# Request could not be performed because of an I/O device error



## wumply (Nov 13, 2002)

The message from my effort to read and write to my floppy drive also said "A:/ not accessible." I assumed (correctly?) the drive was the input/output device.

I checked power and data cables: both tightly seated. I know the drive is getting power; the green light on front lights, though I don't suppose that is proof it's getting all the power it should or where it should.

I checked my BIOS in case that had somehow inactivated it. But my BIOS only listed the A drive-no options offered.

I went to Device Manager, deleted driver, rebooted. Problem continued.

I tried a different floppy drive, with the same results. And I tried read/write operations with 2 different floppies, with both drives.

Exactly the same results as with the new physical drive..

What can I do now? (O/S is XPSP2). Replace the motherboard?


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## usualsuspect (Jul 29, 2002)

Hi Wumply,

Is this a problem that has just appeared?

If you have recently built the machine it maybe that the floppy data cable is at faulty.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Is the floppy light always on? If so, you probably have the cable on backwards. Check that pin 1 on the cable is really aligned with the stripe.


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## wumply (Nov 13, 2002)

My thanks to usualsuspect and JohnWill for your suggestions. No, I bought it quite a while ago, upgraded sound and video cards and HDDs over time. Yes, the problem just appeared - 2 days ago.

No, the floppy light is NOT always on.

I experimented a bit more tonight and accidentally discovered that when I touched power wires from CD-ROM to floppy my computer suddenly rebooted - on its own. I shut down and unplugged and re-connectedl the power cables to my CD-ROM and my CD-RW. Then I noticed My CD-ROM (my F drive) was not listed with the other drives in My Computer. And my CD-ROM would not work at all.

So I tried interchanging the power leads feeding the CD-ROM and the CD-RW. Then both were listed in My Computer and both played a commercial CD just fine.

But this had no effect re my floppy drive working. So I am wondlering if something is amiss re the 4 fine wire power leads that feed the floppy drive. Or I suppose in some other part of the power supply/wires.

What do you think? Are you inclined to suspect power supply wires.

All my leads are firnly and correctly connected at both ends--well, at least the data cables. The power cbles are firmly connected at their only plug-in end. I checked them very carefully.

Don't remember if I said this. When I try to read a floppy I get: "A:\ is not accessible. The request could not be performed because of an I/O error." When I try to read a floppy, I get "unable to write to drive A."

Tell me, are these 2 messages likely to be produced by power problems and as well as by data transmission problems over cables and their connections. Could a defective motherboard transistor or a corrupt line of code also cause the same messages?


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## usualsuspect (Jul 29, 2002)

This is starting to have alarm bells on. Touching cables to cause reboots! 

Have a look at the male/female power supply connections that go to the drives, they should form a tight C shape as opposed to a loose one which would cause heat over time and lead to the forming of a dryjoint. 
Lets look at one problem at time - remove the CD ROM and RW from the equation and see what the floppy does. There maybe something up with the 5V rail.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, I agree with the previous post, you need to find out what's causing the symptoms you see, that's certainly not normal!


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## wumply (Nov 13, 2002)

Removing the CDROM and RW didn't make the floppy work. 
OK. The power connections do form a tight C. And my floppy is still read/write inoperative and the power light still comes on.

But some other things have occurred that have led me to suspect that the reboot only happened to coincide with my touching the power wires to the floppy. However, it's hard to be sure of anything. My computer was powered on the evening of Dec. 22. I could use programs but could not connect to the net with IE or FF. I had no idea at first why this situation suddenly existed. Anyhow, I had gone to assemble an exerbike and when I returned 2 hours later I had a BIOS screen saying "Detecting IDE drives." and "Press Delete to enter the bios." With no response to keyboard input I hit the power switch (OFF) and then turned the switch on again. Boot was normal but I still could not connect to the net.

But it was bedtime, so I shut down. The next day boot was normal but I still could not get online. Finally an insight hit me. I remembered my Sygate Firewall provides for me to check a lot of programs re "allow, prohibit, ask" so was it possible that "allow" had somehow been changed to "prohibit" for IE and FF. Then I noticed that my Sygate icon was no longer in the systray. I tried a reinstall from the exe in the Sygate folder, but nothing but nothing happened. So (having a router and feeling safe) I uninstalled and redownloaded/reinstalled Sygate and then I was able to get online. Well, good. Then I worked out and when I returned my computer screen was totally gray (unusual, it's usually black when the monitor/HDD go to sleep to save power) and there was no response to the keyboard. But without further input from me and 3-4 minutes later, my monitor now presented a BIOS screen reading "Detectingr IDE drives" and "Hit Delete to enter BIOS." I hit the power button shutting my computer down. It shut down. Reboot was normal (though longer than usual.) I've no idea why this occurred.

Since then I've shut down and rebooted twice. Both times XP handed me this msg.

"The system has recovered from a serious error." Didn't say what it was, but when I clicked on "Tech info" link, I got this - and only this additional information.

C:\DOCUME~1\JOHND~1.MIL\LOCALS~1\Temp\WEReb3f.dir00\Mini122406-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\JOHND~1.MIL\LOCALS~1\Temp\WEReb3f.dir00\sysdata.xml

My computer is working just fine now--save for the floppy problem. I suppose I'll continue to get the XP serious error message until I take some action...but what action?

If you guys have ideas, advice, suggestions re what I should do re the XP serious error msg and what to do about the floppy (remember a replacement floppy drive changed nothing), I'd be most appreciative.


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## Flags (Sep 9, 2001)

wumply: This is an interesting problem. A couple of thoughts I have concerning the Power Supply. 
You say you've had this PC for a couple of years and upgraded sound and video and HDD's. Nothing said about upgrading the PSU. Got a higher wattage extra one laying around? Swap it out and see if a higher wattage PSU does anything. 
A long shot, but maybe run your anti-virus scan and see if it picks up anything. Could a virus turn off you Sygate Firewall? 
Replace the Floppy cable on the off chance that it is defective.
Hope this helps.
I would be interested to know how you resolve this. I'm thinking the PSU is part of the problem.


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## wumply (Nov 13, 2002)

Flags: I've had the computer since July 02 actually. And I got a new 300 watt power supply in September 2004. I don't have a higher wattage one around though, but would get one of course if that is what it takes. Probably if anti-virus and a new cable don't cure the problem, I'll take it to my Computer Repair Place and get him to check out the power supply--which I don't know enough to do myself. (I've been wondering if any of its many wires have somehow broken, especially the finer ones to the floppy drive power cable or if they broke off at the immediate connection to the plug.) And yes, I'll get (tomorrow) a new floppy cable and try it out. Anti-virus...I'll run a scan tonight, something I do weekly. Appreciate your input and will get back to you with how things go..


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## Jedi_Master (Mar 13, 2002)

Howdy folks...

wumply...

Do you have another pc around that you can create a boot floppy from?

What you might try is booting from a boot floppy to eliminate a hardware problem, if it boots more than likely the floppy drive and controller are fine and it's a Windows problem...


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## wumply (Nov 13, 2002)

At this point I elected to take it to my computer repair place. There the technician began by inserting a disk in the floppy drive. He could read the disk--no problem. So he called me and told me he found nothing amiss. So I went back and we tried inserting and reading the 3 floppies that would not read at home. Including the one I could not write to at home. All were readable and we were able to write to the one I kcould not write to at home. And this was with MY computer.

Well, what to say?...things were working

So went back home, and I could not read or write to any floppy disk.

Go figure!

I also noticed [u ]this[/u] once back at home. Sometimes I can read a floppy to the extent that I can see the drive's contents listed, but generally I cannot access a given file. At other times I cannot even see the contents and in its efforts to read a disk, the drive just goes click...click...click until I take the floppy out of the drive.

I also noted that when I now click on the A drive (from My Computer) I often get an hour glass. Which goes when I click out of My Computer. Then if I try and access My Computer again (from the desktop icon) I get an hour glass which itself disappears in 2 seconds, leaving me still at the desktop. (A reboot however, overcame that particular behavior and I was able to access My Computer.)

And the above is with a new data cable and the new floppy drive.

And I am sure, sure, sure that no pins are bent and that all cables (power andl data) are firmly and correctly seated.

And in all other aspects my computer continues to work just fine.

I had great hopes of a solution when I took my computer to the Repair Place; I still hope that the facts of this post will stimulate some further options. I begin to wonder if something is amiss with Windows - a bit desperately. Maybe I should try a reinstall of XP. Time-consuming but not as bad as a clean install. And even that may not be a solution. But what to do when you find nowhere to turn?


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## Flags (Sep 9, 2001)

wumply: Does your PSU have 2 floppy power plugs? If so, try a different one. Plug the computer into a different outlet, not on the same surge protector, but a different outlet altogether. Also try a different Power Cord. If you don't have one your Repair shop will probably let you borrow one.
While you're trying to read a floppy, jiggle the power wires to see if there is a loose coccection somewhere in the wiring harness. 
I don't think this is a Windows problem and reinstalling will not help. I still think it's in the wiring somewhere.


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## wumply (Nov 13, 2002)

Flag:

After my last post I gave up and made my back-up (cloned) HDD my master (C drive).That in itelf did not cause the floppy drive to work.

I then tried plugging into a different outlet on my PSU. Floppy drive still did not work.

I tried plugging into a different outlet on my PSU. Floppy drive still did not work.

I then tried a never-used power cord plugged into my PSU. Floppy drive still did not work.

Then I plugged into a surge unit only (that is, no battery backup). The floppy drive still did not work.

I tried again jiggling the fine power wires going from the nearest HDD to the floppy but that changed nothing. I wiggled the plug going into the floppy. Nothing! I also checked that data cable was firmly plugged at both ends.

When I inserted a disk into the floppy drive I got "A;\ Not accessible. Requet could not be performed becaue of an I/O device error." OR when I didn't get that msg, I got: "Please insert a disk in Drive A" even though I had inserted the disk already. And these were the messages I got before I switched HDDs.

And this is using my new floppy drive and new data cable.

I just don't have a clue.


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2008)

Try this link...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811840/EN-US

It may solve your problem. I'm running XP Pro SP3. It did not solve mine.


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## jamesx121 (Apr 23, 2008)

wumply said:


> Flag:
> 
> After my last post I gave up and made my back-up (cloned) HDD my master (C drive).That in itelf did not cause the floppy drive to work.
> 
> ...


Wumply--do you live in town or out in the country???

I think your problem is the electricity in your house.
if you are like me --I have multiple items plugged in to the wall behind my computer.
I have 2 wall outlets behind my computer and with surge protectors and the large
transformers that come with my PC speakers. I have wires out the wazoooo
I have replaced the electrical receptacle once so far--

but any way--if you are in town move your computer to another room and see what
happens--
if it works fine then have a electrician come out and replace the receptacle in the wall

if out in the country--move to the room closest to your breaker box.
this room should have the most/steadiest power coming out of the receptacle in the wall.

if this works or some of the time works--then the electrician can tell you if its
just a bad receptacle or your house's electrical wiring needs upgrading--which
can be expensive.

if you have a old house --do you have a friend with a new house or modern electrical
wiring installed?? 
set up your computer there and see what happens.

I'm not trying to put you down but in a lot of old houses the electrical wiring is out of date
and no longer meets state building codes.

*you said your computer worked fine at the repair shop--
this is what got me thinking about the electrical receptacle in the wall*


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## jamesx121 (Apr 23, 2008)

P.S.
what do you use the "A" drive for????
I didn't even install one in my computers??

you can burn data to a CD just as easy as a "A" diskette


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## jamesx121 (Apr 23, 2008)

heck--
*I'm probably off on a wild tangent--
if you had spotty or faulty wattage/voltage coming in to your computer from the wall
then I think this would affect your whole computer and not just your "A" drive.*

if it keeps it up it might be worth the cost to have a tech come to your house
and inspect your computer there--instead of taking it to a shop.
that way the tech could see it having problems instead of just ""every thing seems
to be okay""" you can come get it anytime during business hours""
like the shop guy told you

and if no one in your area makes house calls ---go buy at least a 500watt power supply / 650watts tops 
and install it.

this will help your system and one way or another I think you have a power problem
you said you bought a new "A" drive and ribbons and this didn't help


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