First post, by Thallanor
Hello,
I am pulling my hair out with an old Packard Bell not reading floppy disks correctly. I've owned this PC since new but it has been in storage for about 20-25 years. It's based off of their PB430/440/440T motherboard. (http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/430.htm)
What is happening is that it refuses to boot or otherwise read any floppy disks from the 3.5" HD FDD. If there is no disk, it recognizes that. But the moment you put a disk in and try again or press R for retry, it just spins, and after a few moments, stops, but the system is frozen at DOS.
I've tried two other cables and two other drives (all of which works in another computer) and the problem persists. I've tried disabling the onboard FDC in the BIOS and have installed an ISA FDC, and the results are exactly the same. No disk, it sees that. Put a disk in, and it just spins for a few seconds and hangs the system.
I'm really starting to run out of options. I suppose I could technically run without a FDD but it'd be a pain. Simple drivers would mean pulling the SSD (once that arrives in a couple days) and attaching it by USB to my computer to copy things over. For bigger things, sure. But for simple things like mouse drivers or similar, what a pain. Plus, it's just frustrating not being able to figure something like this out that should be relatively simple.
If anyone has any further suggestions, I'm all ears. I'd try another FDC if I had one, but don't. And my finances are tightening up so I can't really spare the money for another one.
Anyway, thanks in advance!