Inspiron suddenly won't recognise floppy

I am suffering what appears to be a Dell issue (I have only had it on Dell
computers, - and too often on various different Dells), which is that
suddenly this computer wont recognise its floppy drive. It spins and spins
and however many times I try to check the BIOS and boot off it, the computer
wont boot off the floppy. So I cant get it to see whatever CD I put in the
drive.

The unit wont see its floppy whether I put it into the bay or at the end of
the cable. I don't think it is a BIOS revision issue OR is there some way of
reinstalling the same BIOS as is in the unit already? Can an attempted
install of an OS screw up the BIOS? I haven't unplugged the Unit since all
this arose so I can't see this as a BIOS battery issue

The full problem is that I have changed the hard drive and put one off a
ThinkPad in with Win 95 on it. It works. I tried to install 98SE off the
original install discs but, booting off the CD, the unit won't do a clean
install. I discovered that it also obviously won't install with the 95
win.com in place. Then suddenly after this failed install, the OS stopped
seeing the floppy (and, later, the CD as well)! Now I don't dare format
the hard drive and try to install 98 SE from the CD for fear that the unit
won't see its CD when I try this. I kinda presume that the not seeing the CD
is not a hardware fault but is something to do with the OS although it wont
see its CD on boot either. It booted off the CD when it was doing this
install but wont boot off it any more now after restarting the unit.

Anyone know what causes this Dell floppy issue or is it simply a poor
quality hardware issue?

you should do a clean install of win98 and supercede the win95 on the
harddrive that you put in there. you have to boot off the floppy that
came with win98, and then it will load the drivers to see the cdrom and
continue the install from there. i dont remember the win98 cd being
bootable.
what kind of laptop is it? specs? you dont say, but you may want to
install xp instead, since it will not be fun loading win98 drivers...
you'll have to get those from dell's web site in advance...


news.rcn.com wrote:
I am suffering what appears to be a Dell issue (I have only had it on Dell
computers, - and too often on various different Dells), which is that
suddenly this computer wont recognise its floppy drive. It spins and spins
and however many times I try to check the BIOS and boot off it, the computer
wont boot off the floppy. So I cant get it to see whatever CD I put in the
drive.

The unit wont see its floppy whether I put it into the bay or at the end of
the cable. I don't think it is a BIOS revision issue OR is there some way of
reinstalling the same BIOS as is in the unit already? Can an attempted
install of an OS screw up the BIOS? I haven't unplugged the Unit since all
this arose so I can't see this as a BIOS battery issue

The full problem is that I have changed the hard drive and put one off a
ThinkPad in with Win 95 on it. It works. I tried to install 98SE off the
original install discs but, booting off the CD, the unit won't do a clean
install. I discovered that it also obviously won't install with the 95
win.com in place. Then suddenly after this failed install, the OS stopped
seeing the floppy (and, later, the CD as well)! Now I don't dare format
the hard drive and try to install 98 SE from the CD for fear that the unit
won't see its CD when I try this. I kinda presume that the not seeing the CD
is not a hardware fault but is something to do with the OS although it wont
see its CD on boot either. It booted off the CD when it was doing this
install but wont boot off it any more now after restarting the unit.

Anyone know what causes this Dell floppy issue or is it simply a poor
quality hardware issue?

would help if you mentioned the model...
most floppy drives for inspirons only work when installed in the internal
drive bay. you can not hot swap the floppy unless you have dell hot swap
software installed. you must pwoer down, install the drive and power up.
you can enter the system bios and view how your boot options are set (floppy
first? cd first? hard disk first?).

"news.rcn.com" news.rnc.com wrote in message
...
I am suffering what appears to be a Dell issue (I have only had it on Dell
computers, - and too often on various different Dells), which is that
suddenly this computer wont recognise its floppy drive. It spins and spins
and however many times I try to check the BIOS and boot off it, the
computer wont boot off the floppy. So I cant get it to see whatever CD I
put in the drive.

The unit wont see its floppy whether I put it into the bay or at the end
of the cable. I don't think it is a BIOS revision issue OR is there some
way of reinstalling the same BIOS as is in the unit already? Can an
attempted install of an OS screw up the BIOS? I haven't unplugged the Unit
since all this arose so I can't see this as a BIOS battery issue

The full problem is that I have changed the hard drive and put one off a
ThinkPad in with Win 95 on it. It works. I tried to install 98SE off the
original install discs but, booting off the CD, the unit won't do a clean
install. I discovered that it also obviously won't install with the 95
win.com in place. Then suddenly after this failed install, the OS stopped
seeing the floppy (and, later, the CD as well)! Now I don't dare format
the hard drive and try to install 98 SE from the CD for fear that the unit
won't see its CD when I try this. I kinda presume that the not seeing the
CD is not a hardware fault but is something to do with the OS although it
wont see its CD on boot either. It booted off the CD when it was doing
this install but wont boot off it any more now after restarting the unit.

Anyone know what causes this Dell floppy issue or is it simply a poor
quality hardware issue?

This is an Inspiron 3500 running at 366 MHz with 64 Meg ram which is about
the minimum for 98SE: I don't think it will run XP but have an install disc
so could give it a try if I could get a CD working.

The problem I have is that the system won't recognise the floppy at all or
now the CD, neither in the bay or at the end of the cable (supplied so that
you can use the floppy with the CD in the bay). It lights the LED on the
front, sometimes buzzes as if it were trying to read, clicks slowly a few
times as if it were trying to read and then gives up. Pressing A: in windows
explorer does much the same and you get a message telling you that the
floppy isn't formatted and do you want to format it.

The only other oddity is that all the drives show to be working in DOS
compatibility mode??? Could this mean that there is some boot sector virus
somewhere which is preventing the system seeing the floppy? And if so, how
do I remove it without a floppy or a cd? I seem to remember a virus years
ago which exhibited these tendencies called NYB although it wasn't a hard
drive boot sector virus was it? You got rid of it by using FDISK /MBR as I
remember it but I cant see doing this from within windows and any boot-up
puts you in windows

Otherwise I was wondering whether there was a way of reinstalling the BIOS
over the present possibly corrupted BIOS installation? The present BIOS is
4.00 revision 6.00 with Version 10 showing and a version 14 on a floppy I
thought I had installed. I suppose it may not have installed if there is a
boot sector virus?

This may well be just poor hardware components but I am somewhat comforted
by the fact that the CD went out only a short while after the floppy stopped
working so it MAY well just be the BIOS which has become corrupted or a boot
sector virus: I am also slightly comforted by the appearance of a Win 95 USB
updater in ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS so there is a possibility I may be able to
get an USB CD reader working so long as it doesn't need drivers to work


"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news_e0f.10475$794.4103@trndny01...
would help if you mentioned the model...

ORIGINAL POSTING:

I am suffering what appears to be a Dell issue (I have only had it on Dell
computers, - and too often on various different Dells), which is that
suddenly this computer wont recognise its floppy drive. It spins and spins
and however many times I try to check the BIOS and boot off it, the computer
wont boot off the floppy. So I cant get it to see whatever CD I put in the
drive.

The unit wont see its floppy whether I put it into the bay or at the end of
the cable. I don't think it is a BIOS revision issue OR is there some way of
reinstalling the same BIOS as is in the unit already? Can an attempted
install of an OS screw up the BIOS? I haven't unplugged the Unit since all
this arose so I can't see this as a BIOS battery issue

The full problem is that I have changed the hard drive and put one off a
ThinkPad in with Win 95 on it. It works. I tried to install 98SE off the
original install discs but, booting off the CD, the unit won't do a clean
install. I discovered that it also obviously won't install with the 95
win.com in place. Then suddenly after this failed install, the OS stopped
seeing the floppy (and, later, the CD as well)! Now I don't dare format
the hard drive and try to install 98 SE from the CD for fear that the unit
won't see its CD when I try this. I kinda presume that the not seeing the CD
is not a hardware fault but is something to do with the OS although it wont
see its CD on boot either. It booted off the CD when it was doing this
install but wont boot off it any more now after restarting the unit.

Anyone know what causes this Dell floppy issue or is it simply a poor
quality hardware issue?

news.rcn.com wrote:
This is an Inspiron 3500 running at 366 MHz with 64 Meg ram which is about
the minimum for 98SE: I don't think it will run XP but have an install disc
so could give it a try if I could get a CD working.

The problem I have is that the system won't recognise the floppy at all or
now the CD, neither in the bay or at the end of the cable (supplied so that
you can use the floppy with the CD in the bay). It lights the LED on the
front, sometimes buzzes as if it were trying to read, clicks slowly a few
times as if it were trying to read and then gives up. Pressing A: in windows
explorer does much the same and you get a message telling you that the
floppy isn't formatted and do you want to format it.

The only other oddity is that all the drives show to be working in DOS
compatibility mode??? Could this mean that there is some boot sector virus
somewhere which is preventing the system seeing the floppy? And if so, how
do I remove it without a floppy or a cd? I seem to remember a virus years
ago which exhibited these tendencies called NYB although it wasn't a hard
drive boot sector virus was it? You got rid of it by using FDISK /MBR as I
remember it but I cant see doing this from within windows and any boot-up
puts you in windows

Otherwise I was wondering whether there was a way of reinstalling the BIOS
over the present possibly corrupted BIOS installation? The present BIOS is
4.00 revision 6.00 with Version 10 showing and a version 14 on a floppy I
thought I had installed. I suppose it may not have installed if there is a
boot sector virus?

This may well be just poor hardware components but I am somewhat comforted
by the fact that the CD went out only a short while after the floppy stopped
working so it MAY well just be the BIOS which has become corrupted or a boot
sector virus: I am also slightly comforted by the appearance of a Win 95 USB
updater in ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS so there is a possibility I may be able to
get an USB CD reader working so long as it doesn't need drivers to work


"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news_e0f.10475$794.4103@trndny01...

would help if you mentioned the model...


ORIGINAL POSTING:

I am suffering what appears to be a Dell issue (I have only had it on Dell
computers, - and too often on various different Dells), which is that
suddenly this computer wont recognise its floppy drive. It spins and spins
and however many times I try to check the BIOS and boot off it, the computer
wont boot off the floppy. So I cant get it to see whatever CD I put in the
drive.

The unit wont see its floppy whether I put it into the bay or at the end of
the cable. I don't think it is a BIOS revision issue OR is there some way of
reinstalling the same BIOS as is in the unit already? Can an attempted
install of an OS screw up the BIOS? I haven't unplugged the Unit since all
this arose so I can't see this as a BIOS battery issue

The full problem is that I have changed the hard drive and put one off a
ThinkPad in with Win 95 on it. It works. I tried to install 98SE off the
original install discs but, booting off the CD, the unit won't do a clean
install. I discovered that it also obviously won't install with the 95
win.com in place. Then suddenly after this failed install, the OS stopped
seeing the floppy (and, later, the CD as well)! Now I don't dare format
the hard drive and try to install 98 SE from the CD for fear that the unit
won't see its CD when I try this. I kinda presume that the not seeing the CD
is not a hardware fault but is something to do with the OS although it wont
see its CD on boot either. It booted off the CD when it was doing this
install but wont boot off it any more now after restarting the unit.

Anyone know what causes this Dell floppy issue or is it simply a poor
quality hardware issue?




It's not at all clear what you've done or what you're intending to
accomplish.
Did you flash the bios? Did this all start after that???
I'd recommend you never flash a bios when there are other serious
symptoms. At some point, you give up and try it anyway, but it's
a last resort that may leave you with a doorstop.

Does the system boot from the hard drive? Sounds like it does, but
there's so much confusion...

Take the hard drive completely out. Will it boot from floppy?
If it won't, it's not a hard drive/virus problem.

A program like laplink can be installed over the serial port and let you
transfer any files you need to the laptop. I've used it to copy the
whole OS install CD and installed from the laptop.

Thinkpad drive are funny. I've got one I can't make work in another
laptop. I've been told that they won't work with just any old
autodetected bios setting. They have to be set to LARGE and reformatted.
I haven't had the chance to try that yet.

Normally, I'd recommend you stick the laptop drive in your desktop
and fix it there. But I've had difficulty with some brands of hard
drives being autodetected differently in the desktop and laptop.
The files are there, but it won't boot in the laptop. Might be
related to the thinkpad LARGE issue.

Which dell model?
mike



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Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
MAKE THE OBVIOUS CHANGES TO THE LINK
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It's not at all clear what you've done or what you're intending to
accomplish.
I put a thinkpad drive in my inspiron 3500 and now want to reinstall the
whole OS from the orig install discs. Curiously, the Think pad drive does
start Windows 95. (Chipsets must be the same) So the computer works

Did you flash the bios? Did this all start after that???
No, the problems arose one day when firstly the floppy started not working
then later the CD started not working either. Now neither will work and act
in the manner I mentioned when I try to use them.

I'd recommend you never flash a bios when there are other serious
symptoms. At some point, you give up and try it anyway, but it's
a last resort that may leave you with a doorstop.

Does the system boot from the hard drive? Sounds like it does, but
there's so much confusion...
Yes, see above

Take the hard drive completely out. Will it boot from floppy?
Exactly the same as with it in: Four very slow clicks followed by a no OS
error message (as opposed to going into Windows off the HD)

If it won't, it's not a hard drive/virus problem.

A program like laplink can be installed over the serial port and let you
transfer any files you need to the laptop. I've used it to copy the whole
OS install CD and installed from the laptop.

Thinkpad drive are funny. I've got one I can't make work in another
laptop.
You are right about that, the drive wouldnt start the computer at first: I
had to take it out and reinstall it by banging it hard into the slot. Now it
works. And the floppy and CD did work at first until I got into the 98SE
install program, where it saw a WIN.COM and stopped installing a new OS. Now
the CD won't work at all and nor will the floppy. They connect, they even
try to read, but they dont work which made me think of NYB. (But I have now
scanned the floppies with a new XP installation of a fully updated NAV and
it didn't find any boot sector virusses).

Maybe I should try to put some settings in the BIOS?? But the drive does
work??

I've been told that they won't work with just any old
autodetected bios setting. They have to be set to LARGE and reformatted.
I haven't had the chance to try that yet.

Normally, I'd recommend you stick the laptop drive in your desktop
and fix it there.

I am a bit reluctant to put the drive in a desktop with a different chipset
and install 98SE there and hope it works in the Inspiron.

But I've had difficulty with some brands of hard
drives being autodetected differently in the desktop and laptop.
The files are there, but it won't boot in the laptop. Might be
related to the thinkpad LARGE issue.

Which dell model?
Inspiron 3500

In comp.sys.laptops news.rcn.com news.rnc.com wrote:
Thinkpad drive are funny. I've got one I can't make work in another
laptop.
You are right about that, the drive wouldnt start the computer at first: I

TP floppy drives had inverted sense lines. No disk - disk.

Peter

Oh, and one other thing I didn't mention because it didnt seem relevant: I
am getting the POST error message THE SUSPEND TO DISK FILE IS ABSENT (which
it isnt) OR THE AMOUNT OF SYSTEM MEMORY HAS CHANGED (which it hasnt) AND
updating the BIOS with these errors doesn't stop this happening

the inspiron 3500 runs windows xp just fine and all drivers for it are built
into windows xp (so no additional ones to download/install). however you
need a 10gb hard disk for an xp installation with office 2000 and you need
at least 128mb of ram for xp.

your problems stem from taking the disk from the thinkpad with windows
installed on it and expecting it to work on the inspiron as it. windows
nt/2k/xp can not be transplanted between different systems like that. there
is a layer of software called the hardware abstraction layer that is
tailored to the specific machine when windows is installed and it now has no
idea how to talk to your various components. if it is an oem install of
windows then you should be able to find a copy of the original windows 2k
disk in a folder on the hard drive. from there you should be able to start
a new installation of windows. if you are careful you can install it
without formating your hard drive. other than that you could use the
makedisk utility to create a set of 4 bootable diskettes from your win2k cd
(in another machine) and then boot from your floppy (that only works when in
the internal bay in the i3500). be sure to enter the system bios and modify
the default boot sequence to move the floppy to the front of the list and
the cd drive second. good luck.

"news.rcn.com" news.rnc.com wrote in message
...
This is an Inspiron 3500 running at 366 MHz with 64 Meg ram which is about
the minimum for 98SE: I don't think it will run XP but have an install
disc so could give it a try if I could get a CD working.

The problem I have is that the system won't recognise the floppy at all or
now the CD, neither in the bay or at the end of the cable (supplied so
that you can use the floppy with the CD in the bay). It lights the LED
on the front, sometimes buzzes as if it were trying to read, clicks slowly
a few times as if it were trying to read and then gives up. Pressing A: in
windows explorer does much the same and you get a message telling you that
the floppy isn't formatted and do you want to format it.

The only other oddity is that all the drives show to be working in DOS
compatibility mode??? Could this mean that there is some boot sector virus
somewhere which is preventing the system seeing the floppy? And if so, how
do I remove it without a floppy or a cd? I seem to remember a virus years
ago which exhibited these tendencies called NYB although it wasn't a hard
drive boot sector virus was it? You got rid of it by using FDISK /MBR as
I remember it but I cant see doing this from within windows and any
boot-up puts you in windows

Otherwise I was wondering whether there was a way of reinstalling the BIOS
over the present possibly corrupted BIOS installation? The present BIOS
is 4.00 revision 6.00 with Version 10 showing and a version 14 on a floppy
I thought I had installed. I suppose it may not have installed if there
is a boot sector virus?

This may well be just poor hardware components but I am somewhat comforted
by the fact that the CD went out only a short while after the floppy
stopped working so it MAY well just be the BIOS which has become corrupted
or a boot sector virus: I am also slightly comforted by the appearance of
a Win 95 USB updater in ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS so there is a possibility I
may be able to get an USB CD reader working so long as it doesn't need
drivers to work


"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
news_e0f.10475$794.4103@trndny01...
would help if you mentioned the model...

ORIGINAL POSTING:

I am suffering what appears to be a Dell issue (I have only had it on Dell
computers, - and too often on various different Dells), which is that
suddenly this computer wont recognise its floppy drive. It spins and
spins
and however many times I try to check the BIOS and boot off it, the
computer
wont boot off the floppy. So I cant get it to see whatever CD I put in the
drive.

The unit wont see its floppy whether I put it into the bay or at the end
of
the cable. I don't think it is a BIOS revision issue OR is there some way
of
reinstalling the same BIOS as is in the unit already? Can an attempted
install of an OS screw up the BIOS? I haven't unplugged the Unit since all
this arose so I can't see this as a BIOS battery issue

The full problem is that I have changed the hard drive and put one off a
ThinkPad in with Win 95 on it. It works. I tried to install 98SE off the
original install discs but, booting off the CD, the unit won't do a clean
install. I discovered that it also obviously won't install with the 95
win.com in place. Then suddenly after this failed install, the OS stopped
seeing the floppy (and, later, the CD as well)! Now I don't dare format
the hard drive and try to install 98 SE from the CD for fear that the unit
won't see its CD when I try this. I kinda presume that the not seeing the
CD
is not a hardware fault but is something to do with the OS although it
wont
see its CD on boot either. It booted off the CD when it was doing this
install but wont boot off it any more now after restarting the unit.

Anyone know what causes this Dell floppy issue or is it simply a poor
quality hardware issue?

this is irrelevant. it is happening becuase you switched the hard drive and
have not created the hidden dell suspend to disk file. you can correct this
with win98, not sure about win2k, and not with win xp (you just have to live
with the error message). the utility, if it exisits for your version of the
os, is available on support.dell.com

"news.rcn.com" news.rnc.com wrote in message
...
Oh, and one other thing I didn't mention because it didnt seem relevant: I
am getting the POST error message THE SUSPEND TO DISK FILE IS ABSENT
(which it isnt) OR THE AMOUNT OF SYSTEM MEMORY HAS CHANGED (which it
hasnt) AND updating the BIOS with these errors doesn't stop this happening