Floppy Drives

[cptCuervo]

Ok.. I have never been able to get my floppy drive to work in my system. I have been through 2 drives and 3 cables, and all I get is a solid light on it. It will not read any disk I put into it.

I'm a pretty smart guy, but this one has plagued me on more than one computer and I'm sick of ignoring it. I realize that there is little use for the thing, but it would be nice to know what I am doing wrong. So any advice will be welcome.

The floppy is TEAC Brand.

 

[microAmp]

Do you have the floppy cable flipped upside down? Only thing I can think of for a constant light being on.

 

[cptCuervo]

No.. all the pins are lined up properly..

 

[Jeff7]

Try flipping the ribbon cable anyway and see what happens. I've had some floppy drives that were actually keyed backwards, so the cable could only go in the wrong way; I had to just force the cable in the "wrong" way to get it to work.
If the light stays on with the cable flipped either way, get a new drive.

 

[tyipengr]

I had a virus that rendered my floppy drive useless...but that was a long time ago.

 

[amdskip]

Possible bad drive too.

 

[stevewm]

The solid activity light is a sure sign of a cable that is put on upside down.

Flip the cable around on ethier the floppy or mobo side, but not both!

 

[alkemyst]

the pins can line up with many cables and drive/motherboard combos but still be upside down or even shifted over by one column of pins.

Try to flip either the motherboard or floppy port to cable connection and see.

The drive light constantly on is a classic upside down/backwards cable problem.

 

[Lonyo]

I had 2 floppy drives that wouldn't work. No light on constantly, they both stopped reading disks. One had worked before, then died, the other died almost as soon as it was put in. I tried different cables and stuff. A third seems to have done the trick, although I never use it.

 

[cptCuervo]

Thank you for the input.. I'll try this and let everyone know what fixes it.

 

[Rotax]

in my experience it IS most likely the floppy cable being on wrong/backwards. flip it on one of the ends mobo or drive. as many others mentioned.

since i put my system into my new case i haven't had a floppy since..and haven't even needed it. rather keep the cables outta there..just more clutter.

 

[tokamak]

could it be that the floppy connector on your motherboard is bad?

 

[cptCuervo]

The cables are Dummy proof.. in that they have grooved connections so you can't flip them upsidedown accidentally. I've tried more than one cable and more than one drive (actually 3 drives on 2 motherboards) with the same problem. I give up. Screw the Floppy.. I only needed it for bios updates and now most manufacturers have "Live" bios updates through windows.

Does anyone know a good way to create a bootable CD to do a bios update with?

 

[redhatlinux]

Be careful with the so called 'foolproof' connections. Lots of times they are WRONG. First, make sure you have the correct end connected to the mobo, its the end WITHOUT the twist in the cable. Make sure that the red-stripe aligns with PIN 1 on the mobo. At the floppy end, pin 1 is on the LEFT side of the floppy, looking at the pins from the back. If the cable won't connect this way, you must cut the plastic lug off the connector, you can't do any 'flipping'. I've seen lots of floppy cables assembled backwards, just cut the lug off.

 

[cptCuervo]

No Kidding!!!! Then my cables or drives have been WRONG! That is the most retarded thing I have ever seen ... for over a year I have been stumped b/c of the stupid manufacturers of Floppy cables/drives?! Thank you..Thank you.. Thank you... I can't believe I haven't noticed that before.

 

[p0b0ye]

Oh just get rid of it. I havent used a floppy in my comp for over a year. I just have to dust one off to load raid drivers when i format xp, but not anymore cuz of my dvd back up!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[wetcat007]

I would think from the sound of it, it's the floppy drive that's your problem.

 

[alkemyst]

floppies are still important for many people. One big example is this medical office has machines with absolutely no CDROM's for the users...there is one machine with CD/DVD for admin usage. Work files have to be exchanged and taken home to work on...they have no email available. Without a floppy at home, my friend could not do her work without emailing it to a friend with a floppy.

However, I recommend IDE style or even SCSI over the FLOPPY style connected ones....seems alot of problems occur with these.

 

[Jeff7]

So I was right?
The cable or drive was keyed wrong?

floppies are still important for many people. One big example is this medical office has machines with absolutely no CDROM's for the users...there is one machine with CD/DVD for admin usage. Work files have to be exchanged and taken home to work on...they have no email available. Without a floppy at home, my friend could not do her work without emailing it to a friend with a floppy.

I worked for a company that was building PC's for schools. They all had CD-drives, however, one of the schools opened each one up and disconnected the power and IDE cables. Too many students would open drives, and either play music CD's, or jam anything into the drives just to break them. Back when I was in high school, I already found that someone had partially filled a floppy drive with hot glue. Of course, being government, the school probably bought an expensive retail floppy drive instead of the $8-$10 bare drives you get elsewhere.

Some of the computers do at least have ZIP drives now.
High school - that brings back memories - downloading and installing WinRAR onto the school's PCs so I could shuttle 'large' files home and back on a floppy.