[SOLVED!!!] Floppy Disk drive troubles.

[Marturo]

It allways starts out the same. When booting I get the diode light up and go back out, then an error (Floppy Disk(s) Fail (40) hit F1 to continue. I Have tried 4 other good FDDs two new FDD ribbons. Yes it is listed in MS-DOS Compatibility Mode. I have gone through the MS (Q131690) Troubleshooting Floppy Disk Drive Problems in Windows, procedures more than once. This is where I have to stop and ask why, because I'm stumped on this one. Anyone have any ideas as to what I might try next? Marturo

 

[~Candy~]

Have you tried to access the bios setup to be sure the floppy drive controller is ENABLED there?

Does the floppy connect to the motherboard or to an add-in card?

Does everything look good in device manager? The floppy controller especially?

 

[Marturo]

Yes the Floppy disk is enabled in the Bios, the hook up is on the MOBO. The Device manager says the FDD is working properly, and there are no conflicts. Also I can leave a diskette in the FDD and boot into windows and never get a nonsystem disk error. When I go into properites in A: drive, it comes up very slow and reads a formated diskette as full, at 0 bytes. When I restart in DOS I can't get the FDD to format a diskette or take any command. Even though the FDD will light up on boot it will not start any bootable diskette. All I have accomplished is to get drive A: recconized in the System. Before I went through all the checks it was blank where the FDD should be now it is recognized. With the ribbon reversed the FDD runs full time. Marturo

 

[~Candy~]

And you have the floppy drive connected to the very end of the floppy ribbon, correct?

If so, try this, pull the floppy drive out of the bay and hook it up on the outside......try accessing a disk from there......

Also, in the bios setup, the floppy drive is being recognized as a 1.44 drive, correct?

 

[crabman]

IT SOUNDS LIKE THE CONTROLLER IS BAD ON THE MOTHER BOARD.....DO THEY HAVE SPARE CONTROLLERS FOR FLOPPYS MAYBE A PCI ADD ON OR SOMETHING I DONT KNOW

 

[Marturo]

Answers for AcaCandy 1. SiSandra says no FDD. 2. during Boot it says Drive A: 1.44MB 3.5 in. Boot sequence A,C,SCSI. In properties DMA 02, Input/Output 03F2-03F5. When I try to Format in Win, it says There is no disk in drive, door is open fix and retry. In answer to Crabman I tried an ISA I/O (LPT-1 and a COM port with an IDE, FDD, 4 different CD-ROM hook-ups on board, however not being from the ISA age I don't have a clue as to what this card can or can't do. The LED flashes on boot up just as it does when hooked to the MOBO and all the other symptoms are the same hooked to the ISA or MOBO. I have not looked into a PCI I/O for use as an FDD Controler. This is a mid-Tower build by someone who used hot melt glue stick gun to tack all the connectors. It has a 1995 EliteGroup MOBO Model # P6KFX-A with an Intel Pentium II. I was hoping to fix it load Win 98SE and with A 5gig master and 1gig slave, 24X Paridise CD-ROM give them a starter. After all this, to be stoped by a floppy you know how it feels. I think that a good deed has gone to far, and my sugestion would be Spend 7 or 8 hundred and replace everything but their Expert 128 ATI video card. Put it all back together and tell them I fixed there FDD. Familia, what we won't do for them. I would like to thank you both for your help, Sincerely Marturo
PS: As my first teacher said, If you use junk to build with You end up with junk. How true ;o)

 

[~Candy~]

Hi again, I'll delete the duplicate posting, but I still have one more question, have you tried hooking up a floppy drive on the outside of the case.....I know it sounds crazy.......but give it a shot.....

 

[Marturo]

I will be happy to give it a try. Do we want the drive body grounded or not? I will try both the MOBO and ISA connectors. Can you give me an idea what you are looking for? I will wait for your reply. Marturo

 

[~Candy~]

I've had experiences where the drive is either too tight in the case or it's not exactly level, and floppies won't read....when I've tested it outside the case, a floppy will read just fine.......I've never grounded the case......just be careful on all of the wires hanging out of the case....don't get any tied up against the cpu fan, etc.

 

[Marturo]

Well Candy (Do you mind if I call you Candy?) I tried 4 new HDDs hooked into the MOBO and then into the ISA card. All is the same. What I don't understand is if the FDD is listed as running in MS-DOS Compatibility mode. Why can't I get any results while in DOS, runing Dos commands to A: drive? I can see all the PCI cards listed in the IRQs but not the ISA card are ISAs PNP or do they have to be enabled another way. I take it from Crabmans post, he suspects the controler on the MOBO. So if the ISA card can be enabled it may prove or disprove that possability. Marturo

 

[crabman]

if it isnt plug and play use the add new hardware wizare i used this to install an isa modem on my computer but i wonder do you have the drivers?????

 

[Marturo]

Yes Crabman that is what I tried to do with ANH. The problem is getting a driver to work an ISA in a Win 98 SE OS. I could do a search on an I/O PCI card to replace the HDD controler on the MOBO. I will keep you posted on my progress trying to find a driver for an FCC: ID DXLSK803, Reveal Sound FX. Ser # N4CD515 24633. Thanks, Marturo

 

[~Candy~]

Hi again, Marturo, I think I'm getting a bit confused....you say you've tried 4 hard drives? Do you mean floppy drives? The computer is booting into windows correct, because you say you can see the floppy device says MS-DOS compatibility, am I correct so far?

In the bios setup, you've checked to be sure the FDD controller is ENABLED (if that setting is available there), then you've also checked to be sure the floppy is showing up as 1.44? When the computer boots up, the floppy drive light comes on, then goes off? Then you get the error message about the FDD?

Where on the floppy drive cable do you have the drive connected? At the very end, correct?

I have an older system running off an ISA controller card, and windows picks up the card and finds drivers for it....I don't have to do anything special......(and this is on a 95 machine)!

Did you get around to testing a drive on the outside?

Sorry to re-ask a bunch of questions, but I want to be sure we're both thinking the same......

BTW, you referred to one Microsoft article, but did you see this one as well?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-GB;q130179

 

[Marturo]

Hi Candy
Thanks for checking back. Let me see if I can't put this in some order. Yes I meant FDD not HDs, the FDD controler is enabled in the Bios. The test Program SiSandra (Lite) tells me there is no FDD on this machine, but when first starting up, where all your drives are shown and with how much memory is onboard, that is where I see Drive A: 1.44mb 3.5 inch. There are only 2 connectors on the FDD ribbon, unlike the 3 on an an IDE ribbon where the top is master and the center is slave. It is under the performance tab in System Properties, this is where I keep finding the message that my A: drive is in MS-DOS Compatibility mode. In the Bios I have set the Power management to read Floppy Disk IRQ6 on, Onboard Controler is also enabled. Now If you press the power button the Computer Boots up and everything looks normal, then you get the Conflict I/O ports 378 2F8 3F8 and this is something that came along after the FDD problem, then Floppy Disk(s) Fail (40) press F1 to continue and if you press F1 it goes right into Win 98 SE and works just fine. If you run Norton Utilities 2001 and try the rescue feature it says, Rescue, is unable to detect a 1.44 floppy boot Drive you need the three Diskettes to use the Rescue feature. In the same Norton program under system, it list everything the Computer has. Except in this case the Floppy Drive. Both hard drives and the CD-ROM, but not the floppy. This was built as a networked office Computer that started out built in 1995 with Win 95 updated to 98 in 1998 running NT with Novell networking running the show. All that should be FDISKED, FORMATED and replaced with Win 98 SE. It acts like a good fast Computer with one problem, it does not have a Floppy Drive. I will study this new MS bulletin you sent me and run the checks it calls for. Thanks for all your help Candy. Marturo
PS: I belive that I can put all the drivers I have on diskettes onto a CD-RW and load the needed Drivers, like the diskette, Driver for the LinkSys NIC card. I also have a 250mb USB Zip Drive that could be hooked up for now as a way to save any work that needs to be backed up.

 

[Marturo]

I am at the point now where if I can't find a PCI or ISA card to test the MOBOs FDD onboard controler, I will just have to believe that the MOBO will have to be replaced inorder to have an FDD in this computer. Tried many of the tests, tested all the parts I could, test, that my limited tools and experience would allow me to test. When it all, seems to point in one direction, logic dictates this is the problem, but maybe that's only for the race track. There are some really great Techs here at TSG, and at 50 I enjoying building new Computers. It's when you have a computer that you can't find an answer for a problem, you get to know quite fast in this game, who the real techs are. Like me, the ones who just want to keep their hands busy, and maybe do something you like, to make some extra spending money. However when something like as simple as a floppy not working, can stop you dead in your tracks, you become a parts changer, not a Master Tech. The right tools, how to use them, and an intimate knowledge of all the systems that is what makes a Master Tech. All in all it is a lot of fun to build and upgrade Computers, so I think I will stick with it and see if this old dog can still learn some new tricks. After all I am an Organic Farmer for my Day job so I won't starve. Thank you for all the help Candy, you did ask all the right questions, I just have a problem that can not be fixed with the limited tools and understanding of the complexities of the motherboard and it's systems. As this thread is keeping you from working with problems that can be fixed, I think it would be best if we put this, unsolveable problem to rest. What do you think? Marturo