Components: Floppy Drives

After replacing the floppy drive, when you restart the computer, the drive light goes on and stays on.
What is the most likely cause of the problem?
1. The floppy drive power cable is not connected.
2. The floppy drive is not set up correctly in the BIOS setup program.
3. >>The floppy drive data cable is not connected to the motherboard correctly.
4. The floppy drive data cable is faulty.

Explanation : If the drive light on a floppy disk drive goes on and stays on, it is a sign that the data cable has been connected to the motherboard incorrectly. You must make sure that pin 1 on the cable is connected to pin 1 on the floppy drive controller. Pin 1 is usually marked with a red or other color stripe on the data cable.

If the data cable or the power cable is not connected at all, the system will display a floppy drive error during Power-On Self-Test (POST).

If the drive is not set up correctly in the BIOS setup program, the system will display an error during POST or the drive will simply not work.
Objective: Personal Computer Components

CMOS/BIOS: FDD settings

The floppy drive(s) can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS (e.g. set to Not Installed). The BIOS also allows you to choose the capacity of the media. Ex: 1.44 MB 3.5 inch, 2.88 MB 3.5 inch, etc. Further, some BIOS also allows you to swap A: and B: and also disable seeking a floppy disk for a boot sector during startup. The following are Floppy Drive Settings in the Setup program:

• Integrated Floppy Disk Controller This setting enables or disables the integrated Floppy Disk Controller (FDC). The default for this is "Enabled". If for some reason the system has a plug-in floppy disk controller card, the integrated controller has to be disabled.

Swap Floppy Drives This is a useful feature for those machines using two floppy drives. When enabled this swaps the A: and B: drives. This allows you to change the bootable floppy without having to open the case and switch the cable.

Floppy Drive Seek This causes the BIOS to search for floppy disk drives at boot time. If enabled, the BIOS will activate the floppy disk drives during the boot process: the drive activity light will come on and the head will move back and forth once. First A: will be done and then B: if it exists. If disabled, this seek will not be done.