I have a question about the floppy drive in a computer that I am fixing up to donate to a my sister's friend who can't afford one. It is an old Computer City computer with a Cyrix 180mhz CPU. I have most of it working properly, but the floppy drive is still a little unpredictable. I have tried replacing it, changing the cable, and cleaning it. At one point the CDRom wasn't working either, but I replaced it and it seems to be ok now. The floppy is working better in that it is now reading things disks most of the time, but it occasionally insists that a disk isn't formatted or usable, even though I had just used it on my main computer. Any ideas of what else I might do would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Do you mean you have used the floppy drive on your system or you have used the disk on your system?. If you meant the disk try taking the floppy drive out and using it in your own pc if it still gives errors it may just need a cleaning disk or maybe just replaced you can pick up floppy drives very cheap now ..under £10 in the UK.

I had already installed a new floppy drive and it didn't work any better than the old one. I went ahead and replaced the old one, cleaned it a couple of times and replaced the cables. Nothing worked. Any other ideas??

Thanks.

Check the floppy settings in BIOS. It should be 1.44MB 3 1/2" floppy, swap floppy drive should be DISABLED and floppy mode 3 support should be DISABLED. (That lets it support Japanese floppy sizes, 2.88MB I think...)

Also try another cable. I realize you already have, try it anyway, sometimes they can be flaky even if brand new. I have also seen cables wired backward, but this doesn't seem to be the case here, it would refuse to read at all.

Also try cleaning it again, I have had to clean one 4 times before it would work right. A year later it still works perfect. If you're using an older cleaning kit that's been used a few times it might be time for a new one.

After all that if you still have floppy problems, you might have a bad controller.

One more note...Cyrix CPU...don't try to run win98 on that machine, it DOES NOT LIKE Cyrix chips. Win95 will run fine, win98 will be problems. I've had to replace 3 CPUs in family member's computers to get win98 to run right. All Cyrix. Still have one to go soon as I can make a road trip...

Thanks for the ideas. I had an interesting experience last night. I was reinstalling Win95 after reformatting and it refused to acknowledge the floppy drive for the rescue disk I needed to get back in to install the CD driver. I got frustrated and banged on the side of the computer next to the drive and suddenly it worked. This suggests that something is loose, so I guess I keep playing with it. I was hoping to get it sent out today, but I will have to keep working with it a bit longer.

I will definitely not be running Win98 in it, partly because I have already spent about $100 to fix up a computer I am giving away to an indigent family and partly because of the fact that it simply doesn't have the oomph to run it at all well.

Thanks.

One more note...Cyrix CPU...don't try to run win98 on that machine, it DOES NOT LIKE Cyrix chips. Win95 will run fine, win98 will be problems. I've had to replace 3 CPUs in family member's computers to get win98 to run right. All Cyrix. Still have one to go soon as I can make a road trip... [/B][/QUOTE]

Hey Pete,

What sort of problems have you had? I have had W98 running on my first homebuilt system for 3 years now with nary a problem. It has a Cyrix PR233MX processor and an Abit TX mobo. It has been relegated to my six year old son's room and runs mostly kid games, especially backyard basketball and soccer :D . Mostly curious. I have some older Cyrix stuff lying about gathering dust that might be resurrected someday.

ER

I went ahead and sent the computer to the new owner today even though the floppy was still working erratically. I put in a new ribbon cable just in case and advised the new owner to avoid using it as much as possible. I also cleaned it several more times, but it was still erratic. I suspect the problem may be in the BIOS or the mainboard, but I wasn't going to spend any more money trying to figure it out, especially since floppy drives are largely obsolete.

Thanks for the help.

especially since floppy drives are largely obsolete

Such a sad, but nearly true statement-and to my dismay as the floppy is the one piece of legacy equipment you can ( or mostly could in your case ;) ) depend upon when all else fails.

In this modern era of CD bootable systems, there have been more than once when a good ol' custom boot disk ( re-floppy ) salvage one of my customer's butts. Even tho i have created a bootable CD with extra's on it, i still carry my trusty 3.5 " custom startup floppy with me ( as well as a couple of extra's ) just in case.

I don't really see a need for Serial or Parallel ports anymore-but i hope the floppy hangs in there a little longer.

It's kinda like knowing DOS, sure it's an obsolete OS-but it's like knowing how to drive a manual transmission-if you know that then there is no vehicle you can't drive, and if you know the basic's of DOS-there is no OS you can't fix, or navigate.

I wouldn't have been able to reload Windows 95 into the system in question without the floppy and another system I reinstalled recently needed the floppy for loading Win98, so I agree that it has been handy. On the other hand, if it hadn't worked when I banged it on the side like an old TV set, it wouldn't have let me in to install Win95 in that first system. I would prefer the CD or some other more reliable technology take over the niche that the floppy has had. The only true advantage to the floppy is that it is pretty much universal while each CDRom or other method requires special drivers most of the time. Give me a reliable alternative and I will kiss the 3.5 inch floppy goodbye as happily as I did the 5 inch floppy.

Budfred:
The only true advantage to the floppy is that it is pretty much universal...


...and you can also carry it in your shirt pocket :D