Urza9814 Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Aight...here's what happened. Last thursday, I was trying to put something on a floppy disk...and it said there was no disk in the drive. I looked at it, and hte light wasn't even turning on. So then I thought the 5 year old drive's probably fried (long story short: I had to move it to the other bay, and I was doing so while my comp was on...there was a spark, my comp shut down, and I thought that mighta damaged the drive)...so anyways, I bought a new one, since they're only about $10...got it today, put it in, and...nothing. My BIOS doesn't recognize a disk in (though it is set up right), the light doesn't turn on, windoze says there's no disk in the drive and Mandrake says the drive is not connected. So...any ideas? I was gonna try a different IDE cable, but the only other I have is from my old compaq, and it's shaped differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 If you are sure the cable is attached correctly, my guess would be that you fried the floppy controller on the motherboard (the mothrboard cable socket). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 ...crap...it's brand new too...anything I can do about that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 You could RMA the board if it is still under warranty. I doubt that it could be repaired. I suppose you could try clearing the CMOS on the board (see manual fpr details)... Do you really need a floppy? Lots of folks are floppyless these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 yes, I need a floppy drive...but I'd rather not RMA the mobo...because then I wouldn't have a comp for like, 2 weeks at least...and im not even totally sure this thing has a warranty (though if it does I'm only about 20 days into it)...but...would I be able to use a PCI IDE card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Floppy cables should have an A and B .. primary and secondary and they should be recognised by cables 7-10 being inverted on the cable for the primary A. Make sure its connected the right way up! Make sure your BIOs has floppy support turned on, they are so acrhaic nowadays they perhaps set it not to check for it durng boot (which saves time) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 and remember this time to turn the power off - lucky it was only the floppy that got fried - sparks, electric, fingers and stuff - ouch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 ...but...would I be able to use a PCI IDE card? Yes. The floppy controller is independent of the IDE controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lakota Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Just a thought. At some point in time I always figure it is time to move forward. Due to the low cost of usb thumbdrives and high storage space and fast transfer speed, I have given up on floppy and use thumbdrives in their place. I also realize some can't. My Dad wanted me to fix his pentium 3 while I was down at Xmas, while I was at it I pitched a box of 5 and a quarter" floppies in the garbage. His eyebrows nearly hit his hairline and he dove into the pail to retrieve them. I said, "You don't even have a drive that fits them anymore"! He informed me, "Yah, but they are mine". Just a funny from a couple weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 (edited) Urza, you seem to be a little confused between the ide interface and the floppy interface. These are completely separate systems. A floppy drive does not use an ide cable; it uses a floppy cable. A floppy drive cannot be plugged into an ide port, whether on the motherboard or a pci ide controller card; it must be plugged into a floppy port. Take a look at a floppy cable and an ide cable; They're different number of wires, different plugs, ect. and the floppy cable has a twist towards one end of the cable. In short, a floppy plug will not fit into an ide port so don't even try that. Back to your original problem. You swapped out the floppy drive, had a spark and nothing changed, i.e. the floppy drive is still not detected in the bios or by the OS and the light doesn't come on for the floppy drive. Seems like the next logical thing to try is putting a new floppy cable in. That's certainly cheaper and easier than replacing the motherboard, especially since you haven't confirmed that your present cable is good. Also check the power plug going into the floppy drive. The drive may not be getting power. If you have a spare plug from the psu, try using a different plug. I suspect that there may be a problem with power to the drive. If you have another box, swap the floppy and cable into another box and see if they work OK. In short, do a little more troubleshooting to make sure your floppy controller is blown on your motherboard. If your sure that's the case, then you can buy a pci floppy controller card if they still make them. If not, you can problably pick one up on ebay cheap. Another alternative is to pick up a usb floppy drive/card reader combo drive. Edited January 11, 2005 by pmpatrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 ok, yea, I was gonna check the cable eventually...lol... I know it's not the power...I had the plug in upside down and the light was on solid...lol...and the drive IS detected...well, I dunno...it's in my BIOS, it's in windoze, and it's in linux (kinda...says it's unplugged, so...)...the windoze device manager has it listed though...so...that mean anything? imma swap out the cable with the one from my bro's comp as soon as I can...that might not be for a while though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 The floppy light being on solid is a sure sign that you have the floppy cable in backwards as you apparently found out. If the drive is properly detected in the bios and works in windows then there is probably nothing wrong with the drive or the cable; it's a linux configuraqtion problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 (edited) no, it doesn't work in windows though, or in the BIOS...it's there, but im not sure if the BIOS autodetects or not...did the first time I believe, but, I dunno, it won't boot from a disk...but I'm thinking one of these, just wanna verify that this is what I need: http://www.aerocooler.com/shop.cart?action...&prod_id=COWI51 http://www.acortech.com/.sc/ms/dd//9/nc/Co...roller%2520Card liking the second one better...does more stuff, same price...don't see what those fans are supposed to do...I see no way for the air to escape the case...but...fans are cool :-P you can already hear my CPU fan downstairs...even with the door closed...lol looks like it comes with some kind of power adapter plug...hmm...wonder what that's for...not knowing what that's for is scaring me...lol edit: just verified that the IDE cable is good...ow...my comp must hate me...the case bit me while I was closing it...and now my hand is bleeding a bit :-P but yea, I plan to get a third harddrive, and that card says it'll do hard drives too, so that'll be good...I'll need it eventually anyways...and the $6 is worth having my comp for the 2 or 3 weeks it would take to send the mobo back and get a new one besides...not like they'd care, but I don't think the warranty covers user errors... Edited January 12, 2005 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Urza..calm down read the posts.... An IDE cable is NOT a floppy cable If you have somehow tried to use an IDecable it has the wrong no. of pins and the blocked hole is in the wrong place... If not you should be using a floppy cable and it should have a twist in pins 7 thru 10. It must be the correct way round..like someone else said if you put it on upside down (cheap cable wilkl allow this) then your light will go on and stay on!!! It is NOT reversible.... You might have damaged the pins/floppy/mobo if you forced it on upside down... check.... pins can usually be carefully straightened! Try the other floppy cable from your brothers PC! but I suspect the answer is already here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Re your controller cards. Those are both isa cards. Newer motherboards no longer have legacy isa slots so make sure your mb has an isa slot available. Neither of those cards will fit into a pci slot. Also, the one with a hard drive port will only accept a 40 wire ide cable which means the hard drive will operate at ATA 33 speeds which is much slower than the speed for most modern hard drives(ATA 100 or 130). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.