More floppy info

[Gerry Wolf]

While I truly appreciate all the help, I'm still at a quandary as to why
after installing a floppy drive into the system having all the trouble, then
removing it and installing it into a good system I now encounter the drive
as bad. I hope I'm explaining this correctly.

The system I'm attempting to build is: FIC AU13 motherboard with an AMD
XP3200 processor, 512 mb PC3200 RAM(all this was supposedly "tested" before
shipping!) the board has onboard sound & Lan. The vid card I currently have
to use due to budget constraints is a Nvidia Geforce4 440MX 64 mb AGP. I
also want to override the onboard sound with a SoundBlaster Live PCI. This
is all run with a Codegen 350W power supply. Now, this is the system having
all the trouble, I have a new motherboard coming from the dealer on Monday,
but as I said, whenever I install a floppy drive, regardless of the brand,
it does not work. All I get is errors on bootup regarding the floppy
failure. I installed 3 known good drives and in fact pulled a good drive
from the old system I'm using right now to post this message. After
receiving yet another floppy failure message, I placed that drive BACK into
the machine it originally came from.that's when I started worrying because
now the drive failed on the machine it came from! So, again, what would
cause damage (?) to drives installed on the new machine?

I hope I made the problem somewhat clearer!

Thank you all again, great advice and always, always appreciated!

Gerry
(e-mail address removed)

 

[JAD]

then

removing it and installing it into a good system I now encounter the drive
as bad

this has happened with all your attempts? 3 different floppies when
installed in the fic system won't work, then you put them in a
different system and the drives are now bad? I would say your
controller on the MB is bad.

While I truly appreciate all the help, I'm still at a quandary as to why
after installing a floppy drive into the system having all the

trouble, . I hope I'm explaining this correctly.

 

[JAD]

you are installing the power connector correctly?

 

[ady]

you are installing the power connector correctly?

....AND the data cable? There's no hard and fast rule on FDDs as to which way
round the cable goes in relation to the power cable. You are using the right
connector on the data cable too right? It makes a difference.

hth
ady

 

[Guest]

I'm still at a quandary as to why after installing a floppy
drive into the system having all the trouble, then removing
it and installing it into a good system I now encounter the drive
as bad. I hope I'm explaining this correctly.

The system I'm attempting to build is: FIC AU13 motherboard
with an AMD XP3200 processor,
Nvidia Geforce4 440MX 64 mb AGP.
This is all run with a Codegen 350W power supply.

Floppy drives are supposed to be short-proof because the signals
between them and the controllers are open-collector, meaning that even
plugging the data cable in backwards should cause no harm. But the
4-pin power cable can be plugged in wrong, often by shifting it one
pin left or right and creating a direct short to ground with the 5V or
12V. Frankly, I suspect a problem with static electricity (unplug
power cord from AC outlet, wear no shoes, socks, or long sleeves, and
touch the computer case and floppy drive chassis just before
installation), hot-plugging (AC power cord not unplugged), or shorts
(case metal shorts drive electronics).

That 350W Codegen doesn't inspire confidence, especially with an
XP3200