Solved Floppy A light remains on, when powered on from Shutdown

mb1280

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Windows 8 Pro 32-bit . . . HP Compaq dc7600 Convertible Minitower PC
CPU - Intel Pentium 4 521, Prescott 90nm Technology
RAM - 2.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)

Motherboard
Manufacturer - Hewlett-Packard
Model - 09F0h (XU1 PROCESSOR)
Chipset Vendor - Intel
Chipset Model - i945P/PL/G/GZ
Chipset Revision - A2
Southbridge Vendor - Intel
Southbridge Model - 82801GB (ICH7/R)
Southbridge Revision - A1
System Temperature - 121 °F

BIOS - I have the latest version:
Brand - Hewlett-Packard
Version - 786D1 v01.61
Date - 07/01/2009
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=472278&prodTypeId=12454&prodSeriesId=472276&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093#120


I want my floppy A disabled, because I rarely use it
There are two items for it in the Device Manager:
Floppy disk drive . . . and . . . Standard floppy disk controller

If I have one or the other of these disabled in the Device Manager, when I power on from a Shutdown, the light stays on.
. . . But I see that it's not just because of that - it's any time that the computer is powered on from a Shutdown.

Observation: If I disable the controller in Device Manager (as opposed to the drive), then it hides the drive

A Restart gets it back to normal, or, if I Disable / Re-enable in the Device Manager

If I disable Floppy A in the BIOS . . .

There are only two settings for it in the BIOS that I can see:
Storage Options - Legacy Diskette Write - Disable
Boot Order - Diskette Drive - Disable

After restarting, the light comes on, and it checks for disk twice - How can it do this? It has been disabled!
It still shows as being there in the Device Manager, enabled.
Why does the Device Manager still show it, even though it has been disabled in the BIOS?

If I un-install floppy A in the Device Manager
And disable it in two places in the BIOS
After a restart, Floppy A still checks itself twice
It also re-installs and re-enables itself in the Device Manager

So my problem is that anytime I do a Shutdown, I have to go into the Device Manager to
Disable / Re-enable the Floppy A, to get the light to shut off
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq DC7600 Convertible Minitower
    CPU
    Intel Pentium 4 521, Prescott 90nm Technology
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard 09F0h (XU1 PROCESSOR)
    Memory
    2.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP 2311
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080@60Hz
    Hard Drives
    149GB SAMSUNG HD160JJ ATA Device (SATA)
    233GB Maxtor 7L250S0 ATA Device (SATA)
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse K64325
    Internet Speed
    1.5MB DSL
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avast, Malwarebytes
What I did on my Dell was open the case and unplugged it completly from the IDE set and unplugged the power to it. I hadn't used it in years and mine was doing a similar thing. If you don't use it simply unplug it and it'll go away in your device manager.

Geeve

Edit: I should mention as well that I diabled it in BIOS as well so it wouldn't search for it at boot and hang when it couldn't find it....
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Dual Boot: Back to W7 and Ubuntu 12.04
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Dimension E521
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 dual-core
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9800 GT 1GB
    Sound Card
    M-Audio Mobile Pre USB External
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 1916W
    Screen Resolution
    1440X900
    Hard Drives
    250 GB internal main, 500 GB internal backup, 1TB External
    PSU
    300 Watt (Dell stock)
    Case
    Dell Stock
    Keyboard
    Dell
    Mouse
    Dell
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    MSE/Defender or whatever it's called now
    Other Info
    Acer aspire One D255, Windows 8.1.1 Pro, 2GB Ram, Intel Atom N450 1.6Ghz
Great idea, thanks!

I think I'll leave this open for up to 3 months, though, and see if someone knows of a driver or software fix, out of curiosity, but I bet I'll end up doing this.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq DC7600 Convertible Minitower
    CPU
    Intel Pentium 4 521, Prescott 90nm Technology
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard 09F0h (XU1 PROCESSOR)
    Memory
    2.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP 2311
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080@60Hz
    Hard Drives
    149GB SAMSUNG HD160JJ ATA Device (SATA)
    233GB Maxtor 7L250S0 ATA Device (SATA)
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse K64325
    Internet Speed
    1.5MB DSL
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avast, Malwarebytes
I don't have a fix but I am impressed that someone else still has a floppy drive. I figure when I get a new mother board I may have to buy a USB floppy drive because I haven't seen a mother board with an FDD header recently.

Why bother going to all of the hassle to enable/disable the drive? I might use my floppy once every three months but I would find it to be a pain to have to jump through hoops to turn it back on every time . . . . unless I had some sort of script that would do it for me . . . . now there's an idea.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7
When I ordered mine several years ago I opted for the floppy simply for boot discs for XP. since then I use USB flash or cd as I upgraded to 7 then 8 and added ram and a video card. At the time It was what I was familiar with using. Now however I forgot it was even there LOL!!

Geeve
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Dual Boot: Back to W7 and Ubuntu 12.04
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Dimension E521
    CPU
    AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 dual-core
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9800 GT 1GB
    Sound Card
    M-Audio Mobile Pre USB External
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 1916W
    Screen Resolution
    1440X900
    Hard Drives
    250 GB internal main, 500 GB internal backup, 1TB External
    PSU
    300 Watt (Dell stock)
    Case
    Dell Stock
    Keyboard
    Dell
    Mouse
    Dell
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    MSE/Defender or whatever it's called now
    Other Info
    Acer aspire One D255, Windows 8.1.1 Pro, 2GB Ram, Intel Atom N450 1.6Ghz
[If I reply down here, am I replying to who I want to? I don't know, anyway . . .]

Barnabas - The computer came with the floppy A, and Windows 8 is letting me get extended life with this computer, so I have it . . . I don't use it much, and probably won't anymore, since you can get 4GB on a small USB stick. The thing is, I don't have a cover plate for the floppy A slot, so I don't want to remove it (I will probably end up unplugging it though) . . . in Win XP, I was able to keep the floppy A disabled, and re-enable it in the Device Manager whenever I wanted to use it, without doing a Restart. It worked exactly how you thought it should. I can't seem to do this in Win 8.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq DC7600 Convertible Minitower
    CPU
    Intel Pentium 4 521, Prescott 90nm Technology
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard 09F0h (XU1 PROCESSOR)
    Memory
    2.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP 2311
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080@60Hz
    Hard Drives
    149GB SAMSUNG HD160JJ ATA Device (SATA)
    233GB Maxtor 7L250S0 ATA Device (SATA)
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse K64325
    Internet Speed
    1.5MB DSL
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avast, Malwarebytes
I have decided to unplug Floppy A with the advent of Win 8. Thanks for the input.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Compaq DC7600 Convertible Minitower
    CPU
    Intel Pentium 4 521, Prescott 90nm Technology
    Motherboard
    Hewlett-Packard 09F0h (XU1 PROCESSOR)
    Memory
    2.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP 2311
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080@60Hz
    Hard Drives
    149GB SAMSUNG HD160JJ ATA Device (SATA)
    233GB Maxtor 7L250S0 ATA Device (SATA)
    Keyboard
    Logitech K120
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert Mouse K64325
    Internet Speed
    1.5MB DSL
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avast, Malwarebytes
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