If you are installing an external USB connected drive, you do not plug it into the "motherboard".  You plug it into one of the USB ports that are available either on the front or rear of the PC????

Check your service manual:

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dimE521/en/SM_EN/parts.htm#wp1487431

 

 

I had one installed when I bought my system, hope this helps.

Did you enabled on the BIOS, if not go and do this. Restart the computer, press F2 at the Dell logo like 3 times, on the screen you have, go to Drives, then go to Floppy Disk, press ENTER and then select the option ON, press ESC, then ESC again and highlight SAVE/EXIT, this should restart the computer, let's see if we can see the Floppy on the computer.

Hi again; GloAguilar ! I did what you suggested but it did not work. In what I call My Computer It recgonizes the floppy and everything and states that everything is working properly but when I insert a floppy diskette it says to insert a floppy into drive A. When I rebooted after exiting bios setup I get the following error message::: Diskette drive 0 seek Failure. Press f1 to continue , f2 to enter setup.

Could it be a faulty floppy drive itself or a bad ide cable. Awaiting your reply Thanks Bob_1960.:smileymad:

That message will go away if you disable the floppy, but that's not the reason of the problem... I think you can try going to BIOS and go to MAINTAINACE and LOAD DEFAULTS, this will turn floppy on, do you see something diferent on Device Manager??? the cable you are using, it has 3 connectors???? If so, are you using the middle connector??? If so, use the two end connectors...

Hi again GioAgular; Thanks for the speedy reply. Everything in device manager is good  Drive itself and the ide and says that both are workoing properly. I am using the two end connectors on the ide cable and the proper power cable for the drive. When I first purchased this dell I had a card reader installed., but do not want to use it right now.In order to use the floppy I had to take the card reader out because there was only one slot to put it in and since I use the floppy alot more the choice was logical- to use the floppy. Will try to go into bios to load the defaults after the floppy is installed. I had to disconnect the ide and power to it because the light stays on all the time.That is the only draw back about dells is not enough slots but other than that I am completely satifised with my purchase. Why I say that , because the last one I had the mainboard went and that was one of them AOPEN pieces of junk. I would not buy another aopen and would suggest noone else does

:smileyvery-happy::smileyhappy: Thanks again for your help and if you have any more  info anout this do not hesitate to reply. When I get to the bios thing will post and let you know. Later.

buddy, it looks like your whole problem is that when you connect the cable to the floppy drive, you have the cable reversed.  look at the cable, you'll see that there's a RED edge on only 1 side of the cable, the RED edge signals PIN 1.  when connecting it to the drive, make sure the red side is oriented with the PIN 1 of the floppy.  depending on the made of the floppy, PIN 1 can be close to the power plug or away, look carefully and you should see a "1" silkscreened on the drive.  if there's no sign of it, simply plug the cable in reverse of how you plugged it in last time. 

 

when the light stay ON, it means you have the cable WRONG.  so plug it until the light of the floppy does NOT come on when power up, then you're in business.