Hello,

HP 4450 Pavillion
Intel Celeron 366MHz
128MB SDRAM

The floppy drive has always worked until last week, now whenever I try to load a disk or backup on the 3 1/2 (say for Quicken ect), it will both A) take forever and then B) tell me that the disk is not formatted (this is not true however, I've formatted the disks on another computer and more so, trying to install 'pre-programed' floppys (such as a mouse's driver, scanner's programs ect) same thing, just no go.

I tried to read the tech files from this site but they don't seem to apply (perhaps they do but??).

BIOS? Driver? Help!

Please help my head hurts, THANKS! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

If the drive just went bad with nothing else changed, then it is most likely that either the drive has gone bad, or it is dirty. Try blowing out the inside with compressed air for a start, since that's easy. Otherwise, you might be able to reach in and clean the head.
It's also possible the cable has maybe come loose, but probably not.

------------------
Charles M. Kozierok ( ixlubb@PCGuide.com )
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...

Thanks for the reply, I hope it's as easy as a good cleaning. =)

=( Nope no go, clean as a whistle and all cables into the A drive are definitly in, anyone else have any thoughts, thanks.

[This message has been edited by terminal_reality (edited 09-06-2000).]

I think Charles hit his head on the nail when he said its probably just a broke floppy drive. Its possible that when you inserted a floppy sometime in the last week that it might have bent the read/write head inside or something similar. You can get a used floppy at a used computer parts store for about $5 to $10. I doubt its a driver and it would be good to check your bios just to make sure there is no odd setting - but likely a broke floppy.
dale

Thanks Dale, not quite the words I was looking for but I will check my BIOS just incase, thanks again guys!

Another thought is to check the ribbon cable attached to the floppy drive to make sure it is completely attached on both ends and check the device manager for any resource or driver conflicts

[This message has been edited by DANQU (edited 09-06-2000).]