If You Connect the Floppy Cable in the Wrong Direction the Floppy Drive Light Stays on Continuously

• #1

I replaced my cables with UV round ones....and they all seem to be working properly

But the floppy is not reading correctly...it keeps askin me to put in a floppy, (and the one i use doesn't get read, it is good.)

if i right click eventally i can get the properties window to come up, it labels the disk as RAW with 0 bytes

I have a standard black floppy, but it does not have the plastic black ring like HDs, or DVDROMs/CDROMs do...this is the black ring that indicates the proper orientation for cable coming in....so i set t up like the others with the tab towards to ttop of the drive...does this sound right?

maybe i just need to disconnect, rotate 180* and reinsert the connector into the floppy drive...wanted to check with you guys as i don't want to fry the MB/Floppy

on your Floppy drives, do you have the tab on the floppy cable up or down?

• #2

The way I always tell if the cable is on right is if the access light stays on then the cable is on backwards. If the light stays off then the cable is on right. I don't think you can fry anything by putting that cable on wrong, but putting the power cable to the floppy on wrong will fry the drives motor.

• #3

Originally posted by: paperfist
The way I always tell if the cable is on right is if the access light stays on then the cable is on backwards. If the light stays off then the cable is on right. I don't think you can fry anything by putting that cable on wrong, but putting the power cable to the floppy on wrong will fry the drives motor.

good way, I usually check using this method too

but to try and put it right the first time, remember that it is up-side-down

D

• #4

Floppies vary greatly with respect to pin orientation, there's no standard. Once I determine the proper orientation for the cable on a FDD I put a mark on the drive case by whichever pin is Pin #1. That way I never have to experiment again with that particular drive.

• #5

usually pin 1 faces towards the power connector...

Apr 23, 2000

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• #6

usually pin 1 faces towards the power connector...

Not always mine is the opposite on my PC,also be careful with the power connector for the floppy drive,if you put it on the wrong way round it will kill the floppy drive.

Nov 21, 2001

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• #7

sounds like either a bad cable or a dead drive to me, not a misinstallation. That power cable misinstallation works like a charm, kills them every time.

• #8

Het, funny you should mention...the light is on and won't go off...i will flip it around and check it out.

• #9

yeah, thats a common thing with floppies, 90% of the time the "tab" goes on the bottom... but it also has somehting to do with the way you plug the cable into the mobo, if you dont have a "tab" on that (some dont) you can plug that in upside down as well, which in turn makes the plug on the floppy's end appear to be on upside down as well... something to ponder

oh and since everyone else feels the need to regurgitate what paperfist said first, i will to

make sure not to put that power connector on upside down, you'll break your drive

hehe

• #10

Never seen a floppy drive yet that didn't have Pin 1 on the left side looking at the pins. Same side as the eject button which is on the right looking from the front. Floppy cables can't be flipped at both ends, because of the twist in the cable for the 2nd drive. The mobo end MUST be orientated correctly. Some cables come assembled incorrectly for some floppies, just cut off the plastic 'lug' and viola.

• #11

The red stripe goes to pin 1 and if you don't have a red stripe then just plug it in if it fails then turn the cable over.

Thorin

• #12

Originally posted by: paperfist
The way I always tell if the cable is on right is if the access light stays on then the cable is on backwards. If the light stays off then the cable is on right. I don't think you can fry anything by putting that cable on wrong, but putting the power cable to the floppy on wrong will fry the drives motor.

You are incorrect, if you have a floppy disk in the drive when you have the cable in wrong, ie. light is on solid, you can possibly wipe that disk or corrupt the data on it, make it unusable (you get the idea).

• #13

Originally posted by: poppyq

Originally posted by: paperfist
The way I always tell if the cable is on right is if the access light stays on then the cable is on backwards. If the light stays off then the cable is on right. I don't think you can fry anything by putting that cable on wrong, but putting the power cable to the floppy on wrong will fry the drives motor.

You are incorrect, if you have a floppy disk in the drive when you have the cable in wrong, ie. light is on solid, you can possibly wipe that disk or corrupt the data on it, make it unusable (you get the idea).

what disk ? who installs a FDD with a disk in it ?

D

• #14

Originally posted by: redhatlinux
Never seen a floppy drive yet that didn't have Pin 1 on the left side looking at the pins. Same side as the eject button which is on the right looking from the front. Floppy cables can't be flipped at both ends, because of the twist in the cable for the 2nd drive. The mobo end MUST be orientated correctly. Some cables come assembled incorrectly for some floppies, just cut off the plastic 'lug' and viola.

Im with him, I believe they all have the same orientation and the ones that seem to have a different one are that way because the cables are wrong (which happens but rarely)
Ive seen quite a few FDDs in my life and alll of them had the up-side-down deal, all of them

D

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Source: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/proper-floppy-cable-orientation.1175429/

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