Floppy drive problem

Can you boot from the floppy with the proper BIOS settings?

If so, what you need for Windows is the chip-set drivers for the motherboard.
I have had many a system where after installing Windows 98 that the floppy drive no longer functioned.
Installing the drivers for the chip-set always corrects the problem.

A couple of other things to check:
Make sure the BIOS switch to report floppy drives to Windows is set to enable. (This needs to be set to enable until the floppy is properly functioning in Windows.

Check the floppy drive options in the performance section of System Properties.
Again, the options need to be set to detect new drives until Windows sets up the floppy properly.

In device manager, remove the 5 1/4" floppy.
Re-boot, and see if Windows now sets up the drive properly.

Chas

I have a client who has an older computer with a BIOS that has a section that lists attached devices. The floppy entry defaults to 5-1/4 and we set it to 3-1/2. Unfortunately, the battery ran down so the computer reverts to 5-1/4 upon booting. The computer is nearing retirement so my client doesn't want to get a new battery, so I had to teach his secretary to reenter the BIOS entries after booting. If your client's floppy worked at one time, could something similar be happening? Just wondering, though I think it's too simplistic to be likely.

First of all, when booting your pc get into the cmos setup,either by hitting del,or ctrl-alt-esc,or however,after memory boot.Go to your drives list usually the first page.Be sure 3.5 or 31/2,or what you are using,with the windows bootup floppy in the drive.Enable the first floppy drive and no other.Save cmos and ok,let boot.No luck,be sure the small floppy connector is in firmly,and the twisted cable,colored line is away from the connector.Adhere to the twisted cable rule for floppy drives.Straight cables,one drive have same connection as hard drives.

Everything said so far is good, that is:

Check the data cable is good and the right way round.

Check the power cable is good, try another if available, most systems have two floppy power leads.

Check the BIOS settings.

Also make sure that the floppy device is connected to the very LAST position on the floppy cable. Older BIOS will look for boot from device A only and device A is the floppy connection at the very end of the cable. Watch out some cables have duplicate 5.25 and 3.5 connectors on them.

If this is all good then you have to have a problem with the motherboard.

Thanks for the comments, but none seem to apply. Former owner said the floppy worked at one time. I switched out the floppy for a working one, still none showing in Dev Mgr or My Computer. I checked CMOS, floppy setting was NONE. When I setg to 3 1/2-1.44 I got a floppy fail (40) error. Switching cable did not help, is getting power, so I seemed to be left with an onboard floppy controller failure. After turning floppy in CMOS back to none and disabling the floppy controller in Dev Mgr, I put in a multifunction card, disabled COM and LPT ports via jumpers (I think correctly) and hooked up floppy cable. When I booted the computer it came up showing no floppy or controller card in Dev Mgr but showed a 5 1/4 floppy in My Computer. I cannot ofcourse read the floppy drive. Motherboard is AZZA PT-51T, controller is at this URL
(mfg - DTK, model - pt1227w)
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:LbT5YkZUb5QJ:mirrors.ausit.com/%25257Egromitkc/cheapo.html+F825K4PTI227W&hl=en&ie=UTF-8. Any more ideas?

One more thing - Performance Section says that "Drive a: is using ms-dos compatibility mode file system." The accompanying details suggest a driver problem.

1) if you are sure floppy drive is ok, cable is ok too, cable on the right way, you haven't got bent pins, you have jumper on back of drive set as primary 'a' and you haven't got drive in crossover connection for second drive (ie b:) then your problem is one of or combination of:
a) motherboard interupt controller chip,
b) fdc chip onboard,
c) near dead cmos battery,
d) or invalid cmos settings
Nothing else is possible!

You said you tried a secondary multifunction card so you can rule out the onboard fdc (unless it is shorting out the interupt controller.

If the floppy isn't seen during POST(power on self test) and isn't seen by bios windows will never see it either.

I have one final thought, check and see that you don't have any addon card set to use irq6 except either the onboard floppy or multifunction card. some modems and some tape b/u drives have the ability to use irq6 providing no floppy is in circuit.

hope this helps rick

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