Ok, so reception calls:

"Hi Avalon, i cant get my floppy disks to go into the drive properly"

I instantly know what the problem is: The protective cover has come off in the drive. Yep. So i replace the drive, and screw everything back together. Press the power button, and.......nothing.

Not a sound.

So i assume the cable is faulty. Nope, another cable gives the same result. Not a sausage.

HELP! WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Ive checked all the cables inside are in firmly, and that the switch is on at the back?

Disconnected the ATX power connector from the main board and remove the power cable. leave for a min and reconnect the ATX then the power lead. (sometimes helps)
Are you sure you have not disconnected the cables from the power switch to the main board?

Disconnected the ATX power connector from the main board and remove the power cable. leave for a min and reconnect the ATX then the power lead. (sometimes helps)
Are you sure you have not disconnected the cables from the power switch to the main board?


Ill give that a go tar.

As far as i can tell the switch wire is still in ok but will double check.

Many newish motherboards have an led on which is lit when ever it is connected to the mains. worth trying another power cable and power point.

Make sure you plug it back in. ;)

It sounds like a power related problem, so I'd check that area out the most. If you did plug the cable back in, was there a pop or anything?

No joy on neeeeeeeeeek's suggestion.

Tried a different power cable and socket. Cant see a light on the motherboard anywhere. When i plugged it back in there was no pop just the "chhhkk" sound of the electrical cable sparking briefly when i shoved the plug back in!

I know it sounds daft and you probably know already but some power supplys have an on/off switch on the back of them. You haven't knocked that to off by mistake, have you?

That shows it's got power, you might have killed it! As long as the PSU is live and on swicth the computer off, disconnect the ide and fdd cables from the main board, remove the ram.
when you switch it on it should beep if the memory is removed. If it beep then the main board and processor are generally working ok. If not then you may have killed the mian board.
If it does beep, swicth off, reseat ram and try again. if still dead try different ram.

Remove all the IDE cables and re-setting the BIOS (remove battery or find the Clear CMOS pin) worked for me on a few occasions.

unplug the replacement drive, some times they have an internal short which stops the psu turning on power to the board

Little trip-switch/button that needs resetting?

I've had it more than once where removing the power cable and reconnecting it have blown the PSU, usually there's a burning smell though :)

Why the hell is anyone still using floppy disks..?

theyre still usefull to techies.

Why the hell is anyone still using floppy disks..?

I wouldn't build a machine without one.

If all else fails you can use a boot disk to get into DOS. Also, the drivers for my RAID set are on floppy.

Don't use the floppy often, but it's useful.

The protective cover has come off in the drive. Yep.

You can often get those out with a carefully wielded butter-knive...



.

When i plugged it back in there was no pop just the "chhhkk" sound of the electrical cable sparking briefly when i shoved the plug back in!

Err... that doesn't sound good.

You should have the power off at the wall before you plug the IEC lead back into the machine. (or the switch on the PSU off at least)



.

theyre still usefull to techies.

damn right they are

Err... that doesn't sound good.

You should have the power off at the wall before you plug the IEC lead back into the machine. (or the switch on the PSU off at least)



Very true. I shudder when I see people plug cables into the mains first and then into the PSU, with everything switched on. The "ffzzzzt-pop" noise is never that pleasant to hear.

sounds to me like you've connected the floppy power on 3 pins not 4 on the back of the floppy drive - that stops your pc switching on. remove the floppy power cable, try the PC and if it works re-connect the floppy power cable (make sure the pc is switched off when your disconnect / reconnect the floppy power.

One thing that can cause this is haveing the floppy IDE cable in upsidedown.
Some drives/cables dont have guides on them so you can do this quite easily.;)

One thing that can cause this is haveing the floppy IDE cable in upsidedown.
Some drives/cables dont have guides on them so you can do this quite easily.;)

If you connect the floppy drive the wrong way round it makes the floppy access light stay on solid but shouldn't stop the system powering on. The HDD cable the wrong way round can cause the system not to boot on some motherboards

That depends.

The ASRock Boards have a detection setting in them to stop system damage.
It uses the Handshake lines to check.