Help! Floppy problems

[jeremyhoey]

Hey folks,

I've been beating my head against a brick wall with this one, and would be really grateful for any fresh insights you might be able to provide. I've just bought a bunch of components to build my own Athlon64 system with. The motherboard is an Asus A8V Deluxe, and I've been trying to install WinXP Pro on a Seagate 200GB SATA drive.

My problem is this: because I'm trying to install on SATA, I need to provide the drivers during the install process. Fine -- it boots off the WinXP install CD, I hit F6 at the right moment, and the driver install prompt comes up just as it should. I insert my pre-created floppy with the relevant VIA SATA drivers on it, hit "Return", and...

...nothing. Just a short "chunk" noise from the floppy drive, then the prompt comes up again asking me to insert the floppy etc.

The plot thickens -- although the computer recognizes the floppy, allows me to select it as one of the boot devices, etc., I can't even boot off a floppy. My trusty DOS boot floppy -- doesn't work.

Here's what I've done:

1/ Changed floppy drives: took one that I know works fine from another PC. Exactly the same problem occurs.

2/ Double-checked that the cables were inserted correctly. They were and are.

3/ Changed the floppy cable to one that I know works fine. Same problem.

4/ Double-checked the power cable to the floppy -- I even changed to another floppy power connector on a seperate cable, just in case. Same problem.

5/ Double-checked the bios to ensure floppy is enabled, and of the right variety. It is.

6/ Did a barebones boot -- unplugged everything from the motherboard so all that was left was CPU, RAM, Video Card, Floppy. No joy: couldn't boot off a DOS boot floppy.

7/ Reset the CMOS on the mobo. Reset the bios to default settings. Etc. etc.


So I'm left scratching my head -- have I narrowed it down to a bad mobo? Or have I missed something?

Thanks!

~Jeremy

 

[chynkboi]

If there's a chunk noise, it probably works. Maybe you do not have the proper drives on the floppy disk. Reason for not booting with your trusty dos disk is maybe floppy disk is not selected as your first and it happens to just boot off your hard drive?

 

[PrincessGuard]

What happens when you try to boot to DOS via floppy? Does the drive spin/light up at all?

Try a bootable CD/USB drive with DOS or another OS on there that will let you access the floppy (e.g. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com ).

 

[bendixG15]

Did you try a diferent floppy ???

Or when I get desperate like you, I stick in a memtest floppy and reboot.
If memtest runs, that tells me if the drive and cables are okay.

Good Luck.........

 

[jeremyhoey]

Nope, the boot order isn't the problem. Even if the floppy is set to be the first bootup device, it doesn't do anything. The green light on the face of the floppy drive lights up for just over a second, makes it's little "chunk" noise, and the screen just shows a blinking cursur. No command prompt or anything.

Hmmm...

 

[jeremyhoey]

I haven't ever come across a memtest floppy before -- what is it (I can guess from the name, though), and how can I make one?

Anyway, I'm fairly sure that the problem isn't the drive or cable -- I've replaced both with ones that I know work just fine in other machines. It must be something lower-level than that, but I can't for the life of me figure it out. Does anyone know if the Asus A8V Deluxe has any wierd glitchy thing going on with floppy drives? Could a bad stick of RAM be the problem? I think I might swap them out and see if that does anything... for what good that'll do...

Thanks for your thoughts, folks -- keep 'em coming, I appreciate it!

~Jeremy

 

[Aleksandar]

maby you can check if the ide looking cable that is plugged in the floppy is on the wrong way?

 

[Richard98]

Once, I mounted the floppy drive too close to the front of the case. Discs seemed to be going in all the way, but they were not.

 

[Lmronby]

I had a very similar problem but on an Asus P4S533 motherboard. I swapped the drives and cables but could never get a floppy to read. I determined that the floppy port on the motherboard was bad. But I couldn't get the drive to read in windows. Do Asus boards have floppy port probs???

 

[D1gger]

I had exactly the same problem with my build using an Asus A8V-Deluxe. It turned out that I originally installed the floppy cable backwards, and when I realized that I tried to flip it over but I had bent a pin on the floppy drive.

To solve the problem I scavanged another floppy drive from an old PC and put that in the new rig and all was well.

So, check that the cable is not reversed on the MB or the drive end, and check for bent pins.