Floppy no recognized!

[marquisg]

I recently assembeled a new system, with a P5GX-M MoBo, GXm-233 CPU, 128 Meg RAM, and all jumpers set correct. It will not recognize the 3.5 FD. Changed the cable, changed the FD and still get a "Floppy Disk(s) fail (40). Any suggestions?

[Target]

Have you checked in the bios to ensure that the floppy controller is enabled?

How about making sure that the drive is getting power.

I know these are fairly obvious, but the obvious ones are those that trip us up sometimes.

[Bovon]

Yep, I think bios setup also. But, one additional comment. In bios, you have the option to setup two floppys..and A and a B drive. If for instance, the bios is setup for the A drive, but the ribbon cable is connected to the B drive connector, that will cause it to fail to detect it. Also, as pointed out...the ribbon cable red striped wire on the edge of the cable, must go to pin one on the mobo and drive itself.

[jeffpapier]

Your floppy ribbon provides a cable select for A or B drive. It depends on using the connecter before or after the twist in the ribbon end. Try the other IDC pin connecter.
And don't trust keyed connections. I have had to cut them off to match the no.1 pin to the ribbon cable.

[marquisg]

Thanks for all the suggestions. This is about the 15th computer I've built and even then I tried all of your suggestions still with no luck. If the FD controller on the MoBo is bad can I buy an ISA or PCI card with a FD controller on it? If so where? I can disable the MoBO one.

[Zealous]

is the light on on the floppy drive if so i might have an answer, i came across this problem before when no matter what i did i couldn't get the floppy drive to work and then i looked at the cable the power line (usually a red wire at the end of the ribbon) was facing away from the power connector, thats about the time i remembered something from school "p1 towards power" the reason i never noticed this before is that the little tab that keeps you from putting it on upsidedown was upsidedown flipped the cable over and bam the floppy was working perfectly

[marquisg]

The FD light comes on during the BIOS bootup and then gives me the error. I reversed the cable and the FD light stays on and same error.

[marquisg]

Question: I have an ISA 16 bit Multi I/O card with IDE, FD, Com 1&2 and LPT 1&2 connections. However no paperwork and since I haven't used one in a long time I don't know how to disable the other items that I don't need. The LPT's are easy since they are seperate and identified but the remaining are the problem or are they??? There is a JP2 with 5 pin sets 1 & 2 and then a JP5 with a 2 pin set of 1, 2 & 3. The present configuration is: JP2 is pin 1=open, 2=closed, 3=open, 4 & 5=closed, JP5 has jumpers on both pin sets using pins 1 & 2. Can I use this card and disable the onboard FD controller? There is no brand name but has a SMC chip and a WINBOND chip, any suggestions?

[chapsieml]

We do not think your FD controler is bad and sugesst the following:The floppy drive ribbon connector on the end past the twist is plugged into (A) floppy drive . The ribbon connector must be plugged into the floppy drive so that the striped , or identified side is facing the power connector. The connector at the other end of the cable plugs into the (FD) recepticale on the mother board-you must put striped end toward pin one.Also make sure you power connector is correctly plugged in. Go into your bios and do setup for both A & B floppy drives set at 3.5 @1.44, make sure floppy swap is not set. Also a little known fact about floppy drives-they have drive select jumpers that can be set as (A), or (B) drive. If your floppy has been set as (A) and you are connecting it as (B) drive it will not work; will cause a failure like you described.If the failure is keeping you from reaching bios simply unplug the power from your flopply.The best quick test on floppies is to have another good working drive that you can plug in to see if you still have the same problem.

[marquisg]

You were right. I pulled another 3.5 FD from a working unit, hooked it up and it worked. I have 2 new 3.5 FD that are bad I guess. Thanks for getting me to try another FD, now I can finish setting this thing up. A LINUX machine I hope.

[chapsieml]

Was glad to have helped.
chapsieml