Member Avatar for lostouten

My floppy drive a:\ will no longer work. As far as I know, I didn't do anything that should have caused it to quit (like installing new software or hardware). It just didn't work one day. I have tried removing the driver, removing the device, and opening the case to make sure everything is still connected to the drive. After all that, I figured the drive was bad, and bought a new one. Guess what - it won't work either! I still get an error message reading: "a:\ is not accessible. the device is not ready." I can hear noises coming from the drive, so I know it has power. Oh, and I also tried reformating one of the disks - won't work. Somehow, it doesn't seem to be detecting there is a disk in the drive (I can shut down the computer without getting the warning from virus software about a disk in the A: drive). I run Windows98SE on an HP Pavilion 9680c.

Thanks,
Linda

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Quick expert addendum for and future readers: 's isolation steps are the right first move. Because a second drive shows the same symptom, focus next on the interface and motherboard-level items rather than the drive itself. The checklist below gives a short, ordered set of hardware tests and safe workarounds that weren't covered above.

  1. Verify the floppy power plug (the small 4‑pin "Berg" connector) is firmly seated. A drive can spin yet not have reliable power for the read/write heads.
  2. Replace or swap the 34‑pin ribbon cable. Flat cables and their connectors fail often — try a known‑good cable or the other connector on the cable to rule it out.
  3. Check the drive’s jumper block (if present). Some 3.5" drives have a drive‑select jumper (DS0/DS1 or A/B); confirm it isn’t set to the wrong position for a single‑drive system.
  4. Observe BIOS POST: if the BIOS never reports any floppy type at POST, the problem is almost certainly the cable or motherboard floppy controller; if BIOS sees the drive but Windows doesn’t, the issue sits in the OS/driver layer.
  5. Swap-test: put the suspect drive into another PC, or fit a known‑good drive into this PC. That definitively isolates drive vs. motherboard/cable.
  6. Try several known‑good HD (1.44MB) disks and check the write‑protect tab. If media are marginal, consider a head‑cleaning disk or very careful manual cleaning with isopropyl on a lint‑free swab — but only after you can at least get the drive to recognize a disk.
  7. Recovery workaround: if access to disk contents is urgent, a USB external floppy is an inexpensive, reliable way to read/write 3.5" disks without relying on the PC’s FDD controller.

Because two different drives failed in the same machine, a bad cable or a failing onboard floppy controller is the most likely cause. Always power down and unplug before changing cables or jumpers, and ground yourself to avoid static damage.

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Member Avatar for Puckdropper

From the boot-up menu (press F8 when Windows begins to load...Same way to get in to safe mode.) select "Command Prompt Only" probably option 6.

From there:
--Put a disk in the drive
--type "A:" (no quotes)
--if you see "A:\>" for a prompt then type "dir" (without quotes).
--Observe the results. If there's directory listing, then your drive works properly. If not, then obviously the drive doesn't work right.

If your drive works properly
--------------------------
1) Boot into Windows.
2) From the device manager (System icon in Control Panel) remove the "Standard Floppy Disk Controller" under "Floppy Disk controllers" and reboot. You may want to power off before rebooting. (It sometimes works better that way.)

If your drive does not work properly
----------------------------------
1) Enter BIOS setup, (look for a prompt that says "Press key for setup")
2) depending on the system, under "standard bios setup" or something like that (it really differs) look for something referencing the floppy drive type.
3) If it's there, make sure it's settings are correct.
4) Exit the BIOS setup, saving changes if you intended to make changes. (If the settings were correct, do not save changes. It's possible to screw something up accidentally. Trust me ;-))

Oh yeah, did you put the cable back on exactly the same way? The red stripe should go to pin 1 on both the floppy and motherboard. If you need more help, just ask.

Member Avatar for lostouten

Thanks for the advice! I'll give that a try when I get home this evening.

-Linda

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