A Drive not ready (error message) please save me

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gaurdenman
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Gaurdenman

I bought a used Aptiva II it runs windows 98 on a pentium 3 . WHen I
try to use my floppy disk, I get an error message that says "the A drive
is not ready" if I push it, I'm told I should check it and make sure
the door is closed and other such nonsense. I think the previous owner
tuned off the floppy disk somehow. Does anyone know how to turn it back
on?
I already replaced the floppy drive with a new one, so it's not the
drive itself. But I guess it could be cable related or something. I know
there are people in this group a lot smarter than I am. Hopefully one of
you, will be kind enough, to save me from my OS.
Thanks in advance.
 
I bought a used Aptiva II it runs windows 98 on a pentium 3 . WHen I
try to use my floppy disk, I get an error message that says "the A drive
is not ready" if I push it, I'm told I should check it and make sure
the door is closed and other such nonsense. I think the previous owner
tuned off the floppy disk somehow. Does anyone know how to turn it back
on?
I already replaced the floppy drive with a new one, so it's not the
drive itself. But I guess it could be cable related or something. I know
there are people in this group a lot smarter than I am. Hopefully one of
you, will be kind enough, to save me from my OS.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Is the drive's light on ALL the time?
Many drives look like they should have the cable's keyed plug oriented
so that the key "notch" on the plug is going into the key-slot on the
plastic connector, while it is actually supposed to go into a slot in
the circuit board underneath, rotated 180'. Verify that pin 1 of the
cable (often a striped color on the cable) is matching to pin1 on the
motherboard and floppy. If you can't tell then for the time being at
least verify that the cable is intact, and the connectors are correct
with that striped wire going to same pin on each connector, relative
to it's keying notch or side with the grooves in it.

Check that the drive is connected to the end-plug on the floppy cable,
there should be a "twist" in the cable before that connector. If
there is no twist in the cable then set the bios to "swap floppy"
drives if that option is available.

Check windows' Device Manager to verify that the controller and/or
drive isn't disabled in windows. Check the bios to be sure the
controller isn't disabled, and the drive itself isn't disabled and
that it's set to appropriate type, 1.44Mb/3.5in/etc, I don't know how
it would be set or even what options are available in the Aptiva bios.


Dave
 
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