Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

floppy not working

0 helpful
8 replies

by peteye

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I just bought a used 440lx mb. It turns out it is from a sony (BIOS splash screen) Anyway, I got a 266 PII to put in it for my Mom, but I can't get it up and running. In the bios, there is a boot section that lets you pick the order of boot devices. I put "peripheral devices" first, then hard drives, then CD rom. However, it does not matter, it will only boot from the hard drive. Once Windows 98 2nd ed loads, the floppy may or may not work. Also when trying to boot to a boot floppy I justget a message that says "Operating system not found". Please help, I really want to get this computer fixed up for my Mom. Thanks.

8 replies

by peteye

also, I know for a fact it is not the floppy, the BIOS floppy setting, or the cables.

by thechas

If the drive, cable, and BIOS settings are all correct, I have no ideas for the boot problem.

For Windows, I have a few ideas;
1. Check device manager for the status of the drive.
Under performace/file system/floppy drives, make sure the box is checked to search for new drives.

2. Make sure that the BIOS is set to report floppy drives to Windows.

3. Have you installed the drivers for the motherboard / chipset. For W98, many drives do not function properly in windows without the IDE buss driver installed.

After you get everything working, you can disable the floppy drive search and report options. This will speed up boot time a little.

Just had an idea on the boot problem. Check in the bios for reserved IRQs. If the default IRQ for the floppy is also assigned to another device, you may have a conflict.

If you can identify the Sony PC model, see if there is a BIOS update available.

The term peripheral devices bothers me for a boot option. I usually think of peripheral devices as external!

by timthetoolman

Hi,

I agree with TheChas on putting "peripheral devices" first in your boot order. I'd be reasonably confident that peripheral devices doesn't mean the floppy drive.

Being an older machine, its possible that the floppy drive is set to be booted from first and that cant be changed so you dont see an option for it.

Does the floppy light come on during boot? And attempt to read the disk? If it does, then...

If there are problems reading the floppy's boot sector, then you'd get the message "Operating system not found"

Try another bootable floppy disk - although I'm sure you've done that.

Will it boot from a CD? - there is generally no point in putting the CD after the HD in the boot order as it would normally never get to boot from it.

How do you know the floppy drive is ok? If it occasionally works under windows after a successful boot to 98, then its still possibly got an intermittant hardware problem. Windows would almost certainly do more retries than a boot.

If you can get another one, it would be worth trying.

Cheers,
Tim.

by craigscompsup

I agree with the above two answers, but you must look at the controller on the motherboard.

Look first for a cable seating problem and missing pins. Look for evidence around the area for broken, or burnt-looking conduits.

If this is not theproblem, reload the BIOS for your particular motherboard, (try MicroFirmware for an upgrade if need-be)

If all of that fails, stop wasting your time, and buy a new motherboard. The likelihood of a powersurge wrecking your floppy controller first (or your cpu 2nd) is pretty high.

Thank you,
Craig.

This discussion is closed to new replies.