3-1/2 Floppy drive not working

[Tony D]

I have a machine that suffered a lightning attack. I replaced the PSU and everything seems to be working except the 3-1/2 floppy drive. When I open MY COMPUTER, it's not listed. Additionally, Device Manager shows it with a yellow indicator.

 

When I boot the machine, the green light on the drive flashes momentarily as I would expect.

 

I've swapped two other drives and swapped the data cable. The drive still doesn't show up in MY COMPUTER and Dev Mgr still shows it with a yellow indicator.

 

I've uninstalled the drive, rebooted. Windows recognized the drive a FDD and loaded the driver for it. I did this a couple of times with the various spares. The FDD still doesn't show up in MY COMPUTER.

 

Thoughts ......

[AdvancedSetup]

What does the BIOS say? Have you tried removing the CMOS battery and reset the system defaults?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Have you got the cable in the right way round Tony?

[petef]

Thoughts ......

 

Sounds like the FDD controller on the Mobo has been damaged.

 

---pete---

[Tony D]

Knowing that 1) the FDD green light flashes when the computer boots and 2) that Windows recognizes the FDD as new hardware (if it is uninstalled on the previous session), I believe the cable is correctly seated.

[petef]

Knowing that 1) the FDD green light flashes when the computer boots and 2) that Windows recognizes the FDD as new hardware (if it is uninstalled on the previous session), I believe the cable is correctly seated.

 

I've seen floppy dirives that were bad where ther green light flashed as

you described. We know it's not likely a cable problem if the drive worked

properly before the lightning strike. If you already tried other drives

and they acted the same then the problem is due to something on

the motherboard. Now we are down to what caused the problem as

a result of lightning. Either the Mobo got "confused" or it got damaged.

If reset of the BIOS/CMOS settings (as AdvancedSetup suggested)

does not fix it then the FDD controller on the Mobo is bad.

 

---pete---

[Tony D]

Sorry I haven't responded to the post about the BIOS. The BIOS DOES see the FDD. I really don't want to reset the BIOS because everything else is working and I like to leave good enough alone. I spoke with the owner and he doesn't use the FDD.

 

My concern is that if I reset the BIOS to factory defaults, it might cause other unforseen problems.

[petef]

My concern is that if I reset the BIOS to factory defaults, it might cause other unforseen problems.

 

Yeah, I hear ya.

Most I would probably do then is to remove the battery or and press

the power button to "drain" it and replace the battery.

 

I'd also toggle the floopy drive off and on in the BIOS if they offered an option to do that.

 

---pete---

[AdvancedSetup]

Well a USB floppy is pretty cheap and actually probably work better than the built-in unit if you really need one.

[Dalo Harkin]

Are any of the other drives (CD/DVD or HDD) taking up the drive letter A?

[Tony D]

That's a good point, I didn't check to see if any other drive was taking up 'A'. Anyway the machine is out of here and back to its owner.