SillyDog701

[DJGM]

I have a problem with using floppy disks in both Windows XP and 2000.
Whenever I put a floppy disk into the disk drive, as soon as I attempt
to retrieve data from or write data to it, the entire system freezes up.
No BSOD's, no error messages, it just stops cold, dead, and the only
way to bring the system out of it's statuesque state is to press the
reset button on the front of the machine, and do a cold reboot.

I've tried with another floppy drive, with several floppy disks, most
of which are blank and formatted, but every time, the whole thing
just freezes up completely. This doesn't happen in Windows 98,
only in XP/2000, and it's a nuisance that's beyond annoying!

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[Edward]

I've heard that XP and 2000 do not include DOS. Could this be the reason, since 98 includes DOS (or at least it looks like DOS!)?

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[sisyphus88]

True, W2000 and XP aren't DOS based, but my W2000 never hangs when reading or writing to a floppy, even ones which were formatted with W98.

Do the bios recognize the floppy drive? Does windows? Use the hardware manager and check to see if the floppy driver is properly loaded. I assume the answer is yes to these questions. Do you have a virus checker running? Some virus checkers scan floppies and what appears to be a hang is the virus checker stopping everything until the scan is completed. Or the virus scan could be locking up your computer. Try disabling the virus program and see if there is a different result.

Also, check these links for tips:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/

http://www.techspot.com/vb/forumdisplay ... forumid=15

http://www.winforums.org/index2.php

Please post back if you still have trouble, and if you find a solution, please let us know.

Regards,
Sisyphus

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[Edward]

In Windows 98, I have found that when formatting a diskette, I pretty much cannot do anything else until the diskette format has completed, and have assumed this is normal behavior for Windows, since 95 was the same.

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[DJGM]

The BIOS recognises the floppy drive OK, there are no driver problems,
and the floppy drive works fine under Window 98SE. Also, my antivirus
program (NAV2003) is not set to autoscan floppy disks on insertion.

Like I said before , whenever I try to read data from, or write data to
any floppy disk in either Windows XP, and Windows 2000, the entire
computer totally locks up. I can't even move the mouse pointer!
So, the only thing I can do then, is to do a cold total reboot.

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[Ghostman 1]

I am running windows 98 Se and every once in Awile my floppy will freeze up. My floppy will freeze at start up.. I searched High and low to find the problem, And I did.... DJGM you might want to look for a Corrupt file some place,That was my problem.Mainly check out you Documents folder... Thats where my culpert was hiding... It was also making the light on the floppy drive come on everytime you pass over my Documents folder... You might want too check out things everywhere if possible..

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[sisyphus88]

I started checking my floppy drivers etc in W2000 and tonight I'll look at W98. I'll post the version numbers etc. so you can compare what I have (that works OK) with your installation. One thing that came to mind about DJGM's problem is that besides a driver conflict, IRQ conflict can freeze your system. Now with W2000/XP, conflicts should be automatically taken care of. That may not be happening in your system for reasons unknown. But if W2000 does have some type of IRQ conflict, and your W98 installation does not, you could see the exact symptoms which you describe.

Regards,
Sisyphus

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[sisyphus88]

DJGM,

My W2000 SP3 installations (home and work) use the following drivers:
for the floppy disk controller, 5.0.2183.1, dated 11-14-99 (the file is called fdc.sys, with a version number of 5.00.2149.1); the floppy drive itself uses driver 5.00.2195.4326 (the file is flpydisk.sys).

My W98 SE floppy disk controller uses driver 4.10.2222, dated 4-23-99 (the files are hsflop.pdr and ios.vxd); the floppy drive itself does not use a separate driver.

Under both OS, the interrupt request is 06 and the direct memory access is 02. The input output range varies between installations.

Again, check to see if you have some type of conflict between the interrupt request codes. In W2000, go to "computer management" under the administrative tools, and expand "system information" and "hardware resources" to find the "IRQ" folder. Also consider copying the drivers from your installation CD and see if it's a corrupt driver file.

Good luck. Please post back when you find the solution.
Sisyphus

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