Recycle your Computers & Technology with us.

Why doesn't my floppy drive work??

Posted By : Lanny of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on April 9, 2001

Follow us on Facebook   Follow us on Twitter   Follow us on LinkedIn

Let Data Doctors be your personal IT department today

This question has been asked, however none of the provided answers have helped me. I am putting together a second computer for my course, and will be eventually putting Linux on it. However, I can't get the floppy drive to work. At first I thought the floppy drive itself was the problem, so I went out and bought another one. Same problem. I was getting the error "40", which indicates a BIOS error, or I was getting the light staying on, which indicates a cable problem. So, I did some troubleshooting once the second hard drive gave the same errors. So far I have done the following: tried 2 different mother boards (Pentium 120 and a 486DX-33), tried 3 different Floppy cables (and turing them arround several times at both ends), and even tried 2 different power supplies. I'm stumped. Can you think of anything else that might help before I give up and actually take my computer to a tech?

Specs: Pentium 120, 32M RAM, Trident 512K video, 2 HD (2.1 and 3.2GB), and the floppy. Keyboard, mouse.

If you need any other info, let me know.

Signed,

Stumped A+ tech.

This question was answered on April 9, 2001. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Hello and thank you for your question.

You are right, a "40" error indicates a BIOS error, and the light staying on is usually a reversed cable You have already done some extensive troubleshooting, things I would suggest had you not done already I would like to point out that within the setup program make sure the onboard floppy controller is set to "ENABLED", and that drive A: is set to 3.5, 1.44Mb Also, some BIOS setup programs have a "3 MODE" option, this is for Japanese floppy drives and it should be set to "DISABLED" If all else fails you will need to have your system looked at by a qualified technician.

Good luck!!

About the author

Posted by Lanny of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on April 9, 2001

Need Help with this Issue?

We help people with technology! It's what we do.
Contact or Schedule an Appointment with a location for help!