i have a pc that the floppy does not respond and the green lite stays on. I am trying to upgrade computer.
Is this a bad drive?, not connected properly?, (i do have a "conflict i/o port 2f8, at startup)(i was going to deal with that next).
How do I troubleshoot this? What is the next step?
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks,
iyq2
It could be many things. DId this problem start when you attempted to upgrade, or has it been a problem before?
I do not know. I was given the computer. it has 95 on it and i want to put 98se on it so i can install a wireless card, and so it goes
Looking at the date, I am fairly sure that the person who originally posted this may never see it but for the sake of those who come after...
The most usual cause of a floppy led staying on and the floppy drive not responding is that the ribbon cable has been plugged in wrong way around. Pins and cables are numbered and if you can find and match pin 1 or perhaps an arrow pointing to one side of the floppy drive's connector, to the red line (or other colour) on the cable, you should have a working floppy drive.
Some cables and sockets have connector notches and raised "bumps" on the cable end to make sure you match them up correctly - usually this will be correct but I do have a floppy drive with a broken plastic connector because the ribbon cable actually goes in the other way around to what the notch shows. They must have put the plastic "collar" on the wrong way around! ;-)
Anyway, bottom line is, if you have this problem, power down your computer, (don't forget to destatic yourself by touching some metal before poking around in case you zap something - static electricity is incredibly high voltage, more than mains) and then reverse your cable and try again. In most cases, this should fix the problem.
Oh, one other point: a floppy cable should have a twist in part of it, so if you have a cable with no twist, chances are it is the wrong cable and will cause the same problem.
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