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General discussion

I can't solve my floppies problems :-( !!!

Sep 22, 2004 9:36AM PDT

I have 3-1/2 floppies that have been acting very strange.

What really happens is that sometimes(50% of times) when I insert any diskette(new or used) in the unit, the system shows a message box saying something like "the disk is not fomatted. After answering yes, that I want to format the disk, it comes back with a message "Windows cannot format this drive".

Another thing that sometimes happens is that when I insert any diskette and try to open it with the aplication in which any file was made or with Windows Explorer, it takes long time reading the diskette (1 min 30 sec average), i consider this is too much time spent trying to open a file which size is less than 50 kb.

I am so worried becouse the motherboars(MSI), floppies(SONY), cables, EVERITHING is new, I already tried changing cables, changing floppy units, reinstalling, updating windows (xp) and even cleaning the units.

The strange thing is that when I installed the units in an older PC (pentium II) the Floppies work so good, Am I crazy????

Help!!

Discussion is locked

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Seems that the only thing left is a
Sep 22, 2004 10:12AM PDT

defective [flaky] floppy drive controller on the mobo. If the mobo is new get it replaced under warranty.

Seems that if you were to define in detail how many cables and floppy drives and floppy disks you have tried, it would be tough to refute the fact that the controller is flaky.

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Re: Seems that the only thing left is a
Sep 22, 2004 10:16AM PDT

but they are 3 units(in 3 diferent motherboards)!! could it be possible so bad luck????

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One of us is confused. My understanding
Sep 22, 2004 11:50AM PDT

is that there is only one mobo with which the problem occurs. The floppy controller which is in a chip on the mobo seems to be flaky in that mobo.

I see nothing in your otiginal post that the problem occurs in three different systems. I think ypou said that the floppies work fine in the other systems.

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Re: One of us is confused. My understanding
Sep 24, 2004 2:59AM PDT

Sorry I guess, I wrote that this problems occurs with 3 motherboards, 3 floppy unit even if I exchanged between them!!
Should I explain again? In fact a fourth older motherboard (pentium II) works fine with the units!!

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Now I understand that the problem
Sep 24, 2004 3:33AM PDT

occurs with any of the 3 drives on any of the 3 mobos. Is that correct???

Are they all the same model mobos????

Check the BIOS in the 3 mobos for any unusual settings relating to the floppy drive. A pure WAG [wild arsed guess].

Are the mobos all new???

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Re: Now I understand that the problem
Sep 24, 2004 5:56AM PDT

Yes that occurs with any of the 3 drives on any of the 3 mobos.
Yes they are the same model mobos????

What do I have to find in BIOS realted to floppy units??

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It can vary with different BIOS's
Sep 24, 2004 6:54AM PDT

and I don't know exactly what they can do to cause problems.

One is related to enabling something that has to do with the type of drive used in Japanese computers. In my Asus it's called 3 mode support. This should be disabled. Another is enabling floppy switching.

Of course the basic one is to say that drive A is a 1.44 Mb drive and that there is none for drive B.

There is enable floppy seek at boot. [possibly try turning it off, simply to see if it makes any difference].

Remember I am guessing but trying to give you something to try to see if it makes a difference.

Some have enable floppy controller, but it would seem that if that was not enabled you would have no access to the floppy.

Maybe also try putting two drives in one as A and one as the B drive.

Again simply trying different things as part of troubleshooting.

I think that you have tried different cables.

3 drives in 3 mobo's sure gives one a quandry.

Anything special about the AC Power in Mexico? Is the power supply set for the correct input voltage???

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Re: I can't solve my floppies problems :-( !!!
Sep 22, 2004 11:54PM PDT

It can only be one of four things or a combo of them, FD, floppies, cables or mtrbd.. Since, you covered all bases, it suggests that the mtrbd. is bad or its related chipset and that's not repairable. It could be of bad installation process(ESD/static) or improper cable seating, bent/broken pins(s), etc.. The only other cause, since you have a Sony, is a unique FD drive as sometimes new but older FDs were sold to be used in ceratin systems. These provided a small adapter that basically reroutes signals and it just wouldn't work otherwise. BUT! since it tries to work it may not be this problem, but it was worth mentioning. New floppies like brand new out of the box?

hope this helps... good luck -----Willy Happy

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Re: I can't solve my floppies problems :-( !!!
Sep 24, 2004 4:32AM PDT

Your floppy disk drive is worn. You need to replace it. Ever wonder why FDDs nowadays are cheap? Because they have limited lifetime. Many upgrades had been done with CDROM and CDRW drives, and now DVD's but not with floppies.
CDROMs now come in 52x and up speed,sometimes multi-speed but not with floppies. Even in capacity (not considering 8" and 5 1/4" floppies).
With continuous use, the laser lens alignment goes off tangent in reading the disk, a very minute difference in height while reading the disk which is measured in mils (1 inch = 1000 mils). Re-alignment is expensive, hence it is cheaper to buy a new one.
It also happens with CD/DVD/CDRW drives. That is why the use of drive cleaners are not encouraged since the cleaner (that small paper) pushes the lens that mis-aligns it.

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I think that he is saying that he has three new Sony
Sep 24, 2004 4:50AM PDT

floppy drives and they all do the same thing on three different mobos.

I hope that he didn't use the WD40 in them that he asked about in another post. [not too likely, because he was asking what WD 40 is]

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Re: I think that he is saying that he has three new Sony
Sep 24, 2004 5:58AM PDT

I haven't use already WD40 I thought it could be tehis problem but I even haven't search for it, Dont worry!!

Yes, floppy drives they all do the same thing on three different mobos.

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Re: I think that he is saying that he has three new Sony
Sep 25, 2004 8:43AM PDT

I think he is referring to one FDD since he put 3 1/2 which could mean a 3.5" floppy drive. Whatever the case, the FDD could already be worn.
SOme worn FDD's work just fine in some computers (but not always) but later will go back to a worn state like not reading floppies or the drive not being recognized by the system, there are even instances that the files could be read in that FDD bit can not be read by other FDDs from other computers.

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Read his posts again THREE NEW SONY drives.
Sep 25, 2004 10:30AM PDT

If only one drive we all would have said the same thing. LOL

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Re: I can't solve my floppies problems :-( !!!
Sep 24, 2004 5:08AM PDT

This sounds like a timing issue, where data, address, and control lines are not meeting the device specifications, and I would first suspect the motherboard, especially if it is an inexpensive unit. While this happens a lot on overclocked systems, it can happen with inexpensive parts. The more expensive motherboards are generally designed with much more attention to timing details, but even these have timing problems every once in a while.

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I have solved my problems!!!!! Thanks for helping
Oct 14, 2004 6:23AM PDT

Well becouse of time the last thing I did was to buy a new Samsung floppy disk and everything works fine
But I haven't understand why if the sony floppy disk are new, well I still can't understand maybe could it be compatibility or something else, well my problems are solved and i am ok now I have changed 2 floppy units and they work fine, thank you!!!