Floppy Drive Troubles

The Floppy Disk Drive is considered to be a disposable component which means that the drive is simply replaced rather than spending
the time trying to repai it.Whenever you do encounter a problem with the floppy drive, the troubleshooting procedures are much simpler to follow than that of the hard or the cdrom drives.

One overlooked factor when discussing the floppy drive is the version of BIOS you have. The BIOS,or Basic Input Output System controls the floppy drive through the PC's Operating System.Your BIOS can prevent you from upgrading the floppy disk drive if you don't have the most current version of your BIOS.

Troubleshooting Floppy Disk Drives

In most cases if you cannot solve a floppy drive problem by cleaning the drive or the diskette,the drive may need to be replaced.Here are the procedures that should be followed in solving floppy drive problems.

No Power To The Floppy Drive

Check the Power Supply cable for power by connecting a multimeter to the connector. Voltage at the red lead should be +5 volts. Check your computer's manual or the label on top of the power supply for the proper voltage.

If no power is present,troubleshoot the power supply.If power is present,check the connection at the drive for bent or broken pins.

Drive Has Power But Not Working

If you notice that there is power to the drive but it does not read the diskette.First check the drive but trying to run another diskette.
If no disk can be read,you will need to check the Ribbon Cable connecting the drive to the Controller.Even though there are no obvious signs of damage,these cable will fail.

Drive Not Reading/Writing To Disk

The drive's Controller must not be overlooked even though this component very seldom fail. Normally mounted on the motherboard,you can check the controller only by installing a slot
mounted controller in an empty bay.The problem with this is that,unless you are a technician,you most likely won't be lugging extra components around.Consider the controller being bad as a last resort,in which,in most cases,it often will be.

Also stop and check to see if the drive is being recognized by Windows.Click on My Computer and see if the A:\ is present.If not,you will need to run Add/Remove Hardware to have the drive added to the operating system.Access your System Setup to be sure the drive is present.

And that it when it comes to problem solving the floppy drive.This drive is seldom used in most cases.But since it seems that it is not going away no time soon,it should not be overlooked.

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Article by: Otis F. Cooper
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Copyright 2002 Otis F. Cooper
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Otis F. Cooper
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