Why do my floppy drives keep breaking?

[kunderian]

Ok, this is real annoying and has happened almost every single time I've built a system: Last night I bought some rounded IDE cables for my rig, so I was plugged/unplugged everything a couple of times to get everything right. Well today I noticed the floppy drive light was staying on in Windows. So I went back and swapped the floppy drive cables and power connector but no dice- the thing is dead. Now am I inadvertently doing something wrong? Does anyone know why this keeps happening? All my other components work fine, btw.

 

[Macro2]

the data cable is on backwards?

BTW, what motherboard? MSI?

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: kunderian
Ok, this is real annoying and has happened almost every single time I've built a system: Last night I bought some rounded IDE cables for my rig, so I was plugged/unplugged everything a couple of times to get everything right. Well today I noticed the floppy drive light was staying on in Windows. So I went back and swapped the floppy drive cables and power connector but no dice- the thing is dead. Now am I inadvertently doing something wrong? Does anyone know why this keeps happening? All my other components work fine, btw.

you have the ide cable in backwards, unplug the end in the fdd and flip it around, that is wat causes the light to stay on all the time

 

[Lord Evermore]

Usually when the floppy light stays on all the time, it's because you've plugged the cable in backwards on one end or the other. Make sure the red striped edge is lined up with pin 1 on the motherboard connector and on the drive connector. It's very easy to plug the cable in backwards to most drives, even when it's got the ridge to fit in a notched socket. Pin 1 should be marked on either the PCB of the drive near the connector, or possibly on a sticker or stamped in the metal.

 

[kunderian]

I flipped the cables a million times last night. I even borrowed a friend's cable to make sure it wasn't bad, but the drive just doesn't work at all. When it's plugged in the wrong way, the light will stay on, but when it is inserted the right way, the light will be off, but the motherboard still says "floppy drive test failed".

BTW, I have a Asus P4PE. My last MB was an Iwill KK-266R. Before that, it was an MSI MS-6167.

 

[Budman]

Maybe it's a sign from above telling you to finaly go floppyless.

 

[kunderian]

Originally posted by: Budman
Maybe it's a sign from above telling you to finaly go floppyless.

Heh, yeah, I think you're right. I actually didn't have one for a year- but believe me, you'll regret it if your HD ever crashes!

 

[Ketchup]

I thought so too, but then I discovered how to make bootable CD's. I still have my floppy, but only use it for upgrading to the latest BIOS.

 

[Goose77]

have you checked in your bios to see whether or not there's a setting to enable or disable the floppy driver controler??

 

[lorlabnew]

Are you buying you floppy drives at Fry's ?

..half of their "on sale" FDD's are DOA

 

[kunderian]

ketchup79- What did you use to make the CD-Boot Disk?

Goose77: I didn't check the BIOS since I haven't made any changes to it. When I get home, though, I'll take a look.

lorlabnew: I actually pulled the drive from a Compaq system, so yeah, the drive might have been flaky to begin with. Can anyone recommend a reputable floppy drive?

 

[Ketchup]

Nero and EasyCD creator both have an option to create boot disk.