Laptop floppy drive problem when inserting disk.

[pete_2006]

I just bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron laptop computer on Ebay. Perfect screen and everything works great except for one thing, the floppy A-Drive seems to resist taking the disk about 3/4 of the way in. The disk can be pushed with some effort to go flush with the edge but I could not get it to click in; so, the eject button never popped out. I tried to read the disk but got the message I expected that the disk was not inserted. I was able to remove the disk by grabbing it with some needle-nose pliers and gently pulled it out.

My question is this. Could this just be a stubborn drive and I really just need to push it a bit further to see if I can get it to click or would that just end up getting it stuck for good? By the way, the computer was very well packed and the shipping box showed no signs of damage.

Unfortunately, the drive is not a swappable one; so, if I get it stuck, it would take a bit of work to take the laptop apart to get the drive out. The person who sold it to me stated he will fix or replace the drive if I can't get it working. I'm not so sure I would send a good working laptop back when I can use the DVD/CD-ROM or hook a flash drive up to the USB port.

So, if anyone has had some similar experiences, I would appreciate hearing from you. Since I intend to give this to my wife for Mother's Day, I may wait and let her decide. The last thing I want to do is get an OS that won't boot because a disk is stuck in the A-Drive. Of course, I could change the Drive order in the BIOS to prevent that, if memory serves me correctly.

Thanks,

Pete

[CBMatt]

You should never force things, especially when it comes to computers.  This can result in even more damage.  There's a good chance that there's something in there blocking the disk.

Opening up a latop can be a bit of a pain, but I think it might be a good idea to try opening it up and seeing if there's anything stuck in there.  Perhaps the shutter of an old disk (I see this happen a lot).

This is sometimes the trouble with purchasing from eBay; you don't always get what you expect.  It's nice of the guy to offer to fix it, but I suggest doing whatever you can first.  I'm not quick to trust eBay sellers.

[pete_2006]

Hi Matt,

That sounds like good advice. I think I will wait until I give it to my wife on Sunday before trying anything but maybe something is stuck in the drive. I've actually had pretty good luck buying on eBay, probably because I don't expect the item to be perfect. This one actually was better than expected for what I paid for it; so I'm happy, even if I can't get the drive working. Floppy drives are a thing of the past; so, I'll just smile and tell my wife it was upgraded. That reminds me, I better get myself out to the store tomorrow and get her a flash drive if I expect to pull that one off!

Thanks for your advice,

Pete

[CBMatt]

Whether you get this issue resolved or not, a flashdrive is a good idea.  It's always handy to have a floppy drive available, but they're not exactly the most reliable format.  And flashdrives keep getting more and more affordable.

[GX1_Man]

I would get the seller to remedy this pronto and don't post any feedback until he does. It is not your responsibility to fix this (yet) so don't even try. 

[ale52]

Try this:  open the floppy drive door and look in with a flashlight.  Most likely someone popped out a diskette but left the little metal portion in and either 1)didn't notice it or 2) didn't care.  With a little patience you can fish that out and you're good-to-go.


Alan <>< 

[pete_2006]

I should have mentioned that I did look in it with a flashlight but I don't think there was anything stuck in it. I fished around a bit with a thin plastic knife and shook it a little. Nothing was loose and I couldn't detect any object that was left in there. If there is something, it is smaller than the metal slider that covers the top portion of a floppy disk.

Thanks for posting that info though, as that is one of the most common problems, that and kids toys that get placed in there! It may do someone else some good if they read your reply.

In regard to the seller, this guy seems pretty helpful. He is waiting for me to give him some idea of how I would like to handle the situation. He probably would ship me another drive if I asked him to. He is willing to have it shipped back, fix it, and mail it back, but I think it is a little risky to have it shipped twice more and taken apart. It is a shame, but there are a lot to take apart to change out a floppy drive.

I do have a parallel port floppy drive I could attach in its place. I could probably use the device manager to set that up to work in place of the other one. I have USB flash drives, too. I will probably make a bootable CD for now.

Thanks for all the replies. I wanted to ask about this problem because getting answers from others with experience helps takes the mystery out of things. Forums are great for this and this one is one of the best.

Pete

[patio]

No reason to send the machine back for him to replace the floppy drive...see if he will ship a new floppy drive NC...this will tell you if he is a valid guy or not.

[CBMatt]

He probably would ship me another drive if I asked him to.

Like patio, I would definitely pursue this.

[pete_2006]

Thanks Patio and Chris,

I think I will email him tomorrow and see if he can send me a replacement for the drive. I found a link to a how-to page at Dell that does a good job explaining all the steps needed to replace the drive. But before I do that, I would like to try and  hook up a parallel Micron floppy drive I have to the laptop  but I cannot get XP to recognize it. I let Device Manager scan for new hardware but it doesn't detect that I hooked it up to the parallel port. Maybe I should post this question someplace else or start a new thread but do either of you know how to get such a device detected and how I would go about installing the driver? BTW - My best guess as to the driver location would be to search my Windows folder of my old 95 laptop, which is where this device came with. Possibly the device is too outdated to work, I'm not sure.

BTW - GX1_Man, I haven't posted any feedback yet and I never do until I'm sure everything works out. I know a lot of people seem to post feedback as soon as the package hits the door or even if they just won the bid. Maybe they get overly excited, I don't know. Anyway, that is good advice. Just to mention, this seller has had over 2500 sales in just computer and computer accessories with a 100% positive feedback.

Pete

[patio]

As i said...give him the opportunity and then we'll see.

[CBMatt]

Do you have the model number of that Micron?
Your computer doesn't recognize at all that something is plugged in?  Not even an "Unknown hardware detected"?
Does it work on any other computer?