Floppy Disk Light is ALWAYS ON

[CityRoamer]

I have just started up my new computer and have set all the BIOS settings. I am ready to load Win2k and tried inserting the first boot disk, but its not reading it from my floppy drive. For some reason my floppy drive light is always on. I checked the wiring and it looked right. Im using one of the power wires that is branched off from the ones that are connected to the CD-RW and the DVD-ROM. What could be the problem?

The floppy is correctly connected to the board.....

 

[sharkeeper]

Are you sure it's correctly connected? Try reversing the ribbon cable. Make sure the side with the twist is CLOSEST to the drive.

Cheers!

 

[bigshooter]

if the light is always on, the floppy connector cable is on backwords.

 

[DN]

The only times I've seen a floppy light come on and stay on was due to only 2 things:

Defective floppy drive
Cable not corrected plugged in (red line on cable into pin #1 on BOTH sides -- floppy drive AND floppy drive controller)

I know you said you made sure sure it's plugged in, but also make sure that the red line on the cable is plugged into pin #1 of the floppy drive and that the other red line end is plugged into pin #1 of the floppy disk controller..

 

[sharkeeper]

Actually, there was one RARE case where I saw the floppy light on and it WAS connected correctly. It was with an Iwill KK266R. The floppy would come on and make snorting noises whenever a GeForce3 card was in the AGP slot. The floppy did die after this. Stupid Iwill POS... :|

Cheers!

 

[CityRoamer]

I need to turn the ribbon 180 degrees but it has the extra piece on the bottom side of the connector that only lets my put it in one way...

 

[XMan]

I need to turn the ribbon 180 degrees but it has the extra piece on the bottom side of the connector that only lets my put it in one way...

Sounds like you have it plugged properly into the floppy, then.

Can you reverse it at the motherboard?

 

[CZroe]

The correct terminology is that it's a "keyed" connector (Either a blocked hole or a slotted connector). It took me forever to find a 100% unkeyed cable for a weird motherboard/floppy combo I once encountered! Most motherboards have all the pins on the floppy connector, & I have about 30 cables with keyed pins (Almost all have slotted connectors too).

 

[CityRoamer]

I think I got it to work. I took a piece of the floppy PCB off and the keyed connector fit into it. The piece that I took off looked like it was meant to be taken off....

 

[CJHawke]

What is a PCB? I am having the same problem.

Thank you

 

[ElFenix]

PCB = printed circuit board

its the green bit with all the circuits. well, usually green.

 

[redhatlinux]

I've seen quite a few mis-matches of cables and floppies. The red-stripe, pin 1, goes to the left side of the floppy (looking at the pins on the back). If the connector is 'keyed' to prevent this, cut the plastic key off the cable with a sharp knife. Sony and Teac floppy drives and certain cable sets shipped by mobo makers have this problem.