Installing floppy drive in Packard Bell

27 Mar 2005 9:16 PM

Egbert

Tried to install a standard 1.4 Mb floppy drive in my Dad's Packard Bell
computer. No problems with hardware or connections. No problem setting it up
in the BIOS. But it won't show up in Windows Explorer. Have I missed
something? Have Packard Bell done something to prevent Windows seeing a
floppy? Would be most grateful for any hints.

28 Mar 2005 8:39 PM

Skeleton Man

>Tried to install a standard 1.4 Mb floppy drive in my Dad's Packard Bell
>computer. No problems with hardware or connections. No problem setting it up
>in the BIOS. But it won't show up in Windows Explorer. Have I missed
>something? Have Packard Bell done something to prevent Windows seeing a
>floppy? Would be most grateful for any hints.

I doubt the problem is in windows, or PB have done something to prevent you
using a floppy..

Does it show up in device manager ?
Is the cable the right way around ?
Is the cable on wrong ? (ie. it's not over all the pins, easy to do)
Is the power plug connected ?
Are there any bent pins ?

If you find nothing above, next step is to try a different floppy cable.. then
a different drive.. (and if possible, try the cable and drive on another PC)

One thing to try: In the bios tell it to look for a boot record (ie. boot from)
floppy before anything else.. put in a bootable disk (dos/win98, etc) and see if
it goes..

Regards,
Chris

28 Mar 2005 9:25 PM

Egbert

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"Skeleton Man" <inva***@guestwho.com> wrote in message
news:5UZ1e.1010$w63.358925@news20.bellglobal.com...
> >Tried to install a standard 1.4 Mb floppy drive in my Dad's Packard Bell
>>computer. No problems with hardware or connections. No problem setting it
>>up
>>in the BIOS. But it won't show up in Windows Explorer. Have I missed
>>something? Have Packard Bell done something to prevent Windows seeing a
>>floppy? Would be most grateful for any hints.
>
> I doubt the problem is in windows, or PB have done something to prevent
> you
> using a floppy..
>
> Does it show up in device manager ?
> Is the cable the right way around ?
> Is the cable on wrong ? (ie. it's not over all the pins, easy to do)
> Is the power plug connected ?
> Are there any bent pins ?
>
> If you find nothing above, next step is to try a different floppy cable..
> then
> a different drive.. (and if possible, try the cable and drive on another
> PC)
>
> One thing to try: In the bios tell it to look for a boot record (ie. boot
> from)
> floppy before anything else.. put in a bootable disk (dos/win98, etc) and
> see if
> it goes..
>
> Regards,
> Chris
>

Many thanks for this excellent advice Chris. It didn’t show up in device
manager. I had tested the drive on another computer, but not the cable. I
think it must have been a bad cable. I have many floppy cables salvaged from
old computers, but I didn’t try them all. One or two would not fit, because
they had some of the holes filled in at points where the socket on the
motherboard had pins. I only tried one which would actually physically fit,
but it could have been faulty. Next time I’ll take them all with me and hope
I find one which both fits and works.