Floppy drive recognized by BIOS, but no access to disks

[Nicholas Dreyer]

Floppy drive attached to motherboard:
After replacing a blown power supply, everything else on the motherboard
seems back to normal, but software (e.g. file browsers, etc.) recognize
the drive, but think fully formatted disks are unformatted, and are
unable to format because they can't recognize disk geometry.

I swapped in a new drive, and get the same problem.

Could this be a symptom of blown motherboard circuitry? As I said, BIOS
and file browsers see the drive. Also, you hear the drive beeing
accessed during the boot-up sequence looking for a bootable disk.

Anything else I could be checking?

Thanks, Nick

 

[Nicholas Dreyer]

Some BIOSes don't really do much of a check on the existance of the
drive. Do you hear the drive make a quick read on startup?

Yes, as I said in the original post:

"Also, you hear the drive beeing accessed during the boot-up sequence
looking for a bootable disk."

That same brief noise is apparent when you try to format, but then after
a lengthy pause with no sound, the system comes back with a message that
it cannot recognize the geometry of the disk.

Does this mean, the only way to access a floppy drive with this
motherboard now is using a controller card?

 

[Joel]

Yes, as I said in the original post:

"Also, you hear the drive beeing accessed during the boot-up sequence
looking for a bootable disk."

That same brief noise is apparent when you try to format, but then after
a lengthy pause with no sound, the system comes back with a message that
it cannot recognize the geometry of the disk.

Does this mean, the only way to access a floppy drive with this
motherboard now is using a controller card?

Well, *if* you have the

- Wire/Connector hooked up right. Important

- Setting the type correctly 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.4M etc.

Then you are 90% done. Now if you say it makes some noise then it means
that the system does recognize its present. But it won't recognize or
accept the floppy then

a. It could be somethingt wrong with the drive. Yes, I read you said you
switched the drive, but if there any chance that both drives are bad?

b. You haven't mentioned trying different floppy or different batch. Or
buying a newer floppy.

If you don't wanna spend $$$ on newer floppy then I would suggest to put a
strong magnetic over the floppy that will erase everything. Or the floppy
should reset to the original condition (there is still a small chance that
something else is wrong with the floppy).

And have you tried the same drives on different system? And finally, have
you have any thought about forgetting the whole floppy thought cuz you
hardly seen anyone use or talk about floppy these days.

And *IF* you say you have to have some file from the floppy then.

- If it's the file (like driver) from some company then there is a chance
you can get from the company via internet. Or you could ask or try to get
the file from other source

- If it's your personal data then good luck!

 

[Joel]

Please disregard: It's clear that I've not bothered to read your
postings for comprehension.

People don't care if you read or not, it's your problem not others.

 

[Joel]

I guess that excludes you from the set named "people."

Are you talking the animal language now?

 

[Joel]

You might try pulling the battery for a while and force CMOS to original
state. Will require reset of drive stuff to match what you have.

If it still won't read you have probably blown part of the chipset and
will need a floppy controller or the alternative.

The problem that it won't read the message.

 

[Dan]

The problem that it won't read the message.

As almost no-one uses floppy disks nowadays, i donno why you bother
that much. Anyway, if it's important you gotta have a working drive,
i'd suggest you buy [external USB floppy drive]. When i googled the
phrase, some stores selling the gadget for as low as $17 for a new
unit were fetched in the search results.

I'm not being cheeky, just trying to be helpful coz sometimes the
obvious may elude crowds.

 

[Nicholas Dreyer]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:31:21 -0500, Joel wrote:

Finally back again! Sorry, but for some reason I had no connection to my
news server reader.news4all.se all week.

Well, *if* you have the

- Wire/Connector hooked up right. Important

- Setting the type correctly 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.4M etc.

Then you are 90% done. Now if you say it makes some noise then it
means
that the system does recognize its present. But it won't recognize or
accept the floppy then

a. It could be somethingt wrong with the drive. Yes, I read you said
you switched the drive, but if there any chance that both drives are
bad?

Yes, it is a possibility. As you suggest below, I really need to try
them out on another system. I only need to get a hold of one . . .

b. You haven't mentioned trying different floppy or different batch. Or
buying a newer floppy.

Sorry, I did not say, but I have tried a number of floppies (including
brand new ones) on both drives with same unsatisfactory results.

And have you tried the same drives on different system?

Yes, but unfortunately no system available for that now

And
finally,

have
you have any thought about forgetting the whole floppy thought cuz you
hardly seen anyone use or talk about floppy these days.

Yes, I know this is true, and that may be where I end up - FLash drives
are an awfully nice and vastly improved alternative!,

Still, I would like to know if something has gone wrong with the floppy
controller on the motherboard before completely abandoning this quest.
If the controller has gotten fried, it could be a sign that other things
are not all well with the MBD.

 

[Nicholas Dreyer]

I'm still not convinced the drive is good. Have you seen it work in a
difference PC, or had a different drive work in *this* PC?

In my Original post, I mentioned trying another drive on this PC,
resulting in identical behavior. For the moment I have no other system
to try the drive out on. Though I realize that would be the ideal test,
I was also wondering if there was some other way of determining if the
motherboard controller is faulty, as I worry that could be an unfortunate
sign other things are, are soon to go wrong on the MBD.

 

[Joel]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:31:21 -0500, Joel wrote:

Finally back again! Sorry, but for some reason I had no connection to my
news server reader.news4all.se all week.


Yes, it is a possibility. As you suggest below, I really need to try
them out on another system. I only need to get a hold of one . . .


Sorry, I did not say, but I have tried a number of floppies (including
brand new ones) on both drives with same unsatisfactory results.


Yes, but unfortunately no system available for that now

And
finally,

Yes, I know this is true, and that may be where I end up - FLash drives
are an awfully nice and vastly improved alternative!,

Still, I would like to know if something has gone wrong with the floppy
controller on the motherboard before completely abandoning this quest.
If the controller has gotten fried, it could be a sign that other things
are not all well with the MBD.

Instead of shooting back and forth for nothing. How about you giving a
list of what you have tried. For example

- Have you tried another cable?

- I bet you know that there is a different between Floppy A: and Floppy B:,
or there is/are twisted wire(s) (I don't remember 1 or 2 twisted wire). IOW,
same cable but different connector

I haven't used floppy for so many years to remember if the CMOS still
correctly detect the correct drive, or it allows to have Drive B: without
Drive A: ????

And I had some problem with floppy drives after years not using them. IOW,
I had the drives installed on some older system for years without using
them, then one day I tried and had problem with it/them too. I didn't need
it so I tossed away.