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floppy disk(s) fail (40)

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jazerr

Programmer
Joined
Dec 13, 2000
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A buddy gave me a Maxtor DiamondMax 10.1 GB hdd. I installed it with no problems. Windows and BIOS all see this disk as my Primary Slave. Very nice.

But now whenever BIOS is initializing the drives - as soon as it hits floppy seek I get this error - floppy disk(s) fail (40). I am able to bypass the error by hitting F1, but windows than does not see the drive.

I have double-checked the cables, swapped the floppy drive out for another one...Everything I can think of. This is ticking me off. The only thing I can this of that is left is the Controller on my motherboard.

Any thoughts?
 
Start by troubleshooting your floppy. Seek on POST active? Does it seek. Floppy light come on during post and when it is trying to boot?
Did CMOS get clobbered when you were there changing HD params?
Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
 
CMOS will seek no problem. It looks like the light comes on and blinks for a moment, but then stays permanently on.

I dont know if I clobbered anything, everything else seems fine, but I will FLASH just in case.
 
If the light stays on, verify that the red stripe on the cable is connected to Pin 1 on the drive and verify the same on the MB connection. Pin 1 is USUALLY the one facing the power connector on the drive itself and should be labled on the MB as to it's location.
Hope this helps... Mike Brown CCA
 
Not a cable problem. Lite would come on immediately and stay on if cable reversed.
This is more like the maxtor has become the primary and is forcing the boot sequence to the floppy.
Take a look at the hard drive selection jumpers again. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
 
I agree with mj brown your cable is on backwards, or is bad. this is what happens when you plug your cable to your floppy in wrong. did you have to unplug it when you installed teh hdd? it is very unlikely that it is "forcing the boot sequence to the floppy" since you can hit F1 and bypass it and are getting a floppy error........

check the cable every tech has done it....
 
I understand what you are saying. The only problem is that I never disconnected the cable during this whole process. It just quit werkin'.
 
Go into the BIOS and look for the Drive setup for the Floppy. (not the boot order)

See if it actually says 1.4M Floppy. In some newer BIOS there may be several type of floppy settings.

Also change the BIOS so you are not doing a quick boot and are forcing the system to do a seek the floppy first. This is slightly different than boot order. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
 
are you entirely sure that you didnt accidently unseat the cable then? this is fairly easy thing to do when replacing a hdd..

the only other explination would be the motherboard FDD controller is fried, or the fdd itself is...
 
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