Floppy drive recognized by BIOS, but no access to disks

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

On 4/9/2010 10:48 PM, Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
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?

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?

Also, Windows Explorer generally has an A: drive whether or not there's
really hardware behind it. I can attest that's the reality on this machine.

Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
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


Double check to make sure the bios is set to 1.44 meg drive
(which is what I assume it to be)

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:50:25 -0500, Grinder wrote:

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?

On 4/11/2010 9:21 PM, Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:50:25 -0500, Grinder wrote:

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?

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?

On 4/12/2010 2:03 AM, Grinder wrote:
On 4/11/2010 9:21 PM, Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:50:25 -0500, Grinder wrote:

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?

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?

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

On 4/12/2010 7:08 PM, Joel wrote:
wrote:

On 4/12/2010 2:03 AM, Grinder wrote:
On 4/11/2010 9:21 PM, Nicholas Dreyer wrote:
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:50:25 -0500, Grinder wrote:

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?

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?

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.

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

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.

On Apr 13, 3:43 pm, Joel wrote:
edfair wrote:
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.

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.

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.