Need Help With Floppy

[Questi4110]

I just took out a floppy drive from my old computer and connected it using an IDE cable to my new computer. However, when i turn on the computer, the floppy does not work. When i go to windows explorer, the drive is not seen. But when i click on add new hardware it is found and there seems to be no conflicts with it. Also, the light on the floppy is always on and when there is a disk in the drive it tries to read it but it just makes a clicking noise. The bottom of the floppy does spin when it tries to read though.

This must mean that the IDE cable is not properly hooked up i guess? I put the part that looks like it is ripped into the floppy drive connector making sure that i kept the red ribbon on the left side when looking at the back of the drive. Could there be a problem in the connection with the motherboard. I see that the connector on the motherboard is missing two adjacent pins and i count 18 rows instead of the 17 that there are supposed to be.

Please Help



THANKS

 

[NTB]

First of all, a normal, 40-pin 40 or 80 wire IDE cable shouldn't work. There are cables made specifically for floppy disk drives. This could be your problem. If youare using an FDD cable, then maybe it's connected incorrectly; I do that all the time when I build a system. Does the disk-access light come on and stay on when you boot the PC?

Nate

 

[DoubleUhat]

Normally, if the FDD light is on all the time, it means the ribbon cable is flip the other way. try flip it back.

 

[Falcon2k]

As a general rule of thumb, ribbon cables are connected to a device with the red side closest to the power cable, but i think that on a panasonic floppy drive, the ribbon cable is connected exactly the opposite way round, so the red stripe is furthest away from the power cable.

 

[Questi4110]

Ok, the light does stay on as pointed out in the first post. And I am using a 34 pin cable - 17 on each side.

I will try to flip the wire but i doubt that will have any effect, does it effect it on the mobo?

THANKS

 

[newuser]

Make sure it is detected in BIOS too

 

[Von Ribbentrop]

Ther is no standard for floppy drives and cables. Light remaining on means you need to flip the cable. Ive had to go as far as shaving the tab off the cable connector.

 

[NTB]

Originally posted by: Questi4110
Ok, the light does stay on as pointed out in the first post. And I am using a 34 pin cable - 17 on each side.

I will try to flip the wire but i doubt that will have any effect, does it effect it on the mobo?

THANKS

I don't think you have to swap ends on the cable - ie plug what's in the drive now into the MB, and vice versa. Just pull the cable out of the back of the drive, turn the connector over, and re-attach it. See if that works. This is what I had to do on my last computer.

Nate

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: Questi4110
Ok, the light does stay on as pointed out in the first post. And I am using a 34 pin cable - 17 on each side.

I will try to flip the wire but i doubt that will have any effect, does it effect it on the mobo?

If you weren't going to trust the answers you got here then why did you bother asking?

The red stripe goes to pin 1 on both the drive and mobo connectors (it's always marked....though sometimes very hard to read).

Thorin

 

[Questi4110]

I tried switching the wires in all different combinations. The light does go off in some combos but in those cases (along with the other ones where the light is on), when i go into bios, it doesn't detect a floppy drive.

What else could be the problem?


THANKS

 

[WarCon]

Some other things that it might be........

1) Bad cable
2) Bad floppy
3) Your motherboard doesn't actually detect floppies, you just set it for the type of floppy you have.
4) Power plug isn't going on right.
5) Misc. user related issues............

The floppy cable has to go on just one way. It won't work flip flopped. It has the section of cable that is twisted to form cable select. The twisted section always goes to drive a:. If you only have the one floppy then you can cut the cable off below the drive b: connector and use it to attach to the mobo. Some floppy cables have a pin that is filled in and if you forced it on backwards you might of bent or broke off a pin.

 

[Questi4110]

Hmm ok.


Ok, i configured it in bios and it shows up in windows explorer now. The light doesn't come on all the time but when i put a floppy disk in the drive it just makes a clicking noise when i tell it to read it. After a while it stops and comes up with an error saying that the floppy disk doesn't have a valid ID.

I'll try moving the floppy cable around. I think i put the power cable in correctly though.

THANKS

 

[Questi4110]

NM, i got the drive to work. The problem was a combination of a bad floppy and the fact that the drive was not spinning due to a piece of plastic jamming it.

THANKS for all your help

 

[WarCon]

Thats cool.......glad you finally got it.......