe that the pins are crossed.

[j moy]

As with Tony... I had a strange thing with FIC motherboards... It was either the ribbon, the motherboard, or the floppy... one of those... anyway... do this... make sure you connect it excatly how it says in the motherboard... which is pin 1. Then... make sure you connect the ribbon to pin 1 of the floppy... I had to flip the cable upside down to acquire that... I'm pretty sure it's like red to power... that red line facing the power cord of the floppy... hope that works...

[newbie~wan]

Brainchild, I currently have exact same problem:

"Floppy disk(s) fail (40)" Right?

As for the light being on all the time (good call Grimbo) it is UNDOUBTABLY being caused by ribbon cable connected backwards at mobo and/or floppy. I experienced this EXACT SAME problem and solved it like so (red line on ribbon to pin1). From there, I dont know what to do!!!

SPEEDO: what do you mean by single end and double end? I am hoping elaboration on this might help both me and brainchild.

Note: I checked to make sure the pins on my floppy werent bent and they're were not.

[This message has been edited by newbie~wan (edited 08-17-2001).]

[GrimBo]

Thanks newbie~wan. After seeing your post, I did forget one small thing. I once pushed in one of the pins and had to actually dig it out.

[SPEEDO]

newbie~wan

If you hold the cable in your hand and stretch it out there will be one connector on one end and either two or four connectors on the other end, On the end with more than one connector if there are two they will both fit the floppy use the one on the end after the twist.

If this end has four connectors two of them will be different than your floppy, Disregard them and use the last one on the end as in above instructions!

SPEEDO

[brainchild]

Well after many attempts to correct the problem I finally called the vendor, and went step by step with them. Together we decided that it was the FDD on the MOBO, so I have another one on the way, should be here Mon. A little advice, buy parts with an extended warranty.Thanks for all the help.