Floppy Disk Drive Making Noise?

[phanie12.geo]

Hello All,

What sort of red flags would go up for you if your A drive (floppy) stated making noise while there is no disk in it? This happened to me once about 4 years ago on a brand new computer under warrenty and they replaced something in the hard drive, but I don't remember what. Now I am not under warrenty ..so what would any of you do? What does it mean? It only did it for about 4 seconds for the first time last night....but enuff to make me go ..."I remember that sound!"

Thanks for any help or advice.

[moospot]

When does it make the sound? If its at boot, then it might be the computer just checking if the drive exists. Though, that may be a stretch.

I would suggest (if it gets any worse) to buy a new floppy drive before it eats a critical floppy disk.

[Renegade]

They are like 5 bucks now, just go get a new one

[phanie12.geo]

OK, I will. But how do I install it? Is there somewhere I can find out how to do this? HAs anyone ever heard of this happening before?

[Technosailor]

Floppies are a mechanical device with moving parts. It's quite easy for it to wear out. If you hear any of these noises, you must go buy a new one or other remedy:

[list=1][*]Grinding noises[*]Clicking Noises[*]Scraping noises[*]little voices screaming at each other from inside the floppy dirve[*]a low chant using any of these words: Lord of Darkness, Evil one, Summon demons or pizza at midnight.[/list=1]

Hope this helps.
sketch

[moospot]

Installing a Floppy Drive:

1) Remove Case
2) Unplug power cable and IDE cable from back of drive
3) Remove screws from side of drive and pull drive out
4) Install in reverse order

* make sure that your IDE cable is plugged in the right way. There is usuallya notch in the drive that matches up to the floppy, but if there isn't, look for the red stripe on the cable. The red strip indicates the #1 pin position and it must match to the #1 pin on the floppy drive. It should be indicated on the back of the drive where the cable is plugged in.

[phanie12.geo]

Thanks to all and thanks to moospot. I will go get a new floppy drive today and try to install it myself.

[moospot]

You're welcome

[phanie12.geo]

Hey y'all. So this is what happened. I was told that I needed a standard PC floppy drive. I bought it and took my CPU apart....whoaa the dust. I cleaned it up throughly but very carefully. I removed the floppy drive and it was pretty dusty as well (in and out). I tried to install the standard drive, but my particluar Compaq has some weird floppy drive face that doesn't match up w/ the standard ones. So I put the old one back in just to give it a go and its working fine so far. I think it was the dusty condition it was in. TIme will tell.

BTW, where do you find floppy drives for $5...mine was $20. Just for future reference

[moospot]

You can go to PriceWatch for the best prices, but after shipping, they will still be more than $10.

I've found that local computer shops are very expensive. Stores like circuit city and bestbuy are cheaper, but still more expensive than online stores.

[Technosailor]

Originally posted by phanie12.geo
). I tried to install the standard drive, but my particluar Compaq has some weird floppy drive face that doesn't match up w/ the standard ones.

Those damn OEM companies. Customize everything so you can't use anything but their OEM products. The worst infractor, I've found are HP's and Compaq's....hmmm, ironically a merger coming up?!!! The least OEMish is Gateway, but even they modify their power supplies, CPU fans and on some models, the placement of the ports on the mobo.

Another reason to build your own PC or have one specially built for you.

Sketch

[phanie12.geo]

OK, Sketch...what does OEM stand for?

[DR_LaRRY_PEpPeR]

Originally posted by phanie12.geo
what does OEM stand for?

Original Equipment Manufacturer

[phanie12.geo]

Thank you, Pepper.

[Technosailor]

Thanks Peppy, even I didn't know that one. All I know is how crappy they are.

Sketch

[moospot]

And they are crappy indeed. No offense, Stephanie

[phanie12.geo]

None taken, Moo