Floppy drive won't boot

[msidrak]

I have just put two 1GH AMD Athlon with an ABIT motherboard. One of the machine booted oK and I was able to format the HD from Floppy that came with Western Digital 40GB HD. However the other machine I can't get it to boot from Floppy.

I checked CMOS and made the setting to start out with Floppy then HD.
Replaced the FDD Cable.
Replaced the FDD.
Tested the removed floppy and cable on other machines and they work fine.


Need help to understand why the floppy is not starting on this machine. Thank you...

[Paleo Pete]

Check the BIOS settings, make sure Swap Floppy drive and Floppy 3 Mode Support are not enabled, and make sure it is set to the correct type floppy drive.

Check the ribbon cable to be sure it's not plugged in upside down, if the LED stays on constantly flip it over. Make sure it is plugged in fully, and on the end connector.

Also try a different power connector. Computer shops should have the adapters needed to change from the larger power plug to the small floppy type, only a couple of bucks.

That's about all I can think of, others may have some ideas too, and consider the possibility it may be a bad controller on the motherboard.

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[msidrak]

Thank you for responding to my dilemma...

I have already replaced the motherboard and I'm still running across the problem. I also replaced the CPU. As for checking the ribbon, I already swapped the ribbon and FDD with my other machines FDD and ribbon(working machine). Checked the bios setting and the settings you suggested are already defaulted. Also, turned on FDD to report error on ALL Errors and in advanced setting I also enabled Bootup Floppy SEEK. Once I enabled the Bootup Floppy seek it reads it for a second but the light stays on all the time.

I'm still on Square one and I need major HELP>>>>

Could it be limitation on behalf of the bios. Don't see why, because I built the other machine with the same exact parts.

Originally posted by msidrak:
I have just put two 1GH AMD Athlon with an ABIT motherboard. One of the machine booted oK and I was able to format the HD from Floppy that came with Western Digital 40GB HD. However the other machine I can't get it to boot from Floppy.

I checked CMOS and made the setting to start out with Floppy then HD.
Replaced the FDD Cable.
Replaced the FDD.
Tested the removed floppy and cable on other machines and they work fine.


Need help to understand why the floppy is not starting on this machine. Thank you...

[BigBlue66]

Hi Msidrak,

Just read through this post and I have to admit I was stumped, until that is, you made mention that the LED on the floppy stays on.

This is a sure-fire indication that the ribbon cable is on backwards, or possibly one pin off. Very carefully reverse the cable and you should be up and running.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

[msidrak]

I want to thank everyone who tried to help me out. But to my amazement it's the motherboard bios. When I swaped the 1 GHZ chip for my 750 AMD Athlon. The computer booted up and there is nothing wrong with any of the components that I had. I believe the bios need to be upgraded in order for this to work correctly.

Now could I have bought two of each item to build two pc and one motherboard would have different bios than the other. COULD BE. If you guys have any other input let me know.


Thank you for everything...