Phantom A Drive why is it appearing
Phantom A Drive why is it appearing
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scooby_snax

Original Poster:

1,279 posts

284 months

Saturday 16th September 2006
quotequote all
Something bizarre has started to occur on my PC. I physically do not have a A drive, 3.5inch floppy on my machine, yet when I bbot up it seems to be going through a different sequence including looking for this phantom A drive. I have gone into the Setup and disabled it, yet on the next boot up it still gets called for..have also disabled it in Device Manager.
I have XP so it seems to go through the 'found new hardware sequence' which obviously makes the A Drive live again.
Not totally disabilitating but starting to hack me off....any ideas how I can remove this once and for all?
Oh yea have done a system restore back before this started and that hasnt helped either.
Thanks


thepassenger

6,962 posts

265 months

Saturday 16th September 2006
quotequote all
Go in to the BIOS, disabled both the disk drives AND the floppy controller (if possible). Make sure you save the settings.

Power off the computer and go have a cup of tea. Turn it back on and go in to the BIOS. Are the settings still as you left them?

scooby_snax

Original Poster:

1,279 posts

284 months

Saturday 16th September 2006
quotequote all
Will it have the same impact if I do what you suggest in Device manager?

thepassenger

6,962 posts

265 months

Sunday 17th September 2006
quotequote all
scooby_snax said:
Will it have the same impact if I do what you suggest in Device manager?


Maybe, but probably not. If the BIOS thinks for some reason that their is a floppy drive installed then Windows will keep detecting it. Doing it in the BIOS stops the hardware for being activated before Windows loads thus it has nothing to detect.

Of course some USB key drive things can also appear as A: or B:

scooby_snax

Original Poster:

1,279 posts

284 months

Sunday 17th September 2006
quotequote all
Well went into the BIOS and it appears to have sorted that problem...thanks.....although what is happening now the opening sequence has changed. As the PC detects various bits and bobs on starting it now starts with the word ASUS plastered across the screen ...with hit DEL for Setup, however if i leave it for a few mins everything comes to life and goes into the XP sequence. Same end result just dont like it when the unusual happens!!!!

thepassenger

6,962 posts

265 months

Sunday 17th September 2006
quotequote all
scooby_snax said:
Well went into the BIOS and it appears to have sorted that problem...thanks.....although what is happening now the opening sequence has changed. As the PC detects various bits and bobs on starting it now starts with the word ASUS plastered across the screen ...with hit DEL for Setup, however if i leave it for a few mins everything comes to life and goes into the XP sequence. Same end result just dont like it when the unusual happens!!!!


Ok. Dive in to the BIOS again and check that the boot sequence doesn't include either LS120, 1.44Mb, 2.88Mb or USB as the first boot device. The system will pause for thought whilst it looks for either of those... before deciding that it's being silly due to no floppy system being present

BIOS = Slow and Dumb... kinda like me without coffee