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#1
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
My floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB, drive A) always has the green busy light on at
the completion of a bootup. If I insert a disk, then remove it, the light goes off and stays off unless I reinsert and use another floppy disk. In other words, if I use a floppy disk just once, after that the green busy light works normally in that the light goes on when floppy activity is going on, and goes off when the activity ceases. I think this behavior is causing my system to take much longer to boot. There is nothing wrong with the way this floppy drive works. It can do everything (read, write, format) OK. My other floppy drive (5.25 1.2 MB) does not exhibit this behavior. My operating system is Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all critical updates installed. The hardware includes a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus mobo, an 80 GB WD hard drive, a 2 GB WD hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy drive, a 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy drive, an Nvidia 64 MB video card, a Sound Blaster sound card, a D-Link wireless PCI card, 512 MB of memory, a CD-RW drive, and a CD drive. I am using AVG (with email checking disabled) as my AV program, AdAware as my antispyware program, and a pop-up stopper from Panicware. Neither Norton, nor any other additional AV software, is installed. |
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#2
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Forgot to mention that my CPU is an AMD Sempron 2400+.
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#3
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Never seen this one, but I would swap the floppy out. Or use a 98 boot disk
and boot up using it. If the drive light is normal then you have an OS problem. "Papa" wrote in message ... My floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB, drive A) always has the green busy light on at the completion of a bootup. If I insert a disk, then remove it, the light goes off and stays off unless I reinsert and use another floppy disk. In other words, if I use a floppy disk just once, after that the green busy light works normally in that the light goes on when floppy activity is going on, and goes off when the activity ceases. I think this behavior is causing my system to take much longer to boot. There is nothing wrong with the way this floppy drive works. It can do everything (read, write, format) OK. My other floppy drive (5.25 1.2 MB) does not exhibit this behavior. My operating system is Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all critical updates installed. The hardware includes a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus mobo, an 80 GB WD hard drive, a 2 GB WD hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy drive, a 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy drive, an Nvidia 64 MB video card, a Sound Blaster sound card, a D-Link wireless PCI card, 512 MB of memory, a CD-RW drive, and a CD drive. I am using AVG (with email checking disabled) as my AV program, AdAware as my antispyware program, and a pop-up stopper from Panicware. Neither Norton, nor any other additional AV software, is installed. |
#4
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Clean out your "My Recent Documents". If there is a file in there that was
accessed through your floppy drive it can/may cause this to occur. -- Regards: Richard Urban aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-) If you knew half as much as you think you know, You'd realize you didn't know what you thought you knew! "Papa" wrote in message ... My floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB, drive A) always has the green busy light on at the completion of a bootup. If I insert a disk, then remove it, the light goes off and stays off unless I reinsert and use another floppy disk. In other words, if I use a floppy disk just once, after that the green busy light works normally in that the light goes on when floppy activity is going on, and goes off when the activity ceases. I think this behavior is causing my system to take much longer to boot. There is nothing wrong with the way this floppy drive works. It can do everything (read, write, format) OK. My other floppy drive (5.25 1.2 MB) does not exhibit this behavior. My operating system is Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all critical updates installed. The hardware includes a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus mobo, an 80 GB WD hard drive, a 2 GB WD hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy drive, a 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy drive, an Nvidia 64 MB video card, a Sound Blaster sound card, a D-Link wireless PCI card, 512 MB of memory, a CD-RW drive, and a CD drive. I am using AVG (with email checking disabled) as my AV program, AdAware as my antispyware program, and a pop-up stopper from Panicware. Neither Norton, nor any other additional AV software, is installed. |
#5
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Thanks, Nick and Richard.
As you suggested, Richard, I deleted everything in My Recent Documents and rebooted. No help there. Then I went into Documents and Settings/my name/Local Settings and deleted everything out of the Temp and Temporary Internet Files. After that I cleared out the files, cookies, and history in my IE browser, cleared out the files in C:\Windows\Temp, rebooted again, and again no help. Nick, as you suggested, I booted up with a W98 bootup floppy in the drive. It booted up OK, and the green floppy light went off afterwards. However, I booted up again with a non-boot floppy in the drive (inserting it just after getting past the first Windows splash screen to avoid a non-boot disk error message). The green light went off again like it ought to, and the boot time was much faster. So I don't think the OS is at fault. My guess is that the floppy drive is mechanically defective. Perhaps the sensor that detects whether or not a disk is inserted is the problem. Anyway, everything in this system is brand new EXCEPT the 2 floppy drives. I will be buying a new floppy today and will post the result after testing it. Thanks again. |
#6
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
You might also go into the bios and turn off "floppy seek..." as well as
assure that it is not before the hard drive in the boot sequence. Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices] |
#7
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Very good point. Thanks. I had the boot sequence in my BIOS set up to check
floppy first, CD-ROM drive second, and hard drive last. That's how I almost always set it up in my systems. Isn't that the way it should be in case something is wrong with the hard drive, preventing further boot progress? But per your suggestion, I inserted a non-boot floppy, started the boot sequence, went into my BIOS and changed the first boot device from "floppy" to "disabled". Then I saved and got out of BIOS. At the end of the boot (which was a lot faster) the green light was off. Then I rebooted again without BIOS changes, and the light was still off at the end of the boot. At this point I thought I was getting somewhere, After that I rebooted again, went back into the BIOS, changed the first boot device from "disabled" to "floppy", saved and got out of BIOS. At the completion the light was, surprisingly, off. I booted again, without changes. Same result, light was off. I tried it once more (cold boot this time), and at the end of the boot the light was on. So I am now back to square one without a clue as to the reason for this floppy drive behavior. Guess I'll go buy a new floppy drive and see how it goes. By the way, Floppy Seek has always been disabled in my BIOS. "Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev]" BevNoSpamBevHoward.com wrote in message ... You might also go into the bios and turn off "floppy seek..." as well as assure that it is not before the hard drive in the boot sequence. Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices] |
#8
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Just finished installing a new floppy drive. Result - fast boot, green light
off, everything normal. The BIOS was also reset back to the original setting: for boot sequence, i.e., check floppy first, followed by CD-ROM drive, followed by C Drive. Thank you, Beverly, Nick, and Richard. Great suggestions from all of you. |
#9
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Isn't that the way it should be in case something is wrong with the
hard drive, preventing further boot progress? Common perception, but it's an addressable issue in the event of any problems... for example if the boot HD fails, the floppy second picks up and if the HD fails during boot, simply go to bios on restart and change the setting when needed. In the "old days" viri were passed primarily by shared floppies (only the medium has changed with time ;-) so, it was advisable to have floppy boot disabled so that you would not be infected if you had a data cd in the drive and forgot it on shutdown or reboot, and I still reset the sequence on any computer I am responsible for. This might be one of those times that a piece of black tape is the solution if it's only the light that offends... I tend to use the audio indicator as the only method to detect floppy activity grin Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices] |
#10
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
One suggestion, set your first boot device as the hard drive, and skip the
floppy and cd rom. If you have the need to boot from one of the others, you can do it then. This will give you faster boot up. "Papa" wrote in message ... Just finished installing a new floppy drive. Result - fast boot, green light off, everything normal. The BIOS was also reset back to the original setting: for boot sequence, i.e., check floppy first, followed by CD-ROM drive, followed by C Drive. Thank you, Beverly, Nick, and Richard. Great suggestions from all of you. |
#11
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
data CD in the drive
DOH!... memory failure, memory failure... should have been "data floppy!" Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices] |
#12
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Hi Papa,
I can't believe that a new floppy is all you did. I think I have a similar problem that seems to have travelled across my small LAN. I have a couple of Win 2000 and Win NT systems that boot up with the floppy continuously accessed making lots of noise. This stops after inserting a floppy. The NT system seems to have started this a few months ago. In the last 4 weeks the other systems have now exhibited the same problem. One of these systems has Linux on it. When booting to Linux, the floppy problems go away. Same with another system that can boot to DOS. So the probelm is clearly Windows software related - at least W2K and NT. I have not been able to detect any virus per se. I suspect that an Windows update may have instigated this problem. The other computers getting it later than the first may also be a coincidence. Anybody got more ideas? Thanks, Peter "Papa" wrote: My floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB, drive A) always has the green busy light on at the completion of a bootup. If I insert a disk, then remove it, the light goes off and stays off unless I reinsert and use another floppy disk. In other words, if I use a floppy disk just once, after that the green busy light works normally in that the light goes on when floppy activity is going on, and goes off when the activity ceases. I think this behavior is causing my system to take much longer to boot. There is nothing wrong with the way this floppy drive works. It can do everything (read, write, format) OK. My other floppy drive (5.25 1.2 MB) does not exhibit this behavior. My operating system is Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all critical updates installed. The hardware includes a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus mobo, an 80 GB WD hard drive, a 2 GB WD hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy drive, a 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy drive, an Nvidia 64 MB video card, a Sound Blaster sound card, a D-Link wireless PCI card, 512 MB of memory, a CD-RW drive, and a CD drive. I am using AVG (with email checking disabled) as my AV program, AdAware as my antispyware program, and a pop-up stopper from Panicware. Neither Norton, nor any other additional AV software, is installed. |
#13
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
"Papa" wrote: My floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB, drive A) always has the green busy light on at the completion of a bootup. If I insert a disk, then remove it, the light goes off and stays off unless I reinsert and use another floppy disk. In other words, if I use a floppy disk just once, after that the green busy light works normally in that the light goes on when floppy activity is going on, and goes off when the activity ceases. I think this behavior is causing my system to take much longer to boot. There is nothing wrong with the way this floppy drive works. It can do everything (read, write, format) OK. My other floppy drive (5.25 1.2 MB) does not exhibit this behavior. My operating system is Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all critical updates installed. The hardware includes a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus mobo, an 80 GB WD hard drive, a 2 GB WD hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy drive, a 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy drive, an Nvidia 64 MB video card, a Sound Blaster sound card, a D-Link wireless PCI card, 512 MB of memory, a CD-RW drive, and a CD drive. I am using AVG (with email checking disabled) as my AV program, AdAware as my antispyware program, and a pop-up stopper from Panicware. Neither Norton, nor any other additional AV software, is installed. |
#14
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Hi Again Papa,
I am pretty sure that the problem is a recent update of AVG. I have removed this program from an NT machine and a W2k machine. Both of these have stopped exhibiting the constant read problem on boot up. Would be interested if you confirm this. Thanks, Peter "Papa" wrote: My floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB, drive A) always has the green busy light on at the completion of a bootup. If I insert a disk, then remove it, the light goes off and stays off unless I reinsert and use another floppy disk. In other words, if I use a floppy disk just once, after that the green busy light works normally in that the light goes on when floppy activity is going on, and goes off when the activity ceases. I think this behavior is causing my system to take much longer to boot. There is nothing wrong with the way this floppy drive works. It can do everything (read, write, format) OK. My other floppy drive (5.25 1.2 MB) does not exhibit this behavior. My operating system is Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all critical updates installed. The hardware includes a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus mobo, an 80 GB WD hard drive, a 2 GB WD hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy drive, a 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy drive, an Nvidia 64 MB video card, a Sound Blaster sound card, a D-Link wireless PCI card, 512 MB of memory, a CD-RW drive, and a CD drive. I am using AVG (with email checking disabled) as my AV program, AdAware as my antispyware program, and a pop-up stopper from Panicware. Neither Norton, nor any other additional AV software, is installed. |
#15
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Floppy drive green activity light on after bootup
Nope. That wasn't it. It was just an old defective floppy drive. As I
mentioned earlier, as soon as I replaced it with a new one, the problem was solved. "Peter" wrote in message ... Hi Again Papa, I am pretty sure that the problem is a recent update of AVG. I have removed this program from an NT machine and a W2k machine. Both of these have stopped exhibiting the constant read problem on boot up. Would be interested if you confirm this. Thanks, Peter "Papa" wrote: My floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB, drive A) always has the green busy light on at the completion of a bootup. If I insert a disk, then remove it, the light goes off and stays off unless I reinsert and use another floppy disk. In other words, if I use a floppy disk just once, after that the green busy light works normally in that the light goes on when floppy activity is going on, and goes off when the activity ceases. I think this behavior is causing my system to take much longer to boot. There is nothing wrong with the way this floppy drive works. It can do everything (read, write, format) OK. My other floppy drive (5.25 1.2 MB) does not exhibit this behavior. My operating system is Windows XP Pro with SP2 and all critical updates installed. The hardware includes a Soyo SY-KT600 Dragon Plus mobo, an 80 GB WD hard drive, a 2 GB WD hard drive, a 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy drive, a 5.25 inch 1.2 MB floppy drive, an Nvidia 64 MB video card, a Sound Blaster sound card, a D-Link wireless PCI card, 512 MB of memory, a CD-RW drive, and a CD drive. I am using AVG (with email checking disabled) as my AV program, AdAware as my antispyware program, and a pop-up stopper from Panicware. Neither Norton, nor any other additional AV software, is installed. |
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