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Windows Forum / Windows XP / New Users / December 2006Floppy Drive problem
Hi, My PC is about three months old. The floppy-disc drive when it is empty periodically powers up and makes a lot of noise. This can happen when there is no other activity going on. I have had the drive replaced,according to the shop, but the behaviour continues. Could something other than a fault with the drive itself be the cause? Andy I. (Win XP SP2; 250GB HD; 1GB RAM; IE/OE 6) It may not be faulty at all. Does the drive work when you put in a disk? Periodically, depending on how your Anti-Virus software is configured, your AV software may be trying to scan the A:\ drive to check for viruses. This is normal behavior. -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Andy I. (Win XP SP2; 250GB HD; 1GB RAM; IE/OE 6) Thanks Michael. The drive works OK when I insert a disk. My AV software *was* configured to scan the A:\ drive. I have now "un-configured" that task. I would have expected it to scan the A:\ drive only at the specified times, not spasmodically................. I'll now keep watch to see (hear) if the behaviour occurs again. Andy I. : It may not be faulty at all. Does the drive work when you put in a disk? : Periodically, depending on how your Anti-Virus software is configured, [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] : > : > Andy I. (Win XP SP2; 250GB HD; 1GB RAM; IE/OE 6) Hey you are lucky, that's normally a $100 service call and a 1 minutes fix for me! Glad I could help! -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > Thanks Michael. The drive works OK when I insert a disk. > My AV software *was* configured to scan the A:\ drive. I have now [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > : > > : > Andy I. (Win XP SP2; 250GB HD; 1GB RAM; IE/OE 6) WOW! I'm impressed! Andy I. : Hey you are lucky, that's normally a $100 service call and a 1 minutes : fix for me! Glad I could help! [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] : > : > : > : > Andy I. (Win XP SP2; 250GB HD; 1GB RAM; IE/OE 6) Inflation. :-) -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > WOW! I'm impressed! > [quoted text clipped - 47 lines] > : > : > > : > : > Andy I. (Win XP SP2; 250GB HD; 1GB RAM; IE/OE 6) It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.... The floppy drive is acting up again. What now Michael!!?*! The $100 cheque? It's "in the mail"...... Andy I. : Inflation. :-) : [quoted text clipped - 55 lines] : > : > : > : > : > : > Andy I. (Win XP SP2; 250GB HD; 1GB RAM; IE/OE 6) > It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.... The floppy drive is acting up again. What > now Michael!!?*! > The $100 cheque? It's "in the mail"...... Did you make sure that scanning the floppy is still off in the anti-virus? Which AV program?  SignatureFrank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM http://www.fjsmjs.com Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail. By "acting up", what exactly is it doing? Making noise like it is reading a disk? Also, answer Frank's question so we know how to proceed. No cash necessary! :-) -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > > It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.... The floppy drive is acting up again. What > > now Michael!!?*! [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > http://www.fjsmjs.com > Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail. To answer your questions , both Frank and Michael: 1. I have checked.... The floppy drive is *off* in the AV. 2. The AV program I am using is AVG free edition. (Came with PC) 3. By "acting up", I mean that the floppy drive comes on when I'm not even at the PC, and there is no disk loaded. 4. The noise is nothing like reading a disk. It's very loud..... kind of scraping sound. The activity light comes on. This can continue for 2-3 minutes then stop. Thanks for your continued interest. Andy I. : By "acting up", what exactly is it doing? Making noise like it is : reading a disk? Also, answer Frank's question so we know how to proceed. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] : > http://www.fjsmjs.com : > Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail. Andy, I still do not think the floppy drive is malfunctioning. There is some programs scanning your PC; weather it is an anti-virus program, anti-spyware program, or some other obscure program. In my experience, the floppy drive only performs this action when a program is scanning, searching, or saving to that drive. Do you have any anti-spyware programs also running in the background? What programs are running in the taskbar when this occurs; if any? Also, if you could time the interval in between floppy drive activity that could also give us a clue as to what is going on. Remember, within chaos is a pattern; however obscured. -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > To answer your questions , both Frank and Michael: > [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > : > http://www.fjsmjs.com > : > Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail. > Andy, I still do not think the floppy drive is malfunctioning. There is > some programs scanning your PC; weather it is an anti-virus program, [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > give us a clue as to what is going on. Remember, within chaos is a > pattern; however obscured. If you really think the drive is malfunctioning, get a new or used drive and change them out. Floppy drives are really cheap; should be under ten dollars. SignatureFrank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM http://www.fjsmjs.com Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail. : > Andy, I still do not think the floppy drive is malfunctioning. There is : > some programs scanning your PC; weather it is an anti-virus program, : > anti-spyware program, or some other obscure program. In my experience, the : > floppy drive only performs this action when a program is scanning, : > searching, or saving to that drive. Do you mean, Michael, that in your experience the floppy drive, when it is being scanned, exhibits the behaviour I've described? (There is no disc in the drive.) Is the drive scanned or the disk? I don't have any "obscure" programs that I'm aware of. : > Do you have any anti-spyware programs also running in the background? I have AdaWare and SpyBot, but I run them manually. : > What programs are running in the taskbar when this occurs; if any? No programs were running in the taskbar the last time this occurred : > Also, if you could time the interval in between floppy drive activity that could also : > give us a clue as to what is going on. Remember, within chaos is a : > pattern; however obscured. I'll try that, but days can pass with none of this activity occurring. It seems quite erratic. : If you really think the drive is malfunctioning, get a new or used drive and : change them out. Floppy drives are really cheap; should be under ten : dollars. I've already had the.floppy drive replaced, Frank. As I said earlier, this is according to the repair shop.... Many thanks for the advice from both of you. Andy I. A postscript................ I brought up the floppy drive with *no* disk inserted. Attempted a scan with AVG. Of course nothing happened. I inserted a disc. Scanned it: "128 objects scanned". The noise was just a steady quiet "ticking", not at all like the problem noise. Hope this helps! Andy I. : > Andy, I still do not think the floppy drive is malfunctioning. There is : > some programs scanning your PC; weather it is an anti-virus program, [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] : change them out. Floppy drives are really cheap; should be under ten : dollars. >> Do you mean, Michael, that in your experience the floppy drive, when it is being scanned, exhibits the behaviour I've described? (There is no disc in the drive.) Is the drive scanned or the disk? Yes, I have experienced this behavior exactly as described by you; even when no disk is in the drive. To reiterate, you *only* have AVG as your AV program and nothing else? As well as you have configured it *not* to scan the A:\ drive? I am researching AVG support site now and will get back with you. -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > A postscript................ > I brought up the floppy drive with *no* disk inserted. Attempted a scan [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > : http://www.fjsmjs.com > : Answer in newsgroup. Don't send mail. Thank you Michael. AVG *is* the only AV program installed, and it *is* configured to not scan the A:\ drive. Andy I. : >> Do you mean, Michael, that in your experience the floppy drive, when : it is being scanned, exhibits the behaviour I've described? (There is [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] : > : > Andy I. Andy, I have been through everything with AVG and there is only one selection box to disable A:\ drive scanning. If you have already perform this like you said, then I cannot see how it could be your AV program. There must be another program trying to search, save or access the drive periodically. -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > Thank you Michael. AVG *is* the only AV program installed, and it *is* > configured to not scan the A:\ drive. [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > : > > : > Andy I. Do you ave anything on drive A: in your Recently Used Files? That can do it. > Thank you Michael. AVG *is* the only AV program installed, and it *is* > configured to not scan the A:\ drive. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > : > steady quiet "ticking", not at all like the problem noise. > : > Hope this helps! Thanks Frank. I don't understand "Recently Used Files". Where are they located? You don't mean "TIF", do you? Andy I. : Do you ave anything on drive A: in your Recently Used Files? That can do : it. Right-Click the Task Bar and select properties. Click on the Start Menu tab and then the Customize button. Click on the Advanced tab and then click the Clear List button at the bottom for Recent Documents :-) > Thanks Frank. > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > do > : it. Thanks John. That's a new one for this "New User". Win 98 was never like this! ..........Was it? :-) And Frank.......... My Recent Documents reads "Empty". : Right-Click the Task Bar and select properties. : [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] : > do : > : it. And so we start again! LoL. Keep an eye on the drive and lets us know! Now go open some presents. -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > Thanks John. That's a new one for this "New User". Win 98 was never like > this! ..........Was it? :-) [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > : > do > : > : it. Presents Michael? I'm hoping for a new (different) AV! Andy I. : And so we start again! LoL. Keep an eye on the drive and lets us know! : Now go open some presents. [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] : > : > do : > : > : it. You're quite welcome :-) > Thanks John. That's a new one for this "New User". Win 98 was never like > this! ..........Was it? :-) [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > : > do > : > : it. Remember, within chaos is a pattern; however obscured. -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor Is this the pattern, Michael? Problem occurred: Dec 21,10:18 am Dec 23, 10:15 am Dec 27, 10:16 am. Seems to be a pattern there but "My Recent Documents read "Empty"., and there were no programs running in the task bar. AVG is set to NOT scan floppy drive. AdAware is set to scan C: drive only. SpyBot is set for manual Scan only. Andy I. It seems 10:15am is the magic time. You are sure AdAware is not configured to scan the A: drive? -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > Remember, within chaos > is a pattern; however obscured. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Andy I. Thanks Michael. You're still there! When preparing this reply, I attached a couple of screenshots from AdAware, but they were disallowed. One showed that when I click "select drives and folders to scan", it specifies C: drive only. But strangely whenever I click "select drives and folders to scan", the A: drive activity light comes on briefly and the drive emits a single click........ The C: drive does not. The second screenshot showed that "limit drive selection to fixed drives" was checked. I felt that too should eliminate A: drive. Andy I. : It seems 10:15am is the magic time. You are sure AdAware is not : configured to scan the A: drive? [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] : > : > Andy I. Well, there is no malfunctioning with the A: drive. Except for the 10:15 activity every couple of days, things are normal. Something is trying to access the drive for something. I do not think it is anything malicious. I wish I could help more, but I would need to be in front of the PC to see what is running in the background. Everything appears to be normal tho! -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > Thanks Michael. You're still there! > [quoted text clipped - 45 lines] > : > > : > Andy I. Thanks again Michael. You said :I would need to be in front of the PC to :see what is running in the background. *I'm* here................ Is there some way that I can see what's running in the background when the problem occurs? Andy I. : Well, there is no malfunctioning with the A: drive. Except for the 10:15 : activity every couple of days, things are normal. Something is trying to [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] : Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., : CIW Certified Instructor Normally when a program or service is activated or is utilizing the CPU, you can view it in the Task Manager under processes and see what the program is currently using the CPU during the drive activity. This is assuming that the program or service that is accessing the drive is also utilizing the CPU at the moment. It is worth a shot just to see what the heck it is. -- Michael D. Alligood MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+, Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., CIW Certified Instructor > Thanks again Michael. You said > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > : Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc., > : CIW Certified Instructor |
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