7300 floppy problem

[teddog]

Hello all,

Anyone out there still familiar enough with an old relic of a PowerMac to help out a desparate soul? Please?!

I have a 7300 with a dead floppy drive. To replace it is ridiculously expensive, if I can even find a suitable unit. I therefore have tried the obvious alternative -- bought an external drive which could interface via my USB port. Said port was working fine with my HP Photo-quality printer.

Of course, when I plugged in the Macally brand ext floppy and popped in a disk, nothing happened. No movement, no sound, no icon on the screen, nada. Now I'm thinking that one (or both) of two things has happened:

1. Floppy drive was DOA.

2. My USB card has died.

So, I went and bought a new one of each. Tried the new USB card first. No dice. Tried the new drive second. No dice. Tried both together; again, nada.

Now, I'm worried that my motherboard's expansion slots are toast. I have three, and tried 'em all, none seem to work. Everything else on the unit seems to be functioning normally. Unfortunately, my HP Printer is down (my dog broke it, honestly!), so I can't confirm that the USB is working that way. I have no other Mac USB equipment to try out (switched to PC a long time ago), so I'm kinda in a quandary.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Jim G

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome,

daft question but does the MacAlley drive come with software that needs to be loaded first ?

Have you loaded it ?

I'm sure when I bought the same drive (many moons ago) it had driver software with it.

What version of Mac OS are you currently running ?

regards

Ric

 

[Cory Cooper]

Go

It shouldn't need a driver in OS X.

As Ric said, it's best to let us know which version of the Mac OS you are running.

There are several things we can have you try once we get more details.

C

 

[teddog]

Sorry, somehow missed that little bit o' info. I'm running 8.6 still. And I loaded whatever software was included, though it wasn't much.

Thanks for the replies!

Jim

 

[Ric]

Hi Jim,

I'm not sure what to suggest. You need another known working USB device to test the card...or another Mac.

Have you an Apple Store nearby maybe they would test either for you ?

regards

Ric