Curse

RedDog91 · Nov 27, 2010, 03:21 PM // 15:21

Every time I turn on my PC I hear a beep and then a screen with this error page pops up:

AMIBIOS (C) 2007 American Megatrends, Inc.
945GCT-NM V1.05 08/31/2007
CPU : Intel (R) Pentium (R) Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80GHz
Speed : 1.80GHz

Press F2 to run Setup
Press F12 boot from the network
Press F10 for BBS POPUP
The MCH is operating with DDR2 667/CLS in Dual-Channel Interleaved Mode
3064MB OK
Auto-Detecting Pri Master . . IDE Hard Disk
Auto-Detecting 3rd Master . . ATAPI CDROM

Pri Master: Hitachi HDT725040VLA380 V5COA73A
-----------Ultra DMA Mode-5 S.M.A.R.T Capable but Disabled
3rd Master: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7173A 1-03
-----------Ultra DMA Mode-4

Floppy Controller Failure
Press F2 to Resume

Nothing I press does anything.
Yesterday I got the message every other time I turned on the computer, today its every single time (have tried at least 20 times)

Quaker · Nov 27, 2010, 04:38 PM // 16:38

That error can be caused by either an actual failure of the motherboard's floppy controller, or the floppy drive itself.

Are you sure that nothing you press does anything? You should be able to press F2 to get into the BIOS/setup. Although there is a possibility that a USB keyboard won't work at that point - if you have a USB (and/or wireless) keyboard, try to borrow a regular PS/2 style one temporarily.

Do you use the floppy for anything? If not, than here's what you could do:

Press F2 to get into the Setup. On the first screen (usually) it will say what sort of floppy drive is install. Change the setting to "none" or "disable" or w/e.

You could also dig around in the BIOS and find a setting to disable the floppy drive controller, which you may need to do if it's the controller itself that is not working.

Next thing to do is to open up the machine and disconnect the cables from the floppy drive. There should be a small power cable and a wide data cable - you can remove the data cable completely.

While you have it open, blow the dust out of it.

P.s - if you do use the floppy, it's time to join the 21st century and use USB flash RAM or optical discs instead. Or, of course you could replace the floppy drive. Oh, and there's a possibility that simply reconnecting the floppy cables will get it working again as the error can be caused by bad connections.

RedDog91 · Nov 27, 2010, 04:55 PM // 16:55

The issue is that I don't have a floppy drive. Never have, and never seen the error.
I've tried disconnecting the cables and blowing dust out. I've done this with every single cable inside the machine since posting.

I do have a PS/2 style keyboard, not USB.
I'll try going into the F2 setting before the error pops up...thats the only time the keyboard works (However...it doesn't let me hit F10 to go into Boot Settings)

EDIT: The error comes up before the BIOS Settings are able to display
EDIT2: For some reason pressing F1 worked...went in and disabled Drive A (which I guess it thinks is the floppy drive) Now the computer is on and hopefully working normally. Will stress test it over the next few hours.
*Also, not sure if this is related, but for the past few days the mouse has been jumping, the sound skips, and the screen freezes for 2 or 3 seconds. It doesn't do it for a while, but the longer the computer is on, the more often it happens. I know it can't be anything overheating, as I had all fans replaced with much nicer models just 3 days ago.

Quaker · Nov 28, 2010, 03:46 PM // 15:46

I should have mentioned it before, but sometimes various events, such as noise spikes on the powerlines from lightning, can scramble the BIOS settings, which are held in a small bit of RAM. This can lead to all sorts of weird occurrences resulting from bad timings etc.
It may be beneficial for you to reset the BIOS - which you can do either by using the jumper on the motherboard, or by getting into the setup and choosing some form of "Load defaults". After you do that though, you may need to go back in and re-do any non-standard settings such as the floppy.

rkmlschmidt · Apr 17, 2011, 01:20 AM // 01:20

My computer is doning the same thing that Reddog91 was, I replaced the power supply today and it runs faster and doesn't hang up quite like it was - the fan is still going crazy and am still getting floppy controller message - ideas of what to do next? Reddog91 how did you resolve your issue?

Snograt · Apr 17, 2011, 01:25 PM // 13:25

Go to the basic settings of your BIOS and set floppy drive to "none".

Quaker · Apr 17, 2011, 03:00 PM // 15:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkmlschmidt

am still getting floppy controller message -

As above, reset the BIOS/Setup - if you don't need the floppy, set the floppy drive to "none", set the floppy controller to "disable".

Resetting the BIOS is likely to be the most effective. If it's a desktop, there's usually a jumper on the motherboard (near the coin battery) to do that. On a laptop, it's usually a matter of entering the BIOS/Setup and "Load(ing) Defaults".
Unfortunately you may need to read the manual - if you don't have the manual, you'll need to access the desktop/motherboard/laptop maker's website.