hi, im on my nans computer (windows 98) and every so often the floppy drive makes a noise as if its looking for something on the floppy but all i'm doing is moving the page up on aol or opening a msn conversation or something......
Its realy annoying, any ideas please?

i think it will be just a simple change of something but i dont know what

Thanks
Mike (windows xp user, not 98!!!! lol)

its windows 98 SE btw
256mb ram n about 18gb HD
and it is a dell computer (if that helps)

stopped now....

Originally Posted by madmikejt12

stopped now....

Just a long shot, but sometimes Windows remembers where you last saved something and tries to default to that the next time it has to save anything. So long as your last save was to a floppy, the operating system may be looking for a diskette, finding none, and then looking elsewhere to write some temporary file. Next time this happens, try saving some arbitrary file to the c:\ drive and see if the problem goes away. There's probably a system setting to relieve this, but I don't know what it is.

I've got a feeling that the "Floppy seek" setting has something to do with this. Pretty sure that it's in the BIOS but it might be in Device Manager as well. Basically, you want the system to stop seeking out the floppy drive to check whether a disk is there.

As ProfessorM and DJNafey outlined, this is an element which may/will relieve this symptom. If this doesn't stop the floppy seek, check your AV settings (Anti-Virus). There should be an options or similar setting you can change to prevent this. I understand that Norton (Symantec) is notorious for this. (I don't use it for a number of reasons, so this isn't first hand.)

Originally Posted by Dan Penny

I understand that Norton (Symantec) is notorious for this.

I'm glad you said that Dan - I actually wrote exactly the same thing but then doubted myself and deleted it, lol! So you must be right!

You shouldn't doubt yourself DJN, cause yer gud. ;>)

As you mentioned, the Dell bios may have an AV Boot Sector protection turned on (not recommended in most cases) which might be "touching" the floppy occasionally.

I've seen this in other forum's that I contribute to. (That is allowed, right?) As I said, I don't use it (Symantec products) for a number of reasons, but I understand that the floppy drive check is a part of the default settings for the AV and related programs (System Works?).

I have a Norton AV (Ver. 5.0) CD that I bought way back when (for Windows98, 95, 3.1/DOS, & NT). I loaded it, ran it for about two or three days, then took it out (actually, DUG it out) because it was such a resource, registry, and space hog. (I was running a 486DX4 w/ a couple of 500MB drives, my first IDE CDROM, 98SE. Whoopy!)

actualy, norton is installed on that computer!!!