I had a look at that stason webpage you linked to. On it, there's this setting:

Floppy, IDE, Parallel, and Serial ports enabled -- JSMC -- pins 1 & 2 closed

Please check this setting. If it's set to enabled, I wonder if there are other jumpers you can experiment with? For example, I notice that the board has onboard SCSI, and its setting defaults to enabled. Are you using SCSI? If not, you could try disabling it. That's a long shot, but it's worth a try. (Could be some kind of odd resource allocation issue.)

I know you don't want a FDC add-on card, but you could consider an EIDE IO ISA controller. That way, you could abandon all of the onboard IO connectors, and just use that. I really like EIDE IO ISA controllers. I prefer to use one of these cards, to the integrated IO.

One thing you "could" be missing is to try to connect the floppy drive to a different power connector, or a different cable altogether. This may not be an issue and I realize many PSU's have very few cables, so it may not even be possible for you.

If the onboard FDC is knackered, then theres not much you can do except what RG100 pointed out about using an ISA controller.

Btw, what type of floppy drive are you trying to connect? If it's a standard 1.44MB drive, you "might" be able to replace it with an IDE LS-120 drive and use that drive for nothing except for floppies. That may not be wanted for you though, but at least this could be one more option you have 😉

Edit:

hargcore wrote:

The floppy is connected to an ATX power supply (not AT) - It is the same PSU I tested the Asus M2V-TVM on.

RG100, think it could be that his PSU is too modern for the SP3?

Tetrium wrote:

hargcore wrote:

The floppy is connected to an ATX power supply (not AT) - It is the same PSU I tested the Asus M2V-TVM on.

RG100, think it could be that his PSU is too modern for the SP3?

That ATX PSU (with ATX to AT adapter) will be just fine. 😀
Just had another thought: in the BIOS, you can select what type of FDD you are using. Eg 1.44, 1.2, 720, 360. I guess it's set correctly to 1.44.

Edit: Sorry, I made the assumption a 1.44 drive was being used. I should have said something like - "I guess it's set correctly to whatever capacity the drive is."

Edit 2: Actually, if the original poster (hargcore) is not using a 3.5" 1.44 MB drive, may I suggest trying one? These are easier to get working than 5.25" drives. If a 3.5" 1.44 MB drive works, you'll know that the integrated FDC/pins are OK.

Thanks for the quick response guys, I tried your ideas but no luck. I actually posted the wrong link my mobo is this one:

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/A/AS … PVI-486SP3.html

But I did look at the Onboard I/O Jumper to check if was enabled and it was. I tried another cable on the PSU with a floppy adaptor and the same problem. The floppy I am trying is 3.5 but I have also tried a 5.25 with the same results - I configured the correct drive in the BIOS.

I had a look for a full EIDE IO ISA controller on ebay (couldn't find any in the UK) and turned up this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EVEREX-EV-358-16-Bit-IS … =item359ac3cf14

What do you think of this? Does this look like a good choice?

This may also help me get round some apparent compatibility problems with my IDE to Compact Flash adaptor as well (which is what I want to use as my HDD).

Regarding that ESDI controller you linked to. I don't know a thing about this old standard, but my guess is that it will not be IDE compatible, and so will not work with a compact flash device. Does everything else work on your mobo, for instance is the onboard IDE HDD working OK?

Regarding ISA controllers on ebay. They're getting a bit thin on the ground these days. I spotted this one, but it's over priced, and I don't think it's EIDE. But it's all that I could find, in the UK.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt … em=220761677884

Ah, I didn't even notice it was ESDI ! Thanks for the link RG I have purchased the overpriced controller card in a bid to get my 486 up and running. Cheers for the help, I'm sure I'll be here asking for more when the thing actually arrives hehe.

This looks encouraging: http://www.cc.ioc.ee/~juhan/hardware/iocards/. (Goldstar Prime 2c)

It says: "According to my experience an excellent IO adapter if mainboard's floppy/parallel/serial controller has failed. What makes it especially nice is that it has the jumper settings printed on the back of the board." 😀

RG - just wanted to post to let you know the card you refered me to works a treat. I have 2 floppies an optical and cf2ide connected up to it so far. It was indeed the floppy connection \ controller that had gone on the mobo. My 486 is finally running with a DOS install. I appreciate the help.

Now to get the midi / soundcard up!

😁