Floppy volume not recognized on new Asus P4B266 MOBO 1

[threedots]

I have just built a system with an Asus P4B266 MOBO. I used peripheral components from other systems to complete the build, including a floppy disk drive unit that I know to be working. I set up the BIOS for the A drive to be first in the order for the boot process, enabled "Floppy Drive Seek on Boot" and disabled Mode 3 floppy support.

I used an existing HDD and wished to reformat it. When I attempted to boot to my Win98 (floppy) boot disk, the system went directly into Windows.

When I boot without a floppy disk present in the drive, everything appears normal. The MOBO is directed to the FDD and the FDD light comes on, then off again after detecting no media (volume) present. The cables are known good (work in other systems) and the pins are properly alligned on the connectors, with the twist/cut end on the FDD. There is only one FDD in the system. Everything else in the system appears to work properly.

Except for a possible FDD controller malfunction (which I have no tools to diagnose), I am stumped. Can anyone help out here?

 

[Win98User]

The first thing I would check is that your changes to the BIOS were saved.

The next thing I would do would be to check the Floppy disk connections - if they look ok, I would reverse the connection into the back of the FDD in order to create a problem with the boot up process - If the machine recognises the problem then it recognises the drive is there.

But could you enlighten me as to what "disabled Mode 3 floppy support" is?

Regards,

John.

 

[Accessdabbler]

Mode 3 Floppy Support is for floppy drives in Japan. This should be disabled (unless you are in Japan, using a Japanese floppy drive).

Try disconnecting the HDD and then booting. This will tell you if it is reading the Floppy drive correctly. Also, are you sure the boot disk was made properly?

 

[Win98User]

Thanks for that Accessdabbler.

I wondered about the state of the boot disk and then discounted the idea because the system should report a non-system disk and freeze.

Regards.

 

[roamer1]

If all of the above check out, plug the floppy back into another box to re-confirm it. I think the handling of the R&R can sometimes dislodge dirt internally and cause the thing to malfunction. Usually repaired by pulling the cover and giving it some air.

 

[threedots]

Thanks for all of your thoughts and suggestions. I fixed the problem. Here's what I did:

1. The FDD controller was not bad. The drive was tested and confirmed on another sustem, the BIOS settings were rechecked (always a good suggestion) and confirmed viable, the cable tested, and finally, the HDD disconnected. Ah-hah! A problem stemming from the hard drive! (Thanks, Accessdabbler!) Back to the BIOS - no problems found.

I found the disk utility for the hard drive (a Maxtor 20GB drive) and ran that. The floppy drive performed perfectly. I performed a low-level reformatting (writing zeros) on the hard drive and then ran another utility called MaxBlast, again from the Maxtor support site, to partition the drive. When all was said and done, I booted from the floppy and reinstalled the OS (Win98ES).

A "Poltergeist?" - dunno, but at this point will not argue - glad to move on. However, it's an interesting set of circumstances.

BTW, have by now placed a heap of app's and additional peripheral drivers on the HDD and everything continues to work perfectly.

Thanks for all your considerations!

Mark (Threedots)