floppy drive won't boot - please help

[xexth]

My computer won't start with a floppy disk. It is a pentium 111 - 500 MHz computer.
I have checked all the connections, the BIOS, have replaced the cable (tried 3 different ribbon cables), have even replaced the floppy drive and still get the same result. When I try to start the computer with the floppy disk the computer POST's and the screen shows all of the devices the BIOS has found (including the 3.5 " floppy drive) it then detects the floppy disk saying that a boot disk have been found and then does nothing. The light on the floppy disk goes out just after the system detects the boot disk. I have tried boot disks for win98 and winme. The computer has win98 loaded.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem may be? I'm guessing it's the mobo but am not sure. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Sparks6421]

I had a similar problem some time ago. Try going into BIOS setup and disabling your boot hard drive. Once I did that it would boot off the floppy.

 

[Svensson]

Hello xexth!

Can you read the floppy disks in Windows? If you can, then your FDD is OK and setup properly in your BIOS.
You can look for something like; "Floppy drive seek at boot" in your BIOS if its disabled you wont be able to boot from the floppy drive. Make sure that the FDD is first in the boot sequence list also.

Daniel Svensson

 

[xexth]

Yes, when in windows I can read from the floppy drive - shows the files on the disk. The only other odd thing is that when in the device manager the cdrw has an exclamation mark against it. This may not be anything to do with this problem but thought I would mention this in case.
Thanks for all of your replies and suggestions. Will try disconnection the hdd and will let you know how it works out.

 

[Svensson]

The exclamation mark agains the CDRW means that correct drivers hasnt been loaded. Since CD:s and CDRW:s doesnt normaly use any vendor specific drivers the CDRW should install properly if you delete it in Device Manager and restart the computer.
I doesnt know what is causing your FDD problem but what I wrote before doesnt have to be true, if the FDD isnt installed at all in the BIOS Windows can be able to access it anyway. Have you tried to reset the BOIS settings do default?

Daniel Svensson

 

[xexth]

Resolved CDRW problem - deleted mf in the registry and re-booted - redetected and everything OK. Floppy issue not resolved. Believe it is a problem with the mobo - controller issue. Reset BIOS to default already. In fact cleared the CMOS on the mobo and restarted machine - still no joy. Am in the process of replacing the board. Only other solution would be to use an LS120 drive which will read floppies but runs on the harddrive cable. Thanks for all of your helpful posts and suggestions.

 

[Svensson]

Your Welcome xexth, Im sorry I couldnt help you.

Daniel Svensson