Very noisy a: drive on brand new computer

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VBM

The a: drive on a brand new computer is very noisy when checking for a disk.
It is fine if there is a disk there, but the noise is awful when it is
checking. Is there a fix for this or is it simply a bad drive?
 
VBM said:
The a: drive on a brand new computer is very noisy when checking for a disk.
It is fine if there is a disk there, but the noise is awful when it is
checking. Is there a fix for this or is it simply a bad drive?
Click to expand...

the drive is not bad...
something is trying to access it.

you may want to clear recent links
 
philo said:
the drive is not bad...
something is trying to access it.

you may want to clear recent links
Click to expand...

Actually, we are the ones trying to access it in a way. It happens when we
use a pull down to access the various drives in a word processing program
(WordPerfect). It also does it for a few seconds on start up when it has to
check there. Oddly, we just discovered that it does not make the noise when
it is "checking" in My Computer, or other programs like Wordpad.

Could it be WordPerfect that is sending an improper command to search the
disk for too long rather than just get the message that there is nothing
there?
 
VBM said:
Actually, we are the ones trying to access it in a way. It happens when we
use a pull down to access the various drives in a word processing program
(WordPerfect). It also does it for a few seconds on start up when it has to
check there. Oddly, we just discovered that it does not make the noise when
it is "checking" in My Computer, or other programs like Wordpad.

Could it be WordPerfect that is sending an improper command to search the
disk for too long rather than just get the message that there is nothing
there?
Click to expand...
\
That can happen if you had data on a floppy that you had used with WP.
Sometimes it can be "cured" by just putting in a blank floppy


otherwise go to start , find
then serach for *.lnk

delete a shortcut that leads to any data on a floppy
which you had sued with Word Perfect
 
philo said:
\
That can happen if you had data on a floppy that you had used with WP.
Sometimes it can be "cured" by just putting in a blank floppy


otherwise go to start , find
then serach for *.lnk

delete a shortcut that leads to any data on a floppy
which you had sued with Word Perfect
Click to expand...

Very Good, Thanks!! I will check that out now.
 
VBM said:
The a: drive on a brand new computer is very noisy when checking for a disk.
It is fine if there is a disk there, but the noise is awful when it is
checking. Is there a fix for this or is it simply a bad drive?
Click to expand...
Are you speaking about the noise when the system boots or is it doing it at
other random times? Most BIOSs that I've looked at recently have a setting
telling it not to bother verifying the presence of a floppy at boot time and
that would at least stop the noise at that time.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com
 
The a: drive on a brand new computer is very noisy when checking for a disk.
It is fine if there is a disk there, but the noise is awful when it is
checking. Is there a fix for this or is it simply a bad drive?
Click to expand...

Some drives are louder than others.
A blank floppy in the drive will speed up that search.
Loose drive screws, a cheap case, or loose case parts will make more
noise. You could also try slightly bending the drive cage a bit wider
and mounting the drive with double-sided foam tape.

You can also set the bios to check the floppy after the HDD, and it
won't access it on boot.
 
Thanks guys, I will definitely disable the floppy on start up and try the
ideas you suggest to make it quieter. This is definitely the loudests I
have heard.
 
Hello VBM, It may be a bad floppy!! Best thing to do is to go back to the
store where you bought it and see how loud the floppy drive is in the
store's computer!! Then compare the loudness with yours!! If yours is MUCH
louder, then it may be bad!! - have them change the drive.

I also recall I had the same problem when I used WordPerfect.... each time I
started the program, it would do a seek on the floppy - looking for
something!!! If I recall, it turned out to be set to use the floppy for
backups. That was the reason for the floppy seek...!! Although, it's been
so long ago that I don't recall where the settings are to change such a
thing!! I do recall though, that I changed the 'DEFAULT' save copy to... to
a temp directory on the hard drive!!

Good Luck...

Starz_Kid...
 
The a: drive on a brand new computer is very noisy when checking for a disk.
It is fine if there is a disk there, but the noise is awful when it is
checking. Is there a fix for this or is it simply a bad drive?
Click to expand...

What kind of noise?...clicking noise?


Have a nice week...

Trent

If the cheese isn't yours...its Nacho cheese, man!
 
It is very much like the regular drive hum, but louder and a bit "grindy".
I reinstalled WordPerfect and that helped a LOT. It still is loud when it
checks, but it only does for a second. So, I think it is just a loud drive,
but there was something in WP which was making it search the drive every
time I pulled down the menu. Now it is livable.
 
It also does it for a few seconds on start up when it has to
check there.
Click to expand...
Do you mean when you boot up the computer? You can turn this off in
the bios by disenable "floppy drive seek at boot" and if you do not
need to use a bootdisk then move the the drive from the top of the
boot list(usually has the floppy drive first then the harddrive) to
the bottom.

hope this helps
 
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