«

Hi again,

Some time ago I wrote in with the complaint I couldn't boot from, or read
from, my A: drive.

Win XP Pro, PCChips M863 mainboard, AMD Sempron, 1Gb RAM, etc,

It turned out that the drive was faulty (or so I surmised, because when I
replaced it with a brand-new drive, it came good.)

Now I'm having the same problem all over again.

I can't believe it's another drive gone faulty, and I'm wondering if the
other drive was probably fine.

If I insert ANY disk in the drive, and click on it in explorer, it says
"Please insert a disk into drive A:", and if I go to a command prompt and
try to DIR the drive, it says "The device is not ready".

The weird thing is, I have a 1.2Mb 5.25 floppy in drive B and it works just
fine.

Both drives show up correctly in BIOS, and I've never seen any option to
disable either or both of the floppy drives.

Anybody have a clue...?

I'm dual booting Linux with LILO, is that likely to be screwing things up?

cheers,

Michael

does the drive have its on faceplate, or does it use the one on the case?


"Michael" <> wrote in message
news:46204a11$...
>
> Hi again,
>
> Some time ago I wrote in with the complaint I couldn't boot from, or read
> from, my A: drive.
>
> Win XP Pro, PCChips M863 mainboard, AMD Sempron, 1Gb RAM, etc,
>
> It turned out that the drive was faulty (or so I surmised, because when I
> replaced it with a brand-new drive, it came good.)
>
> Now I'm having the same problem all over again.
>
> I can't believe it's another drive gone faulty, and I'm wondering if the
> other drive was probably fine.
>
> If I insert ANY disk in the drive, and click on it in explorer, it says
> "Please insert a disk into drive A:", and if I go to a command prompt and
> try to DIR the drive, it says "The device is not ready".
>
> The weird thing is, I have a 1.2Mb 5.25 floppy in drive B and it works
> just fine.
>
> Both drives show up correctly in BIOS, and I've never seen any option to
> disable either or both of the floppy drives.
>
> Anybody have a clue...?
>
> I'm dual booting Linux with LILO, is that likely to be screwing things up?
>
> cheers,
>
> Michael
>
>
>
>

Hi,

It's a complete replacement drive with its own face.

But now things get weirder...

I tried setting the BIOS to boot from "2nd floppy drive" (1.2Mb) first, and
was surprised to see it worked.

Then when I tried to DIR the other drive I couldn't, as A or B.

So I tried swapping the drive cables, to make the 1.2Mb the 1st, and the
1.44Mb the second.

But when I rebooted and tried to go into SETUP, to enter the changes in
BIOS, it's now refusing to respond to either of my PS2 keyboards.

I'm now using a crappy USB keyboard, which, of course, isn't active till
Windoze loads up.

So I now have my floppies swapped around, and my PS2 keyboard port
inoperative, and no way to get into BIOS.

Think I'll go to bed... (It's 2pm.)

:/

Michael



"Christopher Syn" <> wrote in message
news:qVXTh.304$...
> does the drive have its on faceplate, or does it use the one on the case?
>
>
> "Michael" <> wrote in message
> news:46204a11$...
>>
>> Hi again,
>>
>> Some time ago I wrote in with the complaint I couldn't boot from, or read
>> from, my A: drive.
>>
>> Win XP Pro, PCChips M863 mainboard, AMD Sempron, 1Gb RAM, etc,
>>
>> It turned out that the drive was faulty (or so I surmised, because when I
>> replaced it with a brand-new drive, it came good.)
>>
>> Now I'm having the same problem all over again.
>>
>> I can't believe it's another drive gone faulty, and I'm wondering if the
>> other drive was probably fine.
>>
>> If I insert ANY disk in the drive, and click on it in explorer, it says
>> "Please insert a disk into drive A:", and if I go to a command prompt and
>> try to DIR the drive, it says "The device is not ready".
>>
>> The weird thing is, I have a 1.2Mb 5.25 floppy in drive B and it works
>> just fine.
>>
>> Both drives show up correctly in BIOS, and I've never seen any option to
>> disable either or both of the floppy drives.
>>
>> Anybody have a clue...?
>>
>> I'm dual booting Linux with LILO, is that likely to be screwing things
>> up?
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Michael
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

And now, of course, a new question:

If all you have is a USB keyboard, how can you enter BIOS SETUP when booting
(before USB is active)?

Hmmm...

Michael

"Michael" <> wrote in message
news:46205420$...
> Hi,
>
> It's a complete replacement drive with its own face.
>
> But now things get weirder...
>
> I tried setting the BIOS to boot from "2nd floppy drive" (1.2Mb) first,
and
> was surprised to see it worked.
>
> Then when I tried to DIR the other drive I couldn't, as A or B.
>
> So I tried swapping the drive cables, to make the 1.2Mb the 1st, and the
> 1.44Mb the second.
>
> But when I rebooted and tried to go into SETUP, to enter the changes in
> BIOS, it's now refusing to respond to either of my PS2 keyboards.
>


If the drive installed after the "twist" in the cable?
If so, it should be the A drive.
If it does now work that way...try a different cable.

Should that not do the trick...might as well chalk it up as another flakey
PC Chips mobo



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

disco the floppies see if the kb works

"Michael" <> wrote in message
news:46205420$...
> Hi,
>
> It's a complete replacement drive with its own face.
>
> But now things get weirder...
>
> I tried setting the BIOS to boot from "2nd floppy drive" (1.2Mb) first,
> and was surprised to see it worked.
>
> Then when I tried to DIR the other drive I couldn't, as A or B.
>
> So I tried swapping the drive cables, to make the 1.2Mb the 1st, and the
> 1.44Mb the second.
>
> But when I rebooted and tried to go into SETUP, to enter the changes in
> BIOS, it's now refusing to respond to either of my PS2 keyboards.
>
> I'm now using a crappy USB keyboard, which, of course, isn't active till
> Windoze loads up.
>
> So I now have my floppies swapped around, and my PS2 keyboard port
> inoperative, and no way to get into BIOS.
>
> Think I'll go to bed... (It's 2pm.)
>
> :/
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> "Christopher Syn" <> wrote in message
> news:qVXTh.304$...
>> does the drive have its on faceplate, or does it use the one on the case?
>>
>>
>> "Michael" <> wrote in message
>> news:46204a11$...
>>>
>>> Hi again,
>>>
>>> Some time ago I wrote in with the complaint I couldn't boot from, or
>>> read from, my A: drive.
>>>
>>> Win XP Pro, PCChips M863 mainboard, AMD Sempron, 1Gb RAM, etc,
>>>
>>> It turned out that the drive was faulty (or so I surmised, because when
>>> I replaced it with a brand-new drive, it came good.)
>>>
>>> Now I'm having the same problem all over again.
>>>
>>> I can't believe it's another drive gone faulty, and I'm wondering if the
>>> other drive was probably fine.
>>>
>>> If I insert ANY disk in the drive, and click on it in explorer, it says
>>> "Please insert a disk into drive A:", and if I go to a command prompt
>>> and try to DIR the drive, it says "The device is not ready".
>>>
>>> The weird thing is, I have a 1.2Mb 5.25 floppy in drive B and it works
>>> just fine.
>>>
>>> Both drives show up correctly in BIOS, and I've never seen any option to
>>> disable either or both of the floppy drives.
>>>
>>> Anybody have a clue...?
>>>
>>> I'm dual booting Linux with LILO, is that likely to be screwing things
>>> up?
>>>
>>> cheers,
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

"Michael" <> wrote in message
news:46204a11$...
>
> Hi again,
>
> Some time ago I wrote in with the complaint I couldn't boot from, or read
> from, my A: drive.
>
> Win XP Pro, PCChips M863 mainboard, AMD Sempron, 1Gb RAM, etc,
>
> It turned out that the drive was faulty (or so I surmised, because when I
> replaced it with a brand-new drive, it came good.)
>
> Now I'm having the same problem all over again.
>
> I can't believe it's another drive gone faulty, and I'm wondering if the
> other drive was probably fine.
>
> If I insert ANY disk in the drive, and click on it in explorer, it says
> "Please insert a disk into drive A:", and if I go to a command prompt and
> try to DIR the drive, it says "The device is not ready".
>
> The weird thing is, I have a 1.2Mb 5.25 floppy in drive B and it works
> just fine.
>
> Both drives show up correctly in BIOS, and I've never seen any option to
> disable either or both of the floppy drives.
>
> Anybody have a clue...?
>
Jes' pop down the street to your local PC store and get yerself a USB floppy
drive.