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Old windows 95 laptop - no floppy disk controller drivers?

Tags:
  • old
  • Floppy Disk
  • Drivers
  • Controller
  • Laptops
  • Windows
  • disk
Last response: in Windows 95/98/ME
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March 22, 2014 4:32:54 PM

I recently acquired a very old laptop. It has a Pentium 200MHz with MMX, 32MB RAM and a 2.1GB hard drive. However, it has one problem. For some reason, the floppy drive is recognized as a 5 1/4 inch floppy, when it is actually a 3.5 inch. When I double click it, whether I have a floppy disk in it or not, it will just say "The device is not ready." I went to device manager and the floppy disk controller has an error. It says something along the lines of "This device either has no drivers or is not configured correctly." I tried installing the drivers with the wizard and restarting, but I just got the same error. Anyone know what's going on?

It's a Mitac laptop, model number says 5026. By the way, it (the floppy drive) makes noises when booting and the floppy indicator lights up, so I assume it's not a problem with the hardware but with Windows.

More about : windows laptop floppy disk controller drivers

a b D Laptop
March 22, 2014 4:41:25 PM

it'll be an incorrect setting within the bios

poweroff the laptop

power it up again

during POST, spam the del and f2 keys (the 2 most popular keys to enter the bios)

somewhere in the menus there will be a setting for drive A: change this so it reads 1.44MB
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March 22, 2014 4:43:54 PM

I cannot access the BIOS due to a password. It lets me boot, however.
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a b D Laptop
March 22, 2014 4:47:28 PM

Sadly, a password is something we can't help with.
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March 22, 2014 4:55:29 PM

Okay, I am going to contact the previous owner about the BIOS password, and I'll follow up if I get a response.
Edit: I got in contact with them and they don't know what it is. I tried some default passwords and random guesses and they were all wrong so I'm stuck here. It has a CD drive so I might try a lightweight linux livecd and see if that recognizes the floppy correctly. If it doesn't I guess i'll just have to leave it.
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March 24, 2014 4:55:07 AM

You can remove the password on the bios by clearing the CMOS, or by removing the internal battery on the motherboard for a few minutes, before replacing it.
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