There is a red line on the ribbon cable. Typically, the red line connects to
the floppy drive AWAY from the power connector.  It the red line connects to
the motherboard closest to pin 1.  The motherboard has 'pin 1' or '1'
printed next to the connector to aid you in doing this.  The END connectors
on the ribbon cable must be used, if you have a connector in the middle,
this is B drive and cannot be used.
If your ribbon is on properly, check of bent pins on the drive or
motherboard connectors.  This happens easily with ribbon cables.
If you have been in cmos setup (during boot you see a message 'press del to
enter setup), go back and make sure diskette drive A is 'enabled' and is not
'swapped'.
If all this is fine, you should be getting a blinking light on the diskette
drive during boot, and then the light should go out.  No light or steady
light that stays on means the drive is not connected properly.
If the light behavior seems correct, go into windows and run the 'detect new
hardware' wizard in control panel.  It should find the diskette drive and
add it.
The most frequent cause I find is no power at the diskette, mostly because
the power cable is not snapped all the way on.  Second is someone using the
middle connector meant for drive B.
Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Fixler [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 9:35 AM

Hello All,
I just installed a new motherboard and processor.  (Motherboard: Intel
D845WN  Processor: 1.8GHz Pentium4) Everything is working great except the
A:\ drive (3.5" floppy) is not responding.  I tried inserting the cable in
every possible orientation but to no avail.  What could be wrong.  When I
choose the "A drive" icon off "my computer," it tells me that the drive is
not ready/ not accessible.  Also when installing a new motherboard, is it
necessary to format the harddrive?
Thanks,
Mike Fixler

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml