Floppy Disk problem on motherboard P5N-E SLI

[mrkan]

I have weird problem.

I've just put my first (and last) system together.
P5N-E SLI motherboard with Intel Quad and 2Gb of RAM.

Here are other parts I have installed:
- CD ROM as primary slave,
- SATA 320Gb hd on SATA1
- Floppy drive

Floppy is one creating trouble.
When I boot from floppy, and when I get to prompt mode, everything with floppy works fine (dir, copy, format, etc.). But, If I boot from CD (provided by ASUS, manufacturer of motherboard), floppy doesn't work (or sometime do, sometime doesn't, but mostly doesn't (yesterday worked)).
To install XP I have to boot from XP installation, and in that case floppy doesn't work...
...
since floppy doesn't work, I can't install sata/raid controller and then sata is not recognized... so therefore I can't install XP....

please help





For example,

 

[wahnula]

Try a different floppy disk. Today's floppy drives don't play well with older disks. I have to hunt-and-peck from a box of floppy disks to find one that works on each different machine.

One that works fine on one machine is unrecognizable on another. I have had best luck with Imation disks for newer machines, IBM disks for older machines. Trial & error...plus maybe a burst of canned air for good measure.

A last resort would be to replace the floppy drive. I like the new combo floppy drives that incorporate a card reader making them many times more useful:

http://www.directron.com/fa402a.html

At least that space will be used more often...



Tony

"...an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind" - M.L. King

 

[mrkan]

I was thinking about that as possible reason...

Thanks a lot for sharing.

 

[mrkan]

Actually, last night I realized, after I removed the floppy and had only CD Rom (primary slave) and sata hd (on sata1).

I noticed that now boot from CD ROM doesn't work. It starts, then it tells me to type location of command.com. ...

It seems to me that there is conflict between SATA and IDE? Is that possible?
If I plug in floppy back, then floppy doesn't work and CD ROM is fine.

Thanks...

 

[BadBigBen]

Move the CD ROM to Secondary Master... No SINGLE drive should be SLAVE on any IDE CHANNEL... the reason why it should be on the secondary IDE Channel, is that XP Installer, sometimes does not like it when the CD ROM is on the PRIMARY Channel and it will bonk...

and to answer your question, yes they can interfere, but should not these days, as that was a limitation in the earliest chipsets that had SATA and IDE... in the past two years that I have build systems with both IDE and SATA, and none have shown the symptoms that you describe at all...

Question: is the BIOS up to date?


PS: it could also be a bum motherboard... so I would just take it back to the place I bought it from and get an exchange...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[wahnula]

the reason why it should be on the secondary IDE Channel, is that XP Installer, sometimes does not like it when the CD ROM is on the PRIMARY Channel and it will bonk

LOL agreed 100% yes that is true, found this one out the hard way.

Tony

"...an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind" - M.L. King

 

[BadBigBen]

@wahnula - same here, took me nearly four days to figure that out aswell... and then found it on the net, on an obscure page, if it was written on paper it would have been in a small fine font style...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[LawnBoy]

Floppy drives are not IDE devices...

"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[BadBigBen]

Floppy drives are not IDE devices...

right...

but did you read what problems he has?

To install XP I have to boot from XP installation, and in that case floppy doesn't work...
...
since floppy doesn't work, I can't install sata/raid controller and then sata is not recognized... so therefore I can't install XP....

and

If I plug in floppy back, then floppy doesn't work and CD ROM is fine.

so there is a problem with the IDE and Floppy interfering with each other... so to alleviate the problem, it was suggested that he move the CD-ROM...




Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[LawnBoy]

Sure, Ben. I was responding to

It seems to me that there is conflict between SATA and IDE? Is that possible?

... and since the problem involved the floppy, it's not a conflict between sata/ide. Sorry for not being more clear.


"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[BadBigBen]

Ok, just making it clear at my end aswell...

no harm done on both sides...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."