The Hatred of the Floppy in D Major…

OK, I’m going to try to make this post enjoyable for nerds and non-nerds alike.

My Linux machine has a few strange quirks that I have always wanted to fix. First off, it does not detect the processor (brain of the computer) as the proper speed. It is determined that this is because I am running an old version of the BIOS (system software that controls how the computer tells me its hardware).

Simple solution. Make a bootable floppy disk that gets run in order to update my BIOS. This is a problem, because my Linux machine was made with no floppy drive in the first place, as I had an internal zip drive to use instead. Well, no problem, I think. I’ll make my bootable floppy disk and put a floppy disk drive in my Linux machine for a few minutes in order to make this update. I do so. This is where the fun begins.

I don’t really need Linux to see the floppy drive, because it will be used before the system boots the operating system. For some strange reason, the light next to the floppy drive does nothing but stay on. The system recognizes that the floppy drive is there, because it reports it in the BIOS. The drive does not seem to access the disk that is in it, and therefore finds no boot record so it can run my disk.

I think, OK, maybe this old drive is bad. So I get another one. Exact same problem. I decide to let it go into Linux, and there is a spot in the system information for this drive. Linux, being the immature little bastard that it is sometimes, isn’t able to access the drive because it thinks it is not there.

By now, three hours have gone by since I started this quick little foray to fix a minor inconvienence in my system. I am totally fed up, and am just short of launching the offending floppy drives across the room. My only inklings is that it could be the motherboard, or the floppy cable, but I have no others to test it with to be sure.

I know that one, if not both, of those floppy drives worked the last time the machines I liberated them from were on. If it’s the motherboard on this machine, I will be super-pissed. If it’s just the cable, I will be pissed because it was such a stupid thing to miss. For tonight, however, the original zip drive that was in it is back in it.

Non computer nerds, here is a little synopsis:
Josh wants to fix a small problem. Josh tries in vain and wastes several hours of his life, just to go to bed frustrated. In the process, Josh has partially disassembled two computers and has nearly given himself a stroke in the process. The End.