Floppy freezing system?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BobK
  • Start date Start date
B

BobK

Hi Everyone,

I just got an AMD 3200+ running WinXP Pro that has two hard drives, a
floppy, and a cdrom combo drive.

All works well until I insert a floppy disk. As soon as I insert it, the
system freezes. I looks like the hard drive is active the whole time and
ctrl/alt/del does not even work. It requires a hard boot.

Does anyone know what I might try to get the floppy drive working?

Thanks,

Bob
 
Hi Everyone,

I just got an AMD 3200+ running WinXP Pro that has two hard drives, a
floppy, and a cdrom combo drive.

All works well until I insert a floppy disk. As soon as I insert it, the
system freezes.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that you put the floppy in the drive...and do nothing
else...and the machines freezes? Do you do anything to access the
drive? Does the light for the drive immediately come on when you put
a floppy in?

Usually, you need to ACCESS the drive in some way...or have some kinda
automatic access...for anything to freeze.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
 
Trent© said:
Are you saying that you put the floppy in the drive...and do nothing
else...and the machines freezes? Do you do anything to access the
drive? Does the light for the drive immediately come on when you put
a floppy in?

Usually, you need to ACCESS the drive in some way...or have some kinda
automatic access...for anything to freeze.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
Click to expand...

Hi,

After I insert the floppy disk I hit Start/My Computer and it freezes cold.
I was trying to highlight the A drive but it never opens the My Document
menu. It freezes when the cursor is on Start/My Documents.

I bought the computer from a guy who had to re-connect the floppy wiring
after moving the box. But the A drive does show up in My Computer and I
think it should be working.

Any ideas?
 
BobK said:
Hi,

After I insert the floppy disk I hit Start/My Computer and it freezes cold.
I was trying to highlight the A drive but it never opens the My Document
menu. It freezes when the cursor is on Start/My Documents.

I bought the computer from a guy who had to re-connect the floppy wiring
after moving the box. But the A drive does show up in My Computer and I
think it should be working.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I think I would establish if the DISK was formatted properly and the
drive is capable of booting from the drive. XP has a problem with DISKS
that are formatted via an older operating system. Many times a
previously formatted disk can be read in DOS or other versions of
Windows and not read when in the XP operating system. The solution is
to reformat the disk using a OS that it does not object to. I think if
you do a search you will find this problem discussed extensively by
others having the same problem.

It is possible that you have a hardware problem, but when XP encounters
this problem it stalls while trying to read the disk. CTRL+ALT+DEL will
allow you to close the access to the drive that is not responding.
 
I think I would establish if the DISK was formatted properly and the
drive is capable of booting from the drive. XP has a problem with DISKS
that are formatted via an older operating system. Many times a
previously formatted disk can be read in DOS or other versions of
Windows and not read when in the XP operating system. The solution is
to reformat the disk using a OS that it does not object to. I think if
you do a search you will find this problem discussed extensively by
others having the same problem.

It is possible that you have a hardware problem, but when XP encounters
this problem it stalls while trying to read the disk. CTRL+ALT+DEL will
allow you to close the access to the drive that is not responding.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the tip. You were spot on. I tried a new floppy and it
worked perfectly.

Bob
 
BobK said:
.... snip ... .... snip ...

Thanks so much for the tip. You were spot on. I tried a new floppy
and it worked perfectly.
Click to expand...

Reformatting does not exactly help in reading data from a floppy.
This is one more reason (among many) to avoid XP like the plague
it is.
 
Michael Culley said:
You hadn't tried that!!??
Click to expand...

Hi Michael,

At the time I posted I must admit that I had not tried a different floppy.

But, the odd thing is that the same floppy that did work has now caused a
freeze again. In fact, I have tried several unused (but a couple of years
old) floppies and it still freezes. The symptom is as you described with the
system running continuously trying to read the floppy. But I guess it is
sporadic since the one I did get to work has now gone back to freezing.

I wonder if I have to go buy some brand new floppies? Any thoughts?

Bob
 
It's not going to be the floppy disks. I would try a different floppy drive and a different cable. If that doesn't work it might be
a faulty motherboard or you might need a patch. Look on the website of the motherboard manufacturer, you might get lucky and find
something that say "BIOS update x.xx fixes system freezing reading floppy drive"
 
BobK said:
After I insert the floppy disk I hit Start/My Computer and it freezes cold.
I was trying to highlight the A drive but it never opens the My Document
menu. It freezes when the cursor is on Start/My Documents.

I bought the computer from a guy who had to re-connect the floppy wiring
after moving the box. But the A drive does show up in My Computer and I
think it should be working.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Well there you have it. It isn't even being recognized by the
computer. That should be a huge clue. There is obviously something
he did wrong, or was broken when moved. Why did he have to reconnect
it after moving the computer? This sounds very strange.

My 3200+ has an A: drive problem too. Not as severe as yours. When
I use it, whenever I go to shut off the computer, or sometimes even
more than just that, the computer tries to read the A: drive before it
tries to read the C: drive. But I am not directing it to read the A:
drive. And if it is empty like it usually is, I get a god-awful noise
as it tried to read it. This is only if I use the A: drive after a
boot up. If I never use it, the problem never happens. I just live
with it seeing as I hardly use it. I should probably contact
emachines seeing as it is still under warrantee.

Big Mac
 
BobK said:
the odd thing is that the same floppy that did work has
now caused a freeze again. In fact, I have tried several
unused (but a couple of years old) floppies and it still
freezes.
Click to expand...
I wonder if I have to go buy some brand new floppies? Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Try the equivalent of FORMAT A: /U (Unconditional format in DOS), even
if you have to use a bootable floppy or CD. This will completely
erase any preformatted floppies and eliminate problems caused by track
misalignment. But if it cures the problem, then either the floppy
manufacturer used misaligned formatting equipment, or your current
drive has misaligned heads. Head alignment is touchy, so don't try it
yourself unless you have an oscilloscope. It's actually possible to
align the heads without a scope, by trial and error while continuously
attempting reads, but with a scope you simply adjust for strongest
read signal.

Is it possible that your 1.44M floppy disks are actually 720K disks
placed in 1.44M disk cases? Try opening the case shutter and looking
closely at the disk itself while shining a flashlight from the
opposite side. A real 1.44M disk will let some light through because
its magnetic coating is only half as thick.
 
Hi Michael,

At the time I posted I must admit that I had not tried a different floppy.

But, the odd thing is that the same floppy that did work has now caused a
freeze again. In fact, I have tried several unused (but a couple of years
old) floppies and it still freezes. The symptom is as you described with the
system running continuously trying to read the floppy. But I guess it is
sporadic since the one I did get to work has now gone back to freezing.

I wonder if I have to go buy some brand new floppies? Any thoughts?

Bob
Click to expand...

You DO have service pack 1 installed...correct?

This kind of problem was a major issue before the service pack.

If it was my machine, I'd just take it back to the guy you got it
from.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
 
Big Mac said:
Well there you have it. It isn't even being recognized by the
computer. That should be a huge clue. There is obviously something
he did wrong, or was broken when moved. Why did he have to reconnect
it after moving the computer? This sounds very strange.

My 3200+ has an A: drive problem too. Not as severe as yours. When
I use it, whenever I go to shut off the computer, or sometimes even
more than just that, the computer tries to read the A: drive before it
tries to read the C: drive. But I am not directing it to read the A:
drive. And if it is empty like it usually is, I get a god-awful noise
as it tried to read it. This is only if I use the A: drive after a
boot up. If I never use it, the problem never happens. I just live
with it seeing as I hardly use it. I should probably contact
emachines seeing as it is still under warrantee.

Big Mac
Click to expand...

Hi Guys,

The floppy looks like true 1.44 M - I can see through. They are Memorex
floppies and run fine on another machine. I think I have a cable problem.
When the guy brought the machine over the floppy did not work and he went
inside and checked the cables. He has to re-connect the floppy and it seemed
to work with my old disks. I have to check my cables, etc.

I am not experienced with messing inside the box but I will try to figure
the connection out. I'll let you know my progress.

Thanks for all the help.

Bob
 
rk1@usernomics[no said:
Trent© said:
Are you saying that you put the floppy in the drive...and do nothing
else...and the machines freezes? Do you do anything to access the
drive? Does the light for the drive immediately come on when you put
a floppy in?

Usually, you need to ACCESS the drive in some way...or have some kinda
automatic access...for anything to freeze.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
Click to expand...

Hi,

After I insert the floppy disk I hit Start/My Computer and it freezes cold.
I was trying to highlight the A drive but it never opens the My Document
menu. It freezes when the cursor is on Start/My Documents.

I bought the computer from a guy who had to re-connect the floppy wiring
after moving the box. But the A drive does show up in My Computer and I
think it should be working.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Mine did this exactly because I connected the cable wrong. The red line
has to be toward the power connector. I switched it around and it worked
perfectly. See here http://www.cheap-computers-
guide.net/Build_connecting_the_drives.htm
s
 
rk1@usernomics[no said:
Trent© said:
Are you saying that you put the floppy in the drive...and do nothing
else...and the machines freezes? Do you do anything to access the
drive? Does the light for the drive immediately come on when you put
a floppy in?

Usually, you need to ACCESS the drive in some way...or have some kinda
automatic access...for anything to freeze.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
Click to expand...

Hi,

After I insert the floppy disk I hit Start/My Computer and it freezes cold.
I was trying to highlight the A drive but it never opens the My Document
menu. It freezes when the cursor is on Start/My Documents.

I bought the computer from a guy who had to re-connect the floppy wiring
after moving the box. But the A drive does show up in My Computer and I
think it should be working.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Mine did this exactly because I connected the cable wrong. The red line
has to be toward the power connector. I switched it around and it worked
perfectly. See here http://www.cheap-computers-
guide.net/Build_connecting_the_drives.htm
s
--
www.newromesucks.com
www.hamsterforpresident.com

I am sure that you are right. The floppy did not work at all when I got it
and the previous owner re-connected the floppy in a hurry. I will check it
out.

Thanks,

Bob
 
Back
Top