Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
my floppy drive doesnt read any info the computer stops responding when i click on the drive icon on my computer.it also registers the drive as 5 1/4 drive.the disk drive is brand new. also under my performance tab it says ¨drive A is using MS-DOS compatibility mode file system.i read further more and it says i need an updated driver for this drive.anyone knows whats wrong really?or what i need to do to correct this.t/y for any help or all.A.R.
Questions;
1. Did it ever work?
2. Is it a new replacement drive?
3. Did you verify that BIOS is set to 3.5" floppy?
If your motherboard believes it is a 5 1/4" floppy that is what it tells Windows, in turn Windows tries to use the settings for a 5 1/4 floppy (1.2mb) and you will never be able to read the disks.
If you try to format I believe it will fail for the same reason.
Good luckRichard
0 
the one i had before worked but stopped working so i bought this new one butit hsant work either,is it true that formating the disk doesnt get rid of all viruses?.the setyings on the bios are set to the one of a 3 1/2 drive.if i tell it on bios that i have a second 3 1/2 drive making it two total then on my computer the drive reads a 3 1/2 but i dont really have two 3 1/2 drives.
0
Hi
Request at Driver forum
Just thought I'd ask you if you have DMA enabled in the bios. I know you may not have altered any bios settings on the onset of the floppy drive problem, but some programs can change your bios setup.
Anyhow if you could confirm the dma is emabled -- don't know if your bios will have this as separate channels - but a floppy needs channel 2 enabled. I believe that may be why you are seeing ms-dos compatability mode.
Here is another link that might help you sort out the problem.
Microsoft Article with floppy in MSDos mode
0
i dont have DMA settings in my bios.i read a commnent posted on egg.com by a customer that purchased the saem disk drive i have and he says that it worked find after he reconfigured the pins setup.that they were wrong so tomorrow i a chaning this drive.thanks all.
0
Hi
Enable DMA must be there somewhere in the bios? You may have to look at each setting or see if someone computer savy will have a look. Some bios have some settings unavialable until you shift a jumper on the motherboard. But I don't think DMA settings would be hidden.
Anyhow good luck.
0
The references to DMA settings do not apply for floppy drives. They are on their own controller and the only fixes I have done for this problem are;
1. Replace the drive - this has been done and still does not work
2. Try a different cable and a different power plug if the PSU has dual floppy power plugs
3. Replace the motherboard since the floppy controller seems to have failed if all the above still does not help.Floppy servicing is one of the easier problems to repair. If the PC is an older unit is the floppy being available justify the cost of a MB.
An alternative is one of the newer USB plug-in external floppy drives.
Good luck
Richard
0
Hi
Floppies use DMA channel 2 (well thats just the info I have -- but it could be wrong)
Also IRQ conflict can cause problems.
0
Anenefan
Unlike the DMA channel on the IDE controller you have no control on the floppy.I just recalled another condition that can cause floppy problems. In some versions of the BIOS there are settings for different floppy versions besides standard 1.44mb 3.5" drives. I serviced some older Dell models that by default had a selection in BIOS that would not let you read a standard disk. By default the BIOS would have an ARMD FDD instead of floppy as a boot device. This would even prevent using a boot floppy to start the system. Changing to floppy as a boot device corrected the problem. Another item that would make reading disks impossible would be large amounts of dust accumulated inside the drive. This should not be a problem with a new drive. As I pointed out in the previous post the MB is a prime culprit and I would try all the other repairs first.
Richard
0
Hi
I wasn't suggesting DMA was the "only" cause, just a possible setting that should be checked. I'll concede my response at #6 looks like that, but it isn't. I was just focused on #5 - on the lack of any apparent DMA (ide or otherwise). I was guessing the bios might be a bit cryptic.
I would have hoped (as decribed by the microsoft link in my reponse #4) the total removal of the floppy in device manager and reinstalling, would have remedied the problem.
Anyhow...
It has been a few years since I've seen the 3.5 -5.25 floppy problem. I remember the fix was "simple", but thats all I can recall. (Maybe it was specific to compaqs???)
The MS-DOS compatibility mode problem has many different causes.
However here is a link that doesn't have much bearing in this exact situation, Computer Hope description but which probably (??) describes the 3.5 5.25 floppy icon problem that I remember came up (Thats the extent of what I remember) quite regularly years ago.
I tried to google to see if there was anything else on the net similar. Google is not what it used to be, or maybe I've just got to adapt my technique of searching. So I stopped searching for "3.5 seen as 5.25" (or similar)
0
guess what i found the DMA setting on my bios i enable it and now the floppy works great.thanks all you were all this time on the righ money.hope thos helps other people.i am thinking the settings changed when i formated my hard drive or somehow they changed but thanks again all. i didnt have to exhange the floppy drive.t/y all.
0
Hi
Thats great. Thank you for your feedback on how the problem was remedied.
Least of all it wasn't a virus. (the ones that deletes HSFLOP.PDR file from the Windows ..\system\iosubsys directory )
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
