I hope you guys don't mind a hardware-related question... The short of it is, if a floppy controller appears dead, short of getting a new motherboard how do I get a floppy drive to work on that system? I recently upgraded my home computer so that I could play the new game I got for Christmas... So, the usual course of events is to play hand-me-down computer parts in my family, so my old computer would go to upgrade my mother's computer (admittedly a Windows98 box, used for Juno email/web and playing Solitaire... so no heavy usage). My old box is old in computer terms, but it's a heck of a lot faster than the P200 that my mother currently has. I rarely used my floppy drive (the last time prior to taking that box down was a few months prior). When transferring files from my old box to my new computer, I needed to run a Windows app off of a floppy - and discovered that the floppy drive didn't work on my old box. I tried swapping the 3.5" floppy drive out for another one that I had lying around, and that one didn't work either... I also tried swapping out the floppy cables, and that didn't work. BIOS sees the 3.5" floppy drive, but the box won't boot off of a boot floppy (that is readable on other computers) or read anything off of the floppy drive (makes nasty searching sounds) when in Windows... So, my guess is that the floppy drive controller on the motherboard isn't working... My mother is adamant that she needs a working floppy drive (old files saved, and so she can transfer stuff from work to home and back). I'd really like to give her my old box for a nice CPU/RAM upgrade, but unless I can get it to use a 3.5" floppy drive, she won't take it... Any suggestions as to how I can get a floppy drive to work on my old box? Or am I just out of luck for upgrading her with my old box? -- --==*==-- --==*==-- Michelle R. Vadeboncoeur --==*==-- --==*==-- mrv@kluge.net: http://www.kluge.net/~mrv/
On Sun, 2003-02-09 at 16:37, Michelle Vadeboncoeur wrote:
I hope you guys don't mind a hardware-related question... The short of it is, if a floppy controller appears dead, short of getting a new motherboard how do I get a floppy drive to work on that system?
I guess the easiest solution would be to just get a usb floppy drive and have your mom use that. What are they $25 now? Wes
On Sun, 9 Feb 2003, Wesley Allen wrote:
I guess the easiest solution would be to just get a usb floppy drive and have your mom use that. What are they $25 now? Wes
Geeze, is there anything they won't put on USB anymore? :-) I did quick look because I never heard of such a thing and they do indeed exist. However the cheapest I saw was as $36. One word of caution though: Don't rule out that the test floppy was bad also. It's happened to me before and also with two CDROM drives. Especially since those "nasty searching sounds" imply that the controller is fine and is talking to the drive. -- Gary
On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 07:20:25AM -0500, Gary Hanley wrote:
One word of caution though: Don't rule out that the test floppy was bad also. It's happened to me before and also with two CDROM drives. Especially since those "nasty searching sounds" imply that the controller is fine and is talking to the drive.
Just to note: I did try multiple floppy disks, 2 different floppy drives, and at least 2 different cables. While the drive looks like it's properly being searched at bootup, it doesn't actually ever seem to get read. Very confusing. -- Randomly Generated Tagline: "Are [Linux users] lemmings collectively jumping off of the cliff of reliable, well-engineered commercial software?" (By Matt Welsh)
On Mon, 10 Feb 2003 10:03:37 -0500 Theo Van Dinter <felicity@kluge.net> wrote: TVD> On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 07:20:25AM -0500, Gary Hanley wrote: TVD> > One word of caution though: Don't rule out that the test floppy TVD> > was bad also. It's happened to me before and also with two CDROM TVD> > drives. Especially since those "nasty searching sounds" imply TVD> > that the controller is fine and is talking to the drive. TVD> TVD> Just to note: I did try multiple floppy disks, 2 different floppy TVD> drives, and at least 2 different cables. TVD> TVD> While the drive looks like it's properly being searched at bootup, TVD> it doesn't actually ever seem to get read. Very confusing. knowing you guys, it's likely the floppy controller (i know you would have checked the pin alignment on the connectors, right? <g>)... you have an option that i might be able to help with: i have some OLD cards kicking around.... <g> you might be able to use one of them for the floppy controller on THAT, if you want to give it a stab. ;) i have to take a trip up your way sometime soon anyway.... ahhh... the Hardware Genie strikes again! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- William Smith wsmith-at-chezsmith-dot-com Fall River, MA http://www.chezsmith.com Every cloud has a silver lining. ...except mushroom- shaped ones, which have a lining of Iridium and Strontium 90. * TAG! v3.1 *
participants (5)
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Bill Smith -
Gary Hanley -
Michelle Vadeboncoeur -
Theo Van Dinter -
Wesley Allen