Aptiva 2159 S76 Master Floppy Problem ~ Help Please~ 1

[MegaRamsey]

Hello all, I've been browsing this site for days looking for a possible answer but I have not found one.

I'm working on an IBM Aptiva 2159 S76, Pentium 200mhz, it originally came with the "3rd piece", the media console. In it is (was) the power switch, floppy, and CD drives.

I've taken the media console apart with the intent to put the drives in the main box of the system. I've got the CD in, updated the "MWave" pain in my backside card to a new PCI sound card and a new PCI 56k Motorola Modem, they are plugged into the riser card and all work great. I've replaced the power switch because the original was on the media console (I need to find a place to mount it, but it's working great too), and bought a new monitor for it (it came to me without the original monitor that had the speakers built into the sides of it).

The only real problem I'm having is getting the A: drive to be the master in the main box. Every time I hook it up to the mother board it's detected as a B: drive. I have tried many times to change it on the F1 set up menu, but it comes back as an error and puts it back as the B: drive. I find no jumpers on the A: drive or the mother board for setting it as the master (unless I'm missing something here). The drive's light comes on and go off at startup, but neither A: nor B: drive shows up anywhere in windows. I put the drive back on the media console's board and plugged that board back into the main system, but it does not pick up on that at all, not as A: or B: and does not light up or anything. That seems strange to me because it did work before on that media card, but then my intent is to do away with the meia console all together so I'm not trying to get it to show up on that.

I'm thinking I may need a new signal cable, but then, it does light up on start up (when it's in the main box) so maybe not? Also, I've gotten online and got the tech manual for the system but it does not tell you how to make an added floppy (connected directly to the mother board) the master floppy. I guess they intended for the floppy in the media console to be the master "til death does it part", and shows no options on how to make the mother board see another floppy as A: dirve (master). Maybe I should buy a new A: drive with jumpers on it and set it as master??

Not sure where to go from here. Any help would be greatly appreciated ~

MegaRamsey

 

[edfair]

Does the cable have a cut&twist of about 7 connectors about 1/3 of the way from the pin 1 side of the floppy connector?
IBM in their implementation of the PC jumpered all drives as B: and then used the cut/twist to change the ident to A:.
Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[MegaRamsey]

Hello, thanks for your post. No, this cable does not have a cut and twist, it's a straight cable. Any other suggestions? I'm stumped ~

 

[edfair]

Get a cut and twist cable and install it. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[MegaRamsey]

Hello, again, thank you for your post. I have gotten a cut and twist cable and I've installed it, still no luck. It still picks up the drive as drive B: even though I've changed it in the setup menu several times. Any other tips I can try?

I grealy appreciate your time ~

MegaRamsey

 

[edfair]

You are probably right about their wanting the A: to be in the console.
I would see whether I could kill all floppies in the hardware section of the BIOS, and if so, then get a expansion HD/FD controller card with the HD crippled and use it with on-board BIOS enabled. Your BIOS should recognise the entry in CMOS and look to the expansion card for the address.
Just be aware that the board designers can set things up to make life difficult to change what they want the system to work like. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[MegaRamsey]

Hello Ed,

Thank you for your post. I will try that. Any suggestions on a brand/model of card that would work best?

Megaramsey

 

[edfair]

It has been so long since I've bought one that I'm out of touch. You might try SIIG. You also might research and see if there are any floppy only boards available, but I haven't been in that market for at least 15 years.
You may even end up with at ATIO card.
Try looking for the online catalog of JDR of San Jose, or at least I think it's San Jose. Or Global Computer Supply, or Jameco.
And if there is a computer builder near you they might have one. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[MegaRamsey]

Hi Ed,

I've been searching a lot and found a 900# to call IBM and I did so ($2.99 per min!).

Yep, there is no way to force an added drive to be the master floppy! It's totally dependant on the media console for a master floppy. He said not even a controller card would do it.

Well, I guess I'll just have to settle for how it is. It runs great, just no master floppy, but it will let me boot from the CD if I want.... Maybe I can find someone who can use the system, or... I can take the componets (it's got a new sound and modem, good hard drive, etc..) and buy a case with MB and build something nice. Now I've got the "itch" to do that.

You've been kind and helpful and I appreciate your efforts.

Take Care ~

MegaRamsey

 

[edfair]

I'm sorry that it worked out that way.
I would (in theory only) like ot get the box and prove that it could be done. I've spent 40 years making IBM machines do things that IBM said couldn't be done. Even when I worked there a long time ago. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[MegaRamsey]

Well, if you can think of anything else that may work, I'm willing to try )

It would make someone a nice little starter system for surfing and such.

Thank you ~

MegaRamsey