PC Tech: The Great Extinction

In My Humble Opinion
1
      • Uh, I thinks I broke my dinosaur PC: I have an old 586/Win95 I tried to locate a 5.25 floppy drive for. I tried a couple used ones, and they all displayed the same symptom: they spun all the time. I removed them and gave up. Recently somebody asked in GQ about a hidden song in Windows95 (which I tried to find) and discovered that now the 3.5 floppy spins all the time, and is not accessible.
  • I have two different cables to try, and I tried resetting the BIOS and even using autodetect. I also tried the 5.25’s in my other two PC’s(~4yr-old Acer and new me-built T-Bird1200) and though all the 5.25’s gave the same symptoms, neither of the newer PC’s were damaged in any way.
  • I’m thinking that if the first (bad) 5.25-drive shorted the dinosaur’s mobo, then that would explain things. The only other 3.5-drive I have that I might be able to try in it is buried behind one hundred brackets and wires in the Satanic Acer Aspire (which I am loathe to take apart for a few different reasons). I could just go buy another 3.5 floppy, but the thing is, this mobo is a socket-3: the couple I did find online (at Computer Surplus Outlet) cost about what a new floppy drive would anyway. My only complaint is that the current board is a screamin’ 120 Mhz, and I can only find 100’s -if that’s what the “100Mhz” refers to.
  • Is there anything else I can check before buying any replacement parts?
  • Does anybdy know of anywhere else that sells new or refurb/closeout stuff this old? - DougC
2

Did you make sure you connected the cable correctly?

I always have the hardest time remembering which way is correct. They get twisted the wrong way, and one of the symptoms of this problem is a drive that sounds like it’s always spinning.

3

If the drive light comes on and stays on as soon as your turn on the computer, it’s almost certainly becuase you have the cable reversed. Easy mistake.

4
      • The cable on the floppy goes the other way of the others! -with #1 on the opposite side, that is…(grrrrr) -the cable and sockets are such that there’s no orientation tab.
  • Also, behold! The 5.25’s read! Now I can play Paperboy!!! (That was the big floppy the shop tossed in with the free 5.25 drives) -They still spin all the time tho’. A technical type says to do surgery, and replace the LED that is used to find the indexing hole. I already ruined one trying to get the old LED out of the little fancy plastic bracket that holds it; they put the things together to make this difficult, it appears… - DougC