Pentium MMX pc project - Floppy disk fail (40), Disk boot failure. \ VOGONS

Pentium MMX pc project - Floppy disk fail (40), Disk boot failure.

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First post, by MetroidHatchling

Posted on 2020-05-26, 00:51

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I'm currently trying to build a Pentium-MMX PC on a Biostar Microtech MB-8500TTD motherboard using parts taken from a couple other incomplete 286-486 era computers I've had in storage. I intend to put DOS 6.22 on it but I haven't gotten to that point yet. Upon powering it on I get the error "Floppy disk(s) fail (40)". If I continue I get the error "Disk Boot Failure, Insert system disk and press enter". I put a dos 6.22 setup disk into the 3.5" drive and still get the same error, I tried a few windows boot disks I have just to see and nothing different happened. From what I can tell it looks like it might not be reading the hard drive. Perhaps the hard drive is no longer functional? I don't have any other easily accessible IDE hard drives on hand at the moment but I could order one if that's a likely issue. I'm not sure if there are problems with the floppy drives themselves either, though it seems unlikely that everything is broken. I've replaced the CMOS battery on the motherboard and within the bios set hard drive to auto detect. I've tried changing the boot order so that the hard drive boots first to see if there would be anything different as well but nothing has had any effect.

Not quite sure how I should proceed from this point. I can order some new parts if I need to but I wanted to check here first to see if anyone might have a better idea of what's going on before I go buying anything.

Thanks for any help.

Reply 1 of 3, by darry

Posted on 2020-05-26, 01:01

darry Offline

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Is the floppy light constantly on ? if it is the, cable is plugged in wrong .

Also, your BIOS is configured for two floppy drives, but you only mention one . How many are connected ?

Reply 2 of 3, by SodaSuccubus

Posted on 2020-05-26, 02:32

SodaSuccubus Offline

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Joined: 2020-03-09, 15:01

What Darry said + looking at those screen shots, "Primary Master Disk: None" so it doesn't look like you defined a hard drive in the bios. Award bios of this time should have an IDE Auto detect option in the bios menu. Enter it and if your drive is working, it should appear on a list of selectable drives 😀

Otherwise, check all cabling, make sure everything is orientated properly. Check to see if your bios can do a floppy seek test on boot. If it doesn't start making noise on restart, you probably have it wired up wrong.

Reply 3 of 3, by MetroidHatchling

Posted on 2021-03-13, 06:28

MetroidHatchling Offline

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Hi. Sorry for the year late response but things got really busy and I had to put off the project for a bit. I have it out again now though. I appreciate the help.

I have 2 floppy drives but to simplify things I only have the 3.5" drive connected. I went into the bios and disabled the secondary drive so that shouldn't be an issue. The floppy drive light is dark until it attempts to read, then the drive lights up and makes noise as it should. I think it's safe to say that the Floppy drive is not the issue.

The problem seems to be with the "Primary Master Disk: None" as you've said. I have gone into the bios's "IDE HDD Auto Detection" menu. The drive does not appear on the list. There is nothing in the list. This HDD is an old WD 40MB MD93044-a. It was the one screwed into the computer case when I got it. I also tried with a 200gb EIDE WD2000 that I had lying around just to see if it would read anything and that brings up nothing as well. I tested the newer drive with a Sabrent HDD to USB converter on my main computer and it's working fine. The 40MB drive, however, did not show up on my main computer at all (win 7 64 bit), but did show up when I tried it on my Win98SE PC, though it remained inaccessible. "Cannot access. Drive is not ready.".

At this point I'm unsure if the HDD is bad or if the motherboard's IDE controller might be bad (I'm not certain how I would test that, though.) or possibly even both. This is a second-hand machine that I bought untested from a thrift store, so anything is possible. I'd be fine with ordering new parts if need be, but I wanted to see if I could make do with what I had first.

Thanks again.

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