Re: 2 Floppy drives in Device manager

[eskimo]

Hi All

In device manager i am showing 2 floppy drive installed, do not know if it has anything to do with (A: is using MS-DOS compatability mode file system) which shows up up in A: drives properties, any ideas can not use the floppy at all it just freezes the system. (using Win ME)

Cheers, eskimo

[GaryRouth]

There are some viruses that can cause behavior like this, so run a complete system virus scan to rule that out.

If the floppy worked perfectly fine until recently, and no other hardware recently changed, you can try rebooting the computer into Safe Mode, selecting the floppy drive & then selecting "Remove". While you are in Safe Mode, see if any other devices seem to be listed incorrectly [such as hardware that is no longer present in the system, but used to be] - you can delete those also. Windows will re-detect and reinstall the drivers on the next reboot. [If you are fairly sure your computer is clean from any virus infection, you can instead use the System Restore feature - but viruses often hide in the Restore folder, so you might not have that option if infected]

Here's a link to a more detailed look at some of the common causes of the Compatibility Mode situation:
http://home.earthlink.net/~leetutor/...ware/msdos.htm

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[eskimo]

Cheers Gary will give it all a go.


Regards, Paul

[Izumui Abriel]

Gary's latter suggestion is the more likely possibility, that's a good way to solve a lot of problems, remove a PnP device and reboot. If it's the PnP device that's having the problem that is.

Aaron

[eskimo]

In device manager the floppy drive is showing up as (generic IDE disk type 47) not floppy drive? tried uninstalling it and re-booting but keeps coming back as the same type 47


Regards, Lost

[GaryRouth]

Are you seeing "generic IDE disk type 47" under the "Disk Drives" Category listing? If so, that usually refers to pretty much what it says: a hard drive on your IDE controller. A floppy shouldn't be able to show up as an IDE device. [of course, strange things do happen]

I've seen some older motherboards misdetect all sorts of odd things, for a variety of reasons. See if trying the remove & redetect angle works if you remove everything under "Disk Drives", "Floppy Disk Controllers", and "Hard Disk Controllers" - and then reboot. While in Device Manager, you can also check to see if there are the correct listings for your video and sound, and if there are any "Other" devices. If a device hasn't been able to be identified by Windows, it can sometimes make life hard for it's neighbors on the motherboard. A good driver for the unknown device will usually fix that. [of course, to get that driver you might have to pull the card & figure out what it is by the markings on it]

Hope it's the quick remove/redetect that works - it's the fastest. (you might need your motherboard's device driver CD handy - or download the drivers ahead of time ["4n1"s for Via, chipset specific for SiS and Intel].
. . . Gary

[P.S. -- if you've been inside the case recently, you also may want to double-check your floppy cable - the side with the twist in it goes to the floppy (some floppy cables don't have the twist, in such cases you can try switching the sides if a floppy isn't being detected]

[...I always forget to mention something! ...remove the devices from Device Manager while in Safe Mode..]

[eskimo]

Thanks for saving me from madness

Used all your suggestions also reset the BIOS, and fingers crossed the drive is working fine.

Cheers , eskimo