Compaq Presario Floppy Drive Problem

[Pinnacle]

I am working on a Compaq Presario 4528 mini-tower, but I have heard of this problem happening on other Presario models.

Recently, I wanted to FDISk the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. I tried to boot to numerous floppies, but in each case I got errors concerning the disks not being formatted. Next, I let the computer boot into Windows and tried to read the floppies. I could see the directory in Windows, but could not read the files. Thinking it must be a bad floppy drive, I decided to buy a refurb from Service Electronics (Compaq suggested them). I installed the refurb floppy drive and after many attempts was able to boot to a floppy so I could FDISK and install a new operating system.

Was it just a coincedence that the refurb floppy drive had the same problem as my original, or is the problem not even hardware related? It can't be a Windows problem since I have the problem when trying to boot to a floppy. I looked in the BIOS, but did not see anything suspicious. I checked the two BIOS upgrades Compaq offers, but neither addressed this issue. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[joelen]

I work for a company that builds and sells computers, and we had a similar situation with one of our models, and the symptoms were identical to what you described.

In this specific incident, the problem turned out to be the case itself. The front panel was 'domed' and the floppy drive was covered by part of this 'dome' (bezel, whatever you call it). The front panel of the case had a button with an extension that would let the floppy drive button be pushed. Turns out, that from the factory, some of these has a tiny bit more plastic on them, and the disk seemed to go all the way in, but was a TINY bit off. The disk would go in and make the 'cachunk' noise of a floppy going in, but would not make full contact with the read heads.

So- all that was needed to file a small amount off with a nail file. THAT was always a fun call... "My floppy doesn't work". "Do you have a nail file?"

[Pinnacle]

Very interesting solution. I will test the drive out of the case so that the case is not a factor and see if it solves my problem too. Thanks!

[joelen]

Let me know how that works out-- I tell you- we were banging our heads against the wall with this one. See, we build the sytem with the front panel off, and never tried the floppy AFTER the panel ws put on before shipping, and when someone had a bad floppy, we just xship them a new one, and that one would not work either. Took a few weeks before someone disvocered the problem.

[PurpleDoc]

Ran into the same problem with the mid-size towers as well after I had slide the case off of them. Comcrap.

[Pinnacle]

[quote]Originally posted by joelen:
<strong>Let me know how that works out . . .</strong><hr></blockquote>

I finally got back to this tonight. I put the original floppy drive back in, but left the faceplate off. I still have the same problem. Between this floppy drive problem and the picky Compaq memory, I'm really getting tired of this computer. I'm beginning to think my daughter deserves something better than this.

[JungleMan1]

Why don't you try starting it up with the floppy hooked up outside the system? Take the door off, hook up the floppy cable, hook up the power cbale, and hold the floppy drive in your hand as it starts up.

[Sandwich]

I finally got back to this tonight. I put the original floppy drive back in, but left the faceplate off. I still have the same problem. Between this floppy drive problem and the picky Compaq memory, I'm really getting tired of this computer. I'm beginning to think my daughter deserves something better than this.
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I got rid of the comcraps my daughters were using nd built them real computers!