I burned a floppy drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pine
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Pine

I built a bare minimum box to install Solaris 10 x86 with the
following:

1. MB: Asus A7V8X-X
2. Hard drive: WD Caivar 40GB
3. CD R/W drive: TDK
4. D-link NIC

Since I was not able to connect to the Internet because I did not have
the proper NIC driver, I had to borrow a floppy drive from my another
box so that I could install the necessary driver.

As soon as I re-booted, I smelled something burning and then saw the
power cable to the floppy glow bright red. Turning off the system
power saved me from a major disaster.

Why did it happen? The only thing I can think of it was that I might
have reversed the interface ribbon connection. I wonder that was the
real cause of it. I would not try to reproduce it. Can reversing the
ribbon short the power cable?
 
Pine said:
I built a bare minimum box to install Solaris 10 x86 with the
following:

1. MB: Asus A7V8X-X
2. Hard drive: WD Caivar 40GB
3. CD R/W drive: TDK
4. D-link NIC

Since I was not able to connect to the Internet because I did not have
the proper NIC driver, I had to borrow a floppy drive from my another
box so that I could install the necessary driver.

As soon as I re-booted, I smelled something burning and then saw the
power cable to the floppy glow bright red. Turning off the system
power saved me from a major disaster.

Why did it happen? The only thing I can think of it was that I might
have reversed the interface ribbon connection. I wonder that was the
real cause of it. I would not try to reproduce it. Can reversing the
ribbon short the power cable?
Click to expand...

I suggest getting a proper PSU...that one sounds like a fire hazard, not
to mention the potential to damage the rest of the computer.

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
Pine said:
I built a bare minimum box to install Solaris 10 x86 with the
following:

1. MB: Asus A7V8X-X
2. Hard drive: WD Caivar 40GB
3. CD R/W drive: TDK
4. D-link NIC

Since I was not able to connect to the Internet because I did not have
the proper NIC driver, I had to borrow a floppy drive from my another
box so that I could install the necessary driver.

As soon as I re-booted, I smelled something burning and then saw the
power cable to the floppy glow bright red. Turning off the system
power saved me from a major disaster.

Why did it happen? The only thing I can think of it was that I might
have reversed the interface ribbon connection. I wonder that was the
real cause of it. I would not try to reproduce it. Can reversing the
ribbon short the power cable?
Click to expand...
A reversed ribbon cable connection wouldn't cause that.
 
spodosaurus said:
I suggest getting a proper PSU...that one sounds like a fire hazard, not
to mention the potential to damage the rest of the computer.
Click to expand...

This does not necessarily mean the psu is dangerous. At 5 Volt, it can for
example give 20 amps (perhaps even more). 20 amps are enough to start a
fire.

Could it be that there has been some sort of short-circuit at the floppy
drive? Perhaps the pcb touched the metal of Your case and thus made a
short-circuit. Or perhaps a screw You dropped and that got stuck somewhere?
I have sometimes misplaced the ribbon cable and the worst consequence was
that the pc did not boot up anymore.

What I would try is first put the drive in an old (disposable) computer and
try if it is still OK. If yes, connect it to the new computer, put it on top
of something isolating (a plastic box for example), and try it again.

I once had a short circuit on a mobo because of short-circuit with the case
by means of one of those brass distance-things (sorry, English is not my
mother tongue), and it gave a lot of smoke and an awful smell. There's much
power in a computer psu, and that can be a fire hazard, but if the current
is not enough to blow the fuse, it might still be enough to set something on
fire.

Good luck,
Rene
 
Pine said:
I built a bare minimum box to install Solaris 10 x86 with the
following:
1. MB: Asus A7V8X-X
2. Hard drive: WD Caivar 40GB
3. CD R/W drive: TDK
4. D-link NIC ....
As soon as I re-booted, I smelled something burning and then saw
the power cable to the floppy glow bright red. Turning off the
system power saved me from a major disaster.
Why did it happen? The only thing I can think of it was that I
might have reversed the interface ribbon connection. I wonder that
was the real cause of it. I would not try to reproduce it.
Click to expand...

I guess not.
Can reversing the ribbon short the power cable?
Click to expand...

Like the others have said, reversing the ribbon does not cause a
fire. Seems that either the power supply, the cable, or the floppy
to drive is at fault.

Did you reverse the power cable? I would be concerned about the
integrity of the power supply. I would use different cables. If you
use the same floppy disk drive, of course be very careful.

Good luck.
 
you mis connected the power cable (always thought that those connectors were an
abortion)................psu should have shut down after the short showed itself....
 
I built a bare minimum box to install Solaris 10 x86 with the
following:

1. MB: Asus A7V8X-X
2. Hard drive: WD Caivar 40GB
3. CD R/W drive: TDK
4. D-link NIC

Since I was not able to connect to the Internet because I did not have
the proper NIC driver, I had to borrow a floppy drive from my another
box so that I could install the necessary driver.

As soon as I re-booted, I smelled something burning and then saw the
power cable to the floppy glow bright red. Turning off the system
power saved me from a major disaster.

Why did it happen? The only thing I can think of it was that I might
have reversed the interface ribbon connection. I wonder that was the
real cause of it. I would not try to reproduce it. Can reversing the
ribbon short the power cable?
Click to expand...

No, that would just make the LED stay lit up usually. If you had the
little 4 pin power connector shifted over an on just 3 pin so either the 5
or 12 volts (depending on the way you had it shifted) was routing back
through the ground, maybe that would do it.
 
Pine said:
As soon as I re-booted, I smelled something burning and then saw the
power cable to the floppy glow bright red. Turning off the system
power saved me from a major disaster.

Why did it happen? The only thing I can think of it was that I might
have reversed the interface ribbon connection. I wonder that was the
real cause of it. I would not try to reproduce it. Can reversing the
ribbon short the power cable?
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with the others on this one.

The floppy ribbon cable has two rows of pins. IIRC every pin in one row
is a ground line, and roughly every pin in the other row is a data line.
If you plug the cable in backwards, you can create smoke.

In '96 I got a call from a panicked inexperienced tech who did this
while installing a floppy in a server. There were smoke and sparks, and
the floppy was ruined, but the rest of the computer was okay. We simply
put in a new floppy correctly and all was well.

Nowadays floppies, cables, and controllers are keyed to prevent such
errors in polarity. I believe they have also improved the circuitry in
floppies to make them tolerant of this error---tolerant in the sense
that reversing the ribbon cable doesn't usually produce smoke or ruin
components. Still of course the floppy won't perform unless you get the
cabling correct.

So if you were using old unkeyed components, I would say that reversing
the floppy cable could have caused your problem.
 
Matt said:
I have to disagree with the others on this one.

The floppy ribbon cable has two rows of pins. IIRC every pin in one row
is a ground line, and roughly every pin in the other row is a data line.
If you plug the cable in backwards, you can create smoke.

In '96 I got a call from a panicked inexperienced tech who did this while
installing a floppy in a server. There were smoke and sparks, and the
floppy was ruined, but the rest of the computer was okay. We simply put
in a new floppy correctly and all was well.

Nowadays floppies, cables, and controllers are keyed to prevent such
errors in polarity. I believe they have also improved the circuitry in
floppies to make them tolerant of this error---tolerant in the sense that
reversing the ribbon cable doesn't usually produce smoke or ruin
components. Still of course the floppy won't perform unless you get the
cabling correct.

So if you were using old unkeyed components, I would say that reversing
the floppy cable could have caused your problem.
Click to expand...

I've never seen reversing the ribbon cable do anything other then cause the
floppy drive to be inaccessable and the light remains on :-)
 
John said:
I've never seen reversing the ribbon cable do anything other then cause the
floppy drive to be inaccessable and the light remains on :-)
Click to expand...

same here

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
Matt said:
Pine wrote:

I have to disagree with the others on this one.

The floppy ribbon cable has two rows of pins. IIRC every pin in
one row is a ground line, and roughly every pin in the other row is
a data line.
If you plug the cable in backwards, you can create smoke.
Click to expand...

The original poster was asking whether reversing the data cable can
short the power cable. The data lines probably cannot source or sink
much current, so it really doesn't matter to what they are
connected. The data cable wasn't overheating. The question is
whether the confusion caused by reversing the data cable can cause
the power cable to short. Conceivably the confusion could cause the
drive to act erratically and produce an unforeseen large
current/power consumption and abnormal wear, but it won't cause the
power cable to short.
 
Pine said:
I built a bare minimum box to install Solaris 10 x86 with the
following:

1. MB: Asus A7V8X-X
2. Hard drive: WD Caivar 40GB
3. CD R/W drive: TDK
4. D-link NIC

Since I was not able to connect to the Internet because I did not have
the proper NIC driver, I had to borrow a floppy drive from my another
box so that I could install the necessary driver.

As soon as I re-booted, I smelled something burning and then saw the
power cable to the floppy glow bright red. Turning off the system
power saved me from a major disaster.

Why did it happen? The only thing I can think of it was that I might
have reversed the interface ribbon connection. I wonder that was the
real cause of it. I would not try to reproduce it. Can reversing the
ribbon short the power cable?
Click to expand...

a brand new floppy is £4.00 just go buy one
 
I have to disagree with the others on this one.
Click to expand...
Because you're thick as shit...read below.
The floppy ribbon cable has two rows of pins. IIRC every pin in one row
is a ground line, and roughly every pin in the other row is a data line.
If you plug the cable in backwards, you can create smoke.
Click to expand...
No you can't. They're DATA lines, i.e next to no current. Also as
they're data lines...ZERO VOLTS is one of the states they can be in.
 
Conor said:
Because you're thick as shit...read below.



No you can't. They're DATA lines, i.e next to no current. Also as
they're data lines...ZERO VOLTS is one of the states they can be in.
Click to expand...

Well, that's partly true but incomplete as a 'data line' could be a driven
output as well. And, in that case, while "ZERO VOLTS" is valid it could
blow the output if the circuit is trying to drive it to a 1 state at the
same time.

In the case of a floppy, however, the outputs are open collector pull downs
so having them connected to 'gnd' in the reversed cable simply pulls it
down just as the O.C. output might. And same for the cable signal lines
that are connected to 'gnd' on the floppy drive.
 
Conor said:
Because you're thick as shit...read below.
Click to expand...

No I'm not. Apparently I am wrong about this yet I can't explain why
there was smoke and sparks when the floppy was hooked up.

I don't know why anybody would get so hostile ... some kind of imbalance
I suppose ...
 
Matt said:
No I'm not. Apparently I am wrong about this yet I can't explain
why there was smoke and sparks when the floppy was hooked up.

I don't know why anybody would get so hostile ... some kind of
imbalance I suppose ...
Click to expand...

Maybe you deserve some hostility when you give bad advice about an
issue which involves critical hardware failure. Apparently you
freely give advice about important things you don't understand.
 
John said:
David Maynard said:
Conor said:
But typically it isn't.
Click to expand...

And you counted all the "data lines" in the world, how?

There is absolutely nothing to the term "data line" that suggests an open
collector output and to suggest otherwise is simply wrong.
And in this case it isn't.
Click to expand...

Which was made clear and fully explained in what you sniped. In particular
"In the case of a floppy, however, the outputs are open collector pull downs."

But then, if you hadn't snipped that out it would have been even more
obvious you're just trying to be an ass.

Blowing the output and causing the cable to glow bright red are two
different things.
Click to expand...

Yes, they are and no one suggested otherwise. But if you're trying to imply
that blowing an output can't result in a failure that causes a chip to
pull excessive current and burn a trace, or cable wire, then you are sadly
mistaken.

A troll who likes to play the Cavalry.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's obvious you're just trying to be an ass.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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