| Author |
Message |
Angela
| | Posted on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 2:19 pm: | |
I had a working Pentium MMX 233. I removed the cd-rom, floppy, and hard drive. This now heartless computer has received a transplant from a much older computer. I have fdisked and now I am trying to start up again! I keep getting as error message that says floppy disk(s) fail (40). I have read a lot of things since and I can not find the answer. I have tried different cables I have tried flipping the cables, and I have tried a floppy I KNOW works.... this computer only has BIOS there is no operating system, so I need the floppy to be able to boot and install windows. Please help me.
Thanks |
Dave
| | Posted on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 8:31 pm: | |
This can happen for any one of several reasons:
1. You forget to connect power to the floppy
2. You connect the middle (b:\) connector to the floppy when you have told the bios that there should be a floppy on the end (a:\) connector.
3. You hook up the ribbon cable backwards. If you hook it up backwards, the green light on the floppy will come on and remain on solid until you turn the machine off again. Turn it around and try again.
4. You told the bios that you have an a:\ drive AND a b:\ drive, but you have removed the b:\ drive.
5. You have disabled the floppy controller in the bios setup.
6. You have connected the ribbon cable so that one pair of pins is still exposed. This is easier to do than you might think, and it can happen on the floppy end of the cable or the motherboard end of the cable.
7. The ribbon cable comes partly off of the pinout on the motherboard when you go to stuff all the cables and wires into the case. Often these pinouts are kind of loose, and it's easy to pull the cable off the same exact way every time you try to button the CPU back up.
8. You have fried the controller by monkeying around with it. These are DELICATE ELECTRONIC DEVICES. Sometimes you can fix them by shorting out traces on the printed circuit board at random with a small screwdriver. That's what I heard, anyway. It never worked for me, but it might for you... |
Angela
| | Posted on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 8:36 pm: | |
thank you I will definitely try some of your suggestions. Can you tell me how to enabled the floppy controller in the bios setup?
Thanks again |
Dave
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 5:55 pm: | |
There's usually a setting in advanced chipset features or peripherals or one of those categories. Hunt around, you'll find it. It's pretty easy to spot.
By the way, I was just kidding about the screwdriver and the circuit board... |
Angela
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2001 - 9:12 am: | |
I thought you were  Although sometimes you really want to ..... |
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