sunkindly wrote on 2025-11-11, 03:32:

Unless I'm seeing things wrong, it looks like it's connected before the twist so at the very least it should be set to drive B in BIOS.

Either way the drive doesn't make that lovely initialization sound like it should. Tomorrow when I get off work I'll take a further look. Not really losing all hope but the hope is pretty thin.

thrashertildeth wrote on 2025-11-11, 06:50:

sunkindly wrote on 2025-11-11, 03:32:

Unless I'm seeing things wrong, it looks like it's connected before the twist so at the very least it should be set to drive B in BIOS.

Either way the drive doesn't make that lovely initialization sound like it should. Tomorrow when I get off work I'll take a further look. Not really losing all hope but the hope is pretty thin.

You mean if it's set to B in BIOS it won't do a seek test?

is the red ribbon to the corret side on the controller card ?

What controller card are you using ? is not the one you posted pictures..

Make SURE the drive is jumpered as drive2 (in PC's all drives are jumpered as 2 and the actual drive selected is determined by the position of the drive in the cable)
(To be clear, I'm assuming drives jumpers are 1,2,3,4 - NOT 0,1,2,3)

At end (After twist) = Logical Drive 1
Between twist and controller = Logical Drive 2

Also, try enabling drive B: in BIOS - if BIOS sees it it should test it's presence and seek track 0 at power-on (you should see a little drive activity).
After boot, try accessing A: and then B: - It's possible that jumpers/cables are making it appear as B:

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but have you actually tried using the floppy in dos or windows? Maybe this BIOS just doesnt do a seek test...

thrashertildeth wrote on 2025-11-11, 02:48:

I've tried a different cable, I've tried 2 separate controller cards. I've even tried installing a OS on another PC and booting into it from the hard drive and it won't even boot into the hard drive. The hard drive shows up on auto detection. I've even tried a 5.25 instead of a 3.5 inch floppy to see if it would even initialize. I'm losing all hope. I have another motherboard I might try and get to work in its place but whenever I power it on it gives me a base 64k memory error. I will include more pictures soon. I feel like I've been jipped twice. I'll buy another 486 motherboard if I have to later on because I really want a 486 system but right now I've spent way too much. Will keep you posted

Different power supply too?

Here is the controller cards I'm using.

I've checked the Voltage of the power supply with 2 hard drives connected and the voltages are correct.

One of the FDD does not have jumpers but the Sony MPF420 FDD does. I will try with B instead of A

I'm sorry but just know I really appreciate all the help because it gives me hope and sorry for the delay. Just been super busy.

Use the SAB-757 controller I/O. sometimes VLB cards are more pichy.

Disable LPT port, and Serial ports. with jumpers E, F, G, H.

Then change irq, in ether jp10 or the other below jp5.

Dont forget, red ribbon in cable to pin 1 of the conector of the i/o card. and reb ribbon to the direction of the power connector in the drisquete drive to.
put the drive after the twist. or last concector.

I've tried everything you told me Nuno, I really appreciate your help. But I'm still not getting the drives to initialize

I appreciate the help from everybody but at this point I'm just going to give up and use my Windows 98 gaming PC and emulate old DOS games. Really wanted this old 486 to work because of the Sound Blaster Pro and the Graphics card. But it is what it is. Maybe I can find another Baby AT Motherboard that can fit in this Tandy case. I'm just disappointed because this is the 2nd Motherboard I've bought and both sellers have said they are fully tested in DOS. Anyway, Have a good day.

thrashertildeth wrote on 2025-11-15, 01:32:

I appreciate the help from everybody but at this point I'm just going to give up and use my Windows 98 gaming PC and emulate old DOS games. Really wanted this old 486 to work because of the Sound Blaster Pro and the Graphics card. But it is what it is. Maybe I can find another Baby AT Motherboard that can fit in this Tandy case. I'm just disappointed because this is the 2nd Motherboard I've bought and both sellers have said they are fully tested in DOS. Anyway, Have a good day.

Maybe it's worth trying a Gotek? It's only 30 bucks which is relatively cheap compared to another motherboard and overall just pretty useful to have for all sorts of machines.

Have you tried either of those floppy drives in the Windows 98 machine with the onboard floppy controller?

One thing that concerned me was that in one of the photos the drive's pcb on the underside was touching the metal chassis of the case. Just trying to think of everything that could be causing an issue.

I will look into a gotek for sure. And yeah I've tried both the Compaq FDD and Sony FDD I have in my grandmother's old Pavilion 9688c and they initialize as soon as I power on the system. Unfortunately the Pavilion does not have ISA slots. It's PCI only. And I'm going to keep trying. I don't want to give up. But it's a pain trying to get this thing to do something. I've read the manual and looked up jumper settings so many times, so it has to be something silly.

So I got a new motherboard with integrated floppy and HDD ide ports. Soon I should have a 486 machine. The motherboard I got is a Spring Circle Ss486 REV PC2I