What does this error code mean?

I installed a new floppy and the green light is always on upon bootup however I cannot access the A: drive. This is what I got.



Floppy disk(s) fail (40)


Can anyone tell me what this means?

 

Suspect you have the ribbon cable incorrectly attached, either off by one pin, or reversed

 

Well, I thought I had the problem solved but I switched the ribbon and still no dice.

Instead of an error message, when I boot up the computer, it goes directly to C:\

I tried different cables. I have my boot sequence as A:, CDROM, C:. I put a Win98 bootup disk in the floppy and when the computer boots up, the green light will show like it is reading it and then I get dumped to a C:\

When I try to switch to the A: drive, it stalls for a second then says:
"Not Ready Reading Drive A "
Abort, Retry, Fail?


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Did I ruin my floppy drive by having the cable wrong in the first place?

 

"Did I ruin my floppy drive "
No. I've done that a few times without any damage.
Are you sure the cable is oriented correctly, the end with the split should be at the drive.

 

I never could figure out why the powers that be did not set up the floppy cable with keyed connectors. Shame on them. I must have done a dozen wrong. Should be no damage, but make sure at drive split end red stripe is closest to the power supply, and pin 1 at MOBO. Get out your magnifying glass to find pin 1.

Martin

 

My ribbon has a white strip on one side.

The piece where the power cord plugs into sits right on top of the ribbon connector. So, if I am supposed to put the strip closest to the power supply, how is this possible then?

I never knew a floppy drive could be such a pain in the a**.

 

If you've tried several 'known' good disks, sounds like the drive is bad. A new drive usually costs around $10, so...

 

You are correct. The drive was bad. Sometimes, the simplest answer is the right one. I spent all my time wondering about the ribbons, power supply, BIOS settings when I just had to take back the drive and get a new one.

FYI...the one that I was having problems with was a new one from CompUSA. I took it back and just replaced it with another one.

Everything is working fine. Reformatting is commencing.

 

Glad you found the trouble. Congratulations! Happy new year!

Martin