Author Topic: Floppy port dead on Asus A7M266? (Read 749 times)

Wanker · « **on:** September 10, 2001, 04:27:00 PM »

Ugh. Just built this new rig over the weekend:

Antec SX830 case with (4) 80mm intake/exhaust fans
AMD Athlon 1.4 266 FSB
Swifttech MCX370-0A CPU cooler
Asus A7M266
512 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR RAM
40 GB IBM Deskstar GXP 60 7200 RPM hard drive
Gainward 64MB GeForce 3 AGP video card
SB Live Value
Intel Pro S 100mb NIC
Pioneer S16 Slot-feed DVD drive
Plextor 24/10/40 Plexwriter CDR-CDRW

Everything works great, with one important exception. I can't get the floppy drive to work, and I need it to load the new 1.04a BIOS for the A7M266. The old BIOS, 1.03a, thinks my 1.4 GHZ CPU is really a 1.33GHZ, and it's driving me nuts!

The fix for this is the new BIOS version, which I can't upgrade to because the floppy drive isn't working.

So far, I've tried two other floppy cables, and I've even taken the floppy drive from my old system and plunked it in there, but I get the same error(I/O error in disk, check the disk and try again). I've checked the BIOS to make sure I have it enabled for seek upon boot-up, and it's the first device in my boot-up list.

What's really, really weird about this, is that although I couldn't boot from this drive, I was able to boot off a Win98SE CD-ROM and select "bootup with CD-ROM support". This allowed me to then access the floppy disk in the drive and fdisk & format the drive using the floppy disk!

So, I got Win98SE installed on the HD, but I still cannot access any disk in the floppy drive from within Win98SE.

The only thing I can think of is that the floppy port on the MB is bad. There are no burn marks or bent pins or anything, but that's the only conclusion I can come up with. Maybe it's a BIOS issue, but I need to have a working floppy drive to update the BIOS!

What I'm hoping is that someone on here has seen this before, and will tell me that I won't have to send it back and try to get a new one(which will take a couple of weeks).

Someone, please tell me what I want to hear!

Thanks in advance for any help.

Tac · « **Reply #1 on:** September 10, 2001, 05:25:00 PM »

smells like a jumper problem. be sure you are using the JUMPERFREE setting.

My atm266 works a-ok.

Asus overclocked the RAM voltage jumper to 2.7V, should be 2.5V. Remove the V1O1 jumper. Also, if you have a sound card installed, disable the sound on both jumper and bios, many annoying problems if you dont do both.

As far as that floppy, install the new bios and see, if the drive worked on that system (albeit after booting with cd-rom) it means it works. Be sure to install the VIA drivers for the MBD too.

bloom25 · « **Reply #2 on:** September 10, 2001, 05:54:00 PM »

Is it possible the disk your bios is on is just bad?

Try another disk.

Wanker · « **Reply #3 on:** September 11, 2001, 12:03:00 AM »

Tac, good suggestions, have double and triple checked everything, and yes I have disbaled the onboard audio. But like I said, I can't update the BIOS because the BIOS update requires a DOS bootdisk, and since my floppy doesn't work, I can't boot up on it.

How could the floppy problem be a jumper problem? I've never heard of a floppy I/O being controlled by a jumper.

Bloom, yep, already tried 5 known good bootable floppies. I even ran out to Best Buy, and overpaid for a brand spanking new floppy drive and cable, just to make sure....same behavior. It's got to be a problem on the MB.

Oh well, thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it. Looks like I'm going to have to try a different MB to confirm my suspicion.

1776 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 11, 2001, 12:21:00 AM »

Does your case have a front panel with a button to activate the disk eject? If it does then try using the floppy
without the front panel. I had the same problem on an antex case. It turned out to be the front panel wouldn't let the disk load properly.

funkedup · « **Reply #5 on:** September 11, 2001, 12:23:00 AM »

One time I had a cheesy floppy cable that could be connected backwards. The floppy worked partially but not completely. Was a pain in the bellybutton to trouble shoot. Just a SWAG.

Tac · « **Reply #6 on:** September 11, 2001, 01:12:00 AM »

cc funked, would be ugly if its an IDE cable plugged backwards... but why did it work AFTER the pc booted with the win cd? Thats just weird.

Get a replacement a7m266, who knows, it may have been a factory defective one. Shtuff happens.

OTH, the floppy is set as master and not cable select or slave..right? (i gotta ask!)

out on a limb...

power supply? them AMD suck powah! Sometimes some devices dont work because they dont get power..if you booting up the system and its zapping all your devices on bootup to get a response from them.. well, the floppy may be getting "missed". Wild theory. Be sure to have 300W or more on that puppy.

SOB · « **Reply #7 on:** September 11, 2001, 06:59:00 AM »

banana...Is this a new requirement for Asus? I've always upgraded the BIOS on my various Asus boards by just restarting, hitting F8 to bring up the boot menu, and selecting Command Prompt Only. Never a problem for me.

SOB

Wanker · « **Reply #8 on:** September 11, 2001, 02:55:00 PM »

Tac, great suggestion about the floppy being master...will check that tonight. Yeah, the Antec SX830 has a pw303 300w AMD approved power supply.

SOB, that's interetsting, didn't know that you could update the BIOS like that. I was just following the instructions from Asus' website. I burned the new BIOS file onto a CD, so I'll transfer it over to the hard drive tonight then bootup like you recommend. it's worth a shot!

1776, that's something I had already experienced with a previous case, so I have tried it with the front face plate on and off. Also, I even took the drive out of the case and laid it on the table. But that's a great idea, thanks for digging deep for that one.

Funked, yeah I'm going to really be embarrassed if I got the floppy cable mixed up...but with all the floppy cables I tried, I put them on both ways. You know when you have it on backwards, because the drive indicator light stays lit as soon as you turn the power on.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I'lll tackle it more tonight. I need something to take my mind off of this horrible catastrophe that happened today.

Wanker · « **Reply #9 on:** September 11, 2001, 02:58:00 PM »

I forgot to mention that the drive tries to access the disk, making the usual ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk'ing noises...but in Win98 it says drive is not available, and at post when trying to boot from it, it says I/O error.

Wanker · « **Reply #10 on:** September 12, 2001, 09:09:00 AM »

SOB, you SOB, it worked!

Hehe, I upgraded the BIOS the way you recommended, and now the BIOS reads the CPU as 1.4GHZ, instead of 1.33.

That's good enough for me for now. I'll figure out the floppy later, as I hardly ever use it.

Thanks again for taking the time to help, everyone!

SOB · « **Reply #11 on:** September 12, 2001, 10:31:00 AM »

Good to hear!

I was just trying to think of the last time I used my floppy drive . . . still thinking. I didn't even bother to buy one when I put together my second computer!

SOB

Rendar · « **Reply #12 on:** September 20, 2001, 11:26:00 PM »

A bit OT, but you should have gotten the SX-1040.