why wont my floppy work?

If you go into window explorer, and open up my computer
do you see an entry for the floppy (A:) drive?

If you do then windows has at least thinks a drive is present, if there is not a entry present then you could check a couple of things.

When you power on the PC, go into its BIOS setup (usually its by pressing the DEL or ESC key, or it may say press whatever to enter setup) once in, look for an entry for the floppy drive, make sure it is set to 3.5 inch 1.44mb (it could be disabled here, or set to the wrong type drive)

See if that helps, also if it does not, and all disks are unreadable, AND the drive is not making any noises or lighting up, then if you feel comfortable with it, you could unplug the computer from the mains, remove the case, and being careful not to damage anything, or to cut yourself on any sharp edges look to make sure both the power lead and the data (usually a wide ribbon cable) is securely plugged into the floppy drive, and the other end securely plugged into the motherboard. One of the leads may have come loose.

www.lasermemory.com

ken
August 2004

it could be a couple of things
1 Your Disk heads are dirty, try cleaning them with some alcohol on a cotton bud. If you can't get to them then give them a burst of compressed air from Aero Duster or just a hard blow through the disk door!
2 Your drive may be faulty.

Black Gecko
June 2004