floppy disk trouble

dwhite · 11-27-2004, 03:07 AM

My son has a computer which we just had repaired. I formatted the "c" drive then could not get the thing to boot. When we brought it home everything worked fine for a couple days then he noticed the floppy disk drive runs all the time.

While I was waiting for an answer form gateway tech support on that issue I noticed he had not reinstalled Norton Antivirus since the format, I did that. After installation and running norton to check for viruses the computer was shut down or shut down on its own not sure which, but we cannot get it to reboot either in the safe mode or regular.
We get the following message NAV AUTO PROTECT unable to determine location of configuration file. We then get an explorer message 0177:00401F31 which turns the computer off. We are running windows 98 se

Two problems is the floppy drive gone?
Is it causing the computer not to boot?

Thank You
Dave

Prophet · 11-27-2004, 11:53 AM

the floppy drive may or may not be bad. you can boot into bios and under the floppy detection select none and that will stop it from running all the time but you also will not have access to it in windows. the reason I suggest this is that with win 98 I doubt your kid will be needing it much unless he stores alot of text documents for use elsewhere. After you have changed the bios to not detect it you will have to reboot the pc then hold down f8 while windows boots this will boot you into safe mode. In safe mode go to add remove programs and uninstall norton antivirus. then you can reboot normally and everything should be good to go. If everything goes ok then run scandisk and defrag. then hit ctrl alt delete and end task everything but sys tray then try to reinstall norton. then if it lets it install go online and update norton and windows also see if you can detemine your mainboard model and search for updated bios.

elf · 11-27-2004, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prophet

then hit ctrl alt delete and end task everything but sys tray then try to reinstall norton.

There is no real reason to do this, as it may make the system unstable from closing a system executable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prophet

also see if you can detemine your mainboard model and search for updated bios.

This is also unneccessary and is moderately risky, especially for someone who doesn't know what they are doing. This is not the problem, so there is no reason to fix it.

11-27-2004, 01:56 PM

Hi,

If it were my computer, I would certainly just reformat to get it going and make sure you have everything running before you put any form of norton back on.

As for the BIOS update, there is an old saying "If it is not broken, don't fix it." I never recommend updating a BIOS simply to have the latest version and if it ran properly before, that would not be the problem, so just Don't do it.

I would guess if you have the cable turned the right way (turn the ribbon cable over and try it that way), that this drive might just have died. Pull one from another computer and see if it works if you have someone who has one, or take this one to their computer and see if it works.

It would be my guess that something went wrong with the NOrton install and that is why I recommend reformatting to get rid of it. So, why not download a boot disk from Bootdisk.com and Fdisk it and get it going again.

It is also my opinion that you DO need a floppy drive for the Win98, 95, ME, so you can use the Fdisk utility from the floppy. That is my opinion, so I would try to get it going and not turn it off.

Prophet · 11-27-2004, 03:53 PM

the newer versions of norton antivirus sometimes have problems installing the autoprotect option correctly on older operating systems. by ending all running tasks except sys tray after a reboot then installing norton, which will then reboot the pc when it has finished install thus reenabling those running tasks, you can ussually get a good install. It will not likely cause any system instability that a reboot will not fix since your not disabling these tasks in msconfig but are just stopping them from running until next reboot or until the os restarts them for a different task. As far as flashing the bios I agree someone not familiar with doing so should not attempt it. As far as needing the floppy drive I meant that his son would not need it for everyday use unless he was staring documents to bring to and from school or work. As far a fdisk goes if the floppy is inaccessable then partition magic works just as well as fdisk and it can be run from the windows environment. also win 98 and win98se can be installed on a formatted drive from the cd alone as long as the bios have dos drive support.

dwhite · 11-27-2004, 04:26 PM

I have the computer up and running. I took the floppy drive out unplugged it and replugged it in that is working fine. I was able to get a "c" prompt and ran scanreg/restore to get the computer to boot.

Thank You folks for all your help

Dave

**kodi** · 11-27-2004, 04:30 PM

I agree with MARK3567 Format your drive, reverse the ribbon cable which should fix your floppy and then you should have real long think about reinstalling Nortons as it will give you nothing but continuos trouble.
Read the posts on this forum and install the free and better firewalls and av programs that are recomended, try them out and if you are not happy with them remove them and reinstall Nortons.
If you want recomendations of free programs just repost here.

EDIT; you must have posted at the same time as me.

11-27-2004, 03:07 AM	#1 (permalink)
dwhite Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 OS: windows 98 se	floppy disk trouble My son has a computer which we just had repaired. I formatted the "c" drive then could not get the thing to boot. When we brought it home everything worked fine for a couple days then he noticed the floppy disk drive runs all the time. While I was waiting for an answer form gateway tech support on that issue I noticed he had not reinstalled Norton Antivirus since the format, I did that. After installation and running norton to check for viruses the computer was shut down or shut down on its own not sure which, but we cannot get it to reboot either in the safe mode or regular. We get the following message NAV AUTO PROTECT unable to determine location of configuration file. We then get an explorer message 0177:00401F31 which turns the computer off. We are running windows 98 se Two problems is the floppy drive gone? Is it causing the computer not to boot? Thank You Dave Last edited by dwhite; 11-27-2004 at 03:09 AM.

11-27-2004, 04:26 PM	#6 (permalink)
dwhite Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 9 OS: windows 98 se	Thank You I have the computer up and running. I took the floppy drive out unplugged it and replugged it in that is working fine. I was able to get a "c" prompt and ran scanreg/restore to get the computer to boot. Thank You folks for all your help Dave

11-27-2004, 04:30 PM	#7 (permalink)
kodi Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 7,408 OS: Windows 7-Ultimate 64 Bit My System	I agree with MARK3567 Format your drive, reverse the ribbon cable which should fix your floppy and then you should have real long think about reinstalling Nortons as it will give you nothing but continuos trouble. Read the posts on this forum and install the free and better firewalls and av programs that are recomended, try them out and if you are not happy with them remove them and reinstall Nortons. If you want recomendations of free programs just repost here. EDIT; you must have posted at the same time as me. __________________ Brian Last edited by kodi0707; 11-27-2004 at 04:32 PM.

11-27-2004, 11:53 AM	#2 (permalink)
Prophet Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Illinois, USA Posts: 146 OS: win xp pro	the floppy drive may or may not be bad. you can boot into bios and under the floppy detection select none and that will stop it from running all the time but you also will not have access to it in windows. the reason I suggest this is that with win 98 I doubt your kid will be needing it much unless he stores alot of text documents for use elsewhere. After you have changed the bios to not detect it you will have to reboot the pc then hold down f8 while windows boots this will boot you into safe mode. In safe mode go to add remove programs and uninstall norton antivirus. then you can reboot normally and everything should be good to go. If everything goes ok then run scandisk and defrag. then hit ctrl alt delete and end task everything but sys tray then try to reinstall norton. then if it lets it install go online and update norton and windows also see if you can detemine your mainboard model and search for updated bios.

11-27-2004, 01:56 PM	#4 (permalink)
mark3567 Guest Posts: n/a OS:	Hi, If it were my computer, I would certainly just reformat to get it going and make sure you have everything running before you put any form of norton back on. As for the BIOS update, there is an old saying "If it is not broken, don't fix it." I never recommend updating a BIOS simply to have the latest version and if it ran properly before, that would not be the problem, so just Don't do it. I would guess if you have the cable turned the right way (turn the ribbon cable over and try it that way), that this drive might just have died. Pull one from another computer and see if it works if you have someone who has one, or take this one to their computer and see if it works. It would be my guess that something went wrong with the NOrton install and that is why I recommend reformatting to get rid of it. So, why not download a boot disk from Bootdisk.com and Fdisk it and get it going again. It is also my opinion that you DO need a floppy drive for the Win98, 95, ME, so you can use the Fdisk utility from the floppy. That is my opinion, so I would try to get it going and not turn it off.

11-27-2004, 03:53 PM	#5 (permalink)
Prophet Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Illinois, USA Posts: 146 OS: win xp pro	the newer versions of norton antivirus sometimes have problems installing the autoprotect option correctly on older operating systems. by ending all running tasks except sys tray after a reboot then installing norton, which will then reboot the pc when it has finished install thus reenabling those running tasks, you can ussually get a good install. It will not likely cause any system instability that a reboot will not fix since your not disabling these tasks in msconfig but are just stopping them from running until next reboot or until the os restarts them for a different task. As far as flashing the bios I agree someone not familiar with doing so should not attempt it. As far as needing the floppy drive I meant that his son would not need it for everyday use unless he was staring documents to bring to and from school or work. As far a fdisk goes if the floppy is inaccessable then partition magic works just as well as fdisk and it can be run from the windows environment. also win 98 and win98se can be installed on a formatted drive from the cd alone as long as the bios have dos drive support.