Floppy light always on!!!

[SleepyGuy]

Just building my 1st AMD PC... not looking good so far. Here at the tech specs:
Duron 700
MSI KT7 Pro 2a
IBM 20 gb -PM
AIW Radeon
Ricoh 7060a -PS
Asus 8x DVD -SM
384 MB PC133 generic
Inwin q500 300w Powerman PS

I've connected everything and when i boot up it says like a floppy error. The floppy drive light is constant green. I thought maybe the cable was backwards but there is no way i could do that. Triple checked my cabling. Everything else is fine. The duron runs at 935 Mhz stable on Win2k. I'm thinking its a floppy controller problem. I've tried 3 floppy cables and 3 floppy drives... all the same result. Another thing, the MB floppy connector seems to be missing 3 pins! Don't know if that is regular with all MSI boards or what. Thanx in advance. Peace out.

 

[Tauren]

Why don't you run down to the local comp store and pick another mobo and see what happens? It's usually only a 15% restocking fee and it will tell you something.

 

[AC]

so did u try reversing the cable (or is it one of those unidirectional connectors)? is it set correctly in the bios? u did use the end connector on the cable after the little twist, correct?

 

[SnoopCat]

one of ur ide cables/power is backwards, change them around

 

[doanh]

I agree with the earlier notes.

Previous experiences tells me you have the ribbon cable to the floppy drive backwards.

 

[Regulator]

Another vote for the cable being backward.

 

[MrSharky]

I know when I bought a new mobo a while back.. I had the same problem.. so I looked at my floppy and saw the little notch and thought that I had it set right..WRONG.. what I did notice was one the opposite side of the pins.. there was like a little punched notch that was intacked. So I took a razor blade and cut the two supporting *spots* of and BAMMM... floppy fixed.. lemme know if this works for ya.. Kinda hard to explain..

Later

 

[emjem]

Red stripe side of cable always has to face the power connector.

 

[ApacheXMD]

i've seen some sony floppy drives with the cable connector thing put on backwards, ie: the notch was on the wrong side. i've had to cut my own notch as MrSharky did

-patchy

 

[Stretched]

Hey guys I don't know if this is proper (to tag on to another thread), but I have a similar prob and this is my first try at it. I have a VA503+ the FD connector has 33 pins the new cable has same, my FD 34 pins. When I use a 34 pin ribbon with the red stripe away from pwr it stays lit red stripe same as pwr and nothing at all. So as I had thi FD laying around could it be I need a new one? Thanks

 

[emjem]

Stretched

It's normal to have an unused pin.

About a half dozen wires of your floppy cable should be sliced and twisted near the end most connector. Floppy cables usually have 2 different connectors that will fit on the floppy drive. But you need to plug the drive to the end most connector so that the twist is between the drive and the mobo.

Improper regard for the twist causes the floppy light to stay on and not work.

 

[BadThad]

Good advice here. He probably needs to do the tab trick, almost ALL floppys are tabbed WRONG! LMAO

 

[Stretched]

emjem, I got that part. But on the new cable there is one less slot for the pin array on the drive. And as I was saying when using a ribbon with more slots than pins one mobo I get nothing. Tried the cable both ways. Thanks

 

[emjem]

There is no significance to the ribbon cable connector having more holes (slots?) in the connector than the mobo has pins. That will not interfere with the floppy drive working properly.

I have seen some floppy drives (but not all) fried when the cable was put on backwards, as you did. So I'm guessing that's why you can't get the thing working now.

 

[Chis]

I had that problem. The red line WAS facing the power, but when I reversed the IDE cable, it worked fine. I'd suggest trying that.

 

[crazychicken]

to the post DIRECTLY above this: floppy cables are NOT IDE cables.
also, i had same problem - fix to this : bought a new floppy <> 4 dollars

 

[Chis]

Sorry, meant floppy cable, not IDE.

 

[SiliconVandal]

Either you need to simply flip the cable or you have a faulty floppy. Probably the cable needs to be flipped, thats what the solid green light means.

SV

 

[Motorheader]

I must agree that it sounds like cabling.

 

[Stretched]

OK guys I have tried the cable both ways at the floppy end. To reverse the cable at mobo end I will need to cut a notch in the controller. Got a dinner date so I will try that later. Thanks

 

[emjem]

And why would you want to flip the connector on the mobo? Think about that for minute before you start carving up the mobo. Must be a hot date.

Your floppy drive is fried.

 

[Flessan]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet... so I'll throw it out there...

Have you checked the bios to make sure floppy A is set for 1.44? If it's set for 1.2 or some other value you will get an error as well. Check your boot order too... although that wouldn't cause an error or the light to stay on. I usually turn on &quot;floppy seek during boot&quot; when I'm troubleshooting... but that's a personal preference thing.

Just a thought. Good luck!

And as far as the MB thing. Don't cut it. All the red stripes should face the same direction... so if your IDE devices (HDD's, CDROM's, etc) are working... just make sure the red stripe is facing the same direction.

Hope this helps.

 

[michec]

Just wanted to suggest that the problem may be the integrated floppy controller on the mobo.

I had this happen to me with a Soyo board. The green light on the floppy would stay on once the floppy drive was accessed, but I couldn't read anything from any disk placed in it. I flipped the floppy cable every possible way, but nothing worked. When the cables were reversed, the floppy drive's light was on all the time.

I knew it was a problem with the integrated floppy controller, because I used the same floppy cable and the same floppy drive with a different mobo and everything worked properly.