So, while I've had problems getting this motherboard to POST with a DX4 in it, it's happily POSTed with a DX2 66 anytime I try.

But I can't get it to recognize a floppy disk. Or even (apparently) recognize a floppy drive appropriately.

My goal is to have both a 3.5" and a 5.25" connected, but since I've been trying to fix this issue, I've disconnected the 5.25" and focused on the 3.5.

No matter what I try, it gives the error: "Floppy disk(s) fail (40)" when trying to boot. This is with or without a disk in the drive.

The floppy cable is connected in the correct orientation; I flipped it just to check, and the lights stayed on and the system wouldn't even get this far.

It appears to recognize the HDD. I can't get to it, because there's no way for me to get to DOS. I got the HDD off eBay; no idea what's on it, if anything.

I don't have another system to test anything on, unfortunately. I have tried two different 3.5" drives, two different floppy cables, and two different I/O cards (one VLB, one ISA). I've tried both of the I/O cards in multiple slots. I've taken everything else out of the system except for the video card, and I've tried it in all three VLB slots. I've tried two 32 MB sticks of RAM, two 4 MB sticks of RAM, and one 4 MB stick of RAM.

I get this error every time.

I would love any suggestions. This is my first time trying to put together an older machine like this. This has been a . . . frustrating evening. Hah.

Thank you. 😀

Edit: I don't know how to plug floppy drives in. Had no idea it had to be after the twist.

Why was that the 400th thing I tried.

Now I just gotta deal with my hard drive refusing to format. :p