I have a computer that fails to read from the floppy drive. When I attempt to access the a:\ drive in windows, I get an error: floppy disk not formatted, format now? or the dialog box for formatting the floppy drive just automatically appears. I went into dos mode and tried to access the floppy drive there, but the drive was not accessable. I replaced the floppy drive and the cable with a floppy drive and cable that work properly in another computer. No change, same problem.

I had a similar problem to this on a PC I built recently. After wasting many hours trying different combinations of floppy drives and cables and even fitting an ancient multi IO card the problem turned out suprisingly simple.

Basically, it was down to the design of the case I had bought. While some cases simply let the floppy drive poke through a hole in the front, this one only had a small slit for the disk to fit through. In order to eject the floppy, therefore, you had to push the button on the case which in turn pushed the button on the floppy drive. The problem was that the button on the case was too long and was constantly applying pressure to the button on the floppy drive. This meant that when there was a disk in drive it was never allowed to be inserted fully.

So, all it took to fix the problem was to readjust the position of the floppy drive so that it sat a little further back in the case.

Hope this is of help to you,

Andy

I know what your talking about. I have an HP that has a molded covering in front of the floppy drive housing. However, on the comp that I am discussing above, the floppy is sitting fully exposed with nothing to cause any pressure on the eject button. Thanks for the info anyhow.

I would venture a guess and say it's the floppy drive controller.

Not real sure though. Wait to see what a few others say about it.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

I could be mistaken, but I think the floppy drive controller is located on the drive itself. If it is, then it is not a possibility as I have tested this computer with 2 separtate drives and each time I get the same unwanted result.

The floppy drive controller is on the motherboard, not on the drive itself. On older systems, 486 and earlier, an ISA or 8 bit card was used.

This might be a shot in the dark, but try a floppy drive cleaner. The drive may be working, but dirty and not able to read the disks.

Check BIOS and be sure Swap Floppy Drive and Floppy 3 Mode Support are both disabled, and be sure the correct floppy drive type is selected.

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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

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It turns out the problem is the motherboard, and the motherboard is being replaced. I would assume that the problem on the motherboard is the controller. Thanks to all those who took the time to post their thoughts.

Kulgion

[This message has been edited by kulgion (edited 12-21-2000).]