Very strange floppy problem with new 8K7a board, HELP!!!

[BlackCatt]

Okay I just recieved my brand new 8K7a board and proceeded to set it up. After I got it all together I went into windows to copy some files onto a floppy and I kept getting an error saying that the floppy disk was unformatted and that I needed and asked me if I wanted for format it. If I say yes, the drive light turns on for a few seconds and then it says it can't format the disk (I have tried several disks that I know are good). So I thought it was a driver in windows that was the problem. But I was going to re-install windows anyway. So I whipped out my trusty 98 boot disk. When I went to boot off the floppy it seeks the drive for a second and then just skips right by it (like there was no disk in the drive) and begins to boot of the HD again. I checked several times in the bios to make sure that my floppy was the first boot device, and that seek floppy on boot was enabled, they were. It also shows up as a 1.44MB Floppy on the basic bios config screen (where it lists your drives).

Okay so by now I am thoroughly confused. So I figure it might be the floppy cable is plugged in wrong. I tried every combination I could think of with the cable. Nothing worked. I would get a "Floppy drive Failure (40)" message if it was plugged in wrong (and the traditional constant seek light). So I tried a second floppy cable that came with the new board. Same results. What are the chances of me having 2 bad cables? Not good, I wouldn't think. Just to make sure though, I have another computer who's floppy drive is working. So I borrowed the floppy cable out of it and tried it as well with no luck. But it gets even stranger. I took the cable that I borrowed and replaced it back into my other machine and now it won't boot off floppy, or read the disk in windows. Did that cable go bad now?

Any ideas? Is it possible for a MB (or controller) to cause floppy cables to go bad? That is the only thing I can think of... I am really out of ideas.

Config:
Epox 8K7a (new today)
256 Crucial DDR running at Cas 2 (new today)
1Ghz AXIA Tbird running at 1000mhz 7.5x133
Elsa Gladiac GeForce2 32MB GTS
Antec 1030 w/300 watt P/S
SB Live Value (unplugged)
3Com 10/100 Nic (unplugged)
Teac 1.44 MB floppy
Iomega / Plextor 12x10x32 CD-RW
45Gig IBM HD

Thanks in advance,
BlackCatt

 

[Insane3D]

I've noticed my floppy drive won't work correctly when the FSB is overclocked. I had the same problems in Win2K, and I solved it by dropping the FSB back down to 133mhz. It worked fine then, and when I was done, I kicked the FSB back up.

 

[Comguy12]

Try the floppy drive from the other unit in this system.

 

[TuffGuy]

insane3d is correct.

 

[BlackCatt]

Okay, I found a workaround I think... I may have even fixed it... I am thoroughly confused at this point.

Anyway here is what I did. First thing I did was changed JCLK1 back to 1-2 (100Mhz cpu, 200Mhz DDR). Then in the bios I just disabled all the other boot devices. So the only boot device that was enabled was device 1 which was set to the Floppy drive. It found the floppy drive and booted off it fine. Then I went back into the bios and reset the boot devices to floppy, HD-0. Again upon reboot it booted off the floppy. Then I turned it off and reset the JCLK1 back to 2-3 (133Mhz cpu, 266Mhz DDR). Turned it on and again the floppy booted correctly.

So it seems to be able to boot off of it and read off of it correctly now. Thanks for the suggestions. Insane3d, I don't know if this is what you had in mind, but you are the one who inspired me to change that JCLK1 jumper. Hopefully it will continue to work properly from now on.

BlackCatt

 

[cherrytwist]

Hmmm...I recall having similar issues with the floppy drive not being recognized but I'm not sure what fixed it. After messing with the cables and installing the other drives and components, the problem just seemed to "go away". It couldn't have been the JCLK1 jumper b/c I had switched set to 1-2 (100mhz) from the start.

I had a similar problem with the board recognizing my HDD on the second IDE channel. It would recognize it but wouldn't "read" it under Win98SE. After trying a couple of different cables, and installing the rest of my components, the problem just "went away".

Anyhow, since running it stable for a couple of days, I performed a clean install of win98SE and flashed to the current bios. I still don't know what caused the problems or what fixed them.

 

[Cherub]

I had the same problem as well. I changed the cables (ribbon and power), and the problem hasn't returned, despite my 150 fsb speed. I never trust the connectors on floppy drives--the pins are usually exposed without any support braket, and getting a good seat is hard.

Some people have suggested increasing the vIO to solve the problem. I've had mixed results, but I think my problem was just intermittent.

 

[bria55]

identical problem here simply used new cable supplied and used a different power outlet from psu
and cleared cmos to defaults and then it booted from floppy ,took a while to fathem out becus the leads were ok on a KT7A Abit hour before...

not sure if this the cure though but it worked for me.
cu brian..

 

[boran]

the problem that is moost seen with floppy's these days with manual install is that they have to be connected in the right way

there is a part of cable that has a small part twisted THAT is the end that should be connected on the floppy drive
the other end of the cable should be connected to the mobo

(okay this might be wrong .. comes straight out of my motherboard manual so i'm kind of sure bout this ... but misprints happen ... correct me if i'm wrong please ..

 

[jugornot]

Seen this problem bfefore in some old epox boards. Make sure the floppy cable is not keyed. Since its not keyed it will go in 4 ways. 2 ways give the floppy light on constantly. 1 way the light will work right but give errors or not recognise disks. 1 way will work right. If you have it in and it gives errors flip both ends of the cable. Or if you just want to check it out, if it works right flip both ends of the cable and see if the errors come back. Well it worked for me. HTH