getting a floppy drive to work on a 486 \ VOGONS

getting a floppy drive to work on a 486

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First post, by cnpr

Posted on 2017-11-01, 00:22

cnpr Offline

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Hello all again, I finally got my vital parts for the 486 build, but I'm running into a road block. I tried to get the floppy drive going but it won't read disk. I tested two floppy drives a few cables on the io card that is have (its using vesa bus.) Ive tested said floppies drives and cables on to a different machine and both work fine. on the io card, It will detect and spin the floppy disk but as I said It won't read. Which Its possible that the io card or motherboard could be defective or I'm not setting something right. the disk do work on the other machine. the board I"m using a pc chips m912 and the io card is a data technology 2270vl. the boot i'm using is a windows 98 boot disk for testing.

Reply 1 of 6, by bloodbath2you

Posted on 2017-11-01, 01:16

bloodbath2you Offline

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i dont think your I/O card has issues since it can recognize your drive, my guess is a broken cable? check the traces of the ribbon if theres physical damage.

Reply 2 of 6, by cnpr

Posted on 2017-11-01, 01:33

cnpr Offline

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there is nothing wrong with the cables. all the cables worked when I tested in the other machine.

Reply 3 of 6, by brostenen

Posted on 2017-11-01, 17:08

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Check jumpers, cable orientation and bios setup.

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Those cakes make you sick....

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Reply 4 of 6, by tabm0de

Posted on 2017-11-01, 22:40

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I have notice on some of my old computers that they prefer different “drive select”/ “ID0/1” as I understand there is two different. But not all floppy drives can be changed easy if it doesn’t have pins for it.

naa, nothing yet...

Reply 5 of 6, by Scali

Posted on 2017-11-01, 22:46

Scali Offline

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Most AT and newer systems will use the standardized 'twisted' floppy cable, where all drives have to be configured as drive 1 (B:, not A:, which would be drive 0). You connect the drive you want to be A: after the twist, and B: before the twist.
This will be how your 486 works.
See also here: http://www.interfacebus.com/PC_Floppy_Drive_PinOut.html

Old XT systems may have different setups, not using a twisted cable, but actually relying on the jumpers on the drive to select.

http://scalibq.wordpress.com/just-keeping-it- … ro-programming/

Reply 6 of 6, by skitters

Posted on 2017-11-01, 23:13

skitters Offline

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brostenen wrote:
Check jumpers, cable orientation and bios setup.

^ this ^

Nearly all my 486 expect either a 1.2 mb 5.25" floppy drive or a 720 kb 3.5" floppy drive on A: until I tell them differently in the BIOS.

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