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Phantom floppy drive



 
 
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  #11  
Old January 18th 06, 10:24 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
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Default Phantom floppy drive

If you can't find provision for jumpering the drive then you will have to
assume that it's permanently configured as drive 1. Some drives provide the
jumpers, some don't, some have them as traces that need to be soldered, and
I guess there might be some with DIP switches (although I think they
disappeared with 5 1/4" drives)..

If you have two drives both jumpered as drive 1 then the one on the far side
of the twist (the end of the cable) becomes drive 0, or the A drive as far
as DOS is concerned, and the one nearest the motherboard connector (middle
of the cable) becomes drive 1 (or B).

Unless, of course, you have selected the BIOS setup option to reverse the
floppy drive numbering, which is an option supported in some motherboards.
In that case, it's exactly the other way around.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"peter_cologne" wrote in message
...
Hello Jeff,

Thanks for your suggestion. I have looked carefully all over both the new
and the old floppy frives with a magnifying glass. I cannot see any
jumber
setting such as one would find on a hard drive or CD-drive.

What exactly am I looking for? A "DIP" switch or bank of, or a tiny
removable item? Should I be able to see it without removing the casing?

Would apopreciate any further advice/suggestions.

Pete



  #12  
Old January 18th 06, 12:20 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
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Default Phantom floppy drive

Many thanks for that explanation and valuable advice!

I put the old drive back in and this did not solve the problem. I then
tried another cable, which had two normal connectors (as opposed to the
previous one which had a normal cable only at the end, the intermediate one
being of a strange type). As the drive was connected to the end connector of
the original cable, I reasoned that I should try the intermediate connector
this time. The problem still existed. I then tried the end connector.
Before each attempt, I had restarted in Safe Mode and deleted the floppy
drives in the Device Manager as suggested by Philo.

Then it worked!! Even with the old drive!! So, it wasn't faulty after all!!

I don't understand any of this but I have learnt that, if you try to
understand PCs or Windows, you will drive yourself mad anyway, so I don't try!

Very many thanks for your help.

Regards,
Pete

"Steven" wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 07:07:03 -0800, "peter_cologne"
wrote:

I guess Drive 0 is A and Drive 1 is B??


It is complicated by a sensible decision someone made a long time ago.
Back in the dim dark '80s when many PCs had two floppy drives the powers
that be wanted to simplify the installation of these drives. So they
supplied the cable (with the twist) and decreed that all drives should
be jumpered to be drive 1. Due to the twist in the cable the drive at
the end of the cable reacts to drive 0 requests while the drive at the
intermediate connector reacts to drive 1 requests. This avoided
problems that might otherwise occur when users replaced or added drives.

So, all drives should be jumpered to react to drive 1 requests. The
drive at the end of the cable (after the twist) should then appear to be
drive A while a drive at the intermediate connector will be drive B.

As I mentioned earlier, I cannot see any jumper (even with the magnifying
glass!) but I don't know what I'm looking for.


My 3.5 inch drives have the jumpers near the power connector. None of
these drives are new so perhaps newer ones just have a soldered link
instead. If so, you can't really change it but at least it will
probably be correct.

Some BIOSes have a 'swap floppy drives' option so drive A appears as
drive B and vice-versa. Can you check in BIOS Setup to make sure you
haven't accidently enabled this option ?

Yes, there is a twist in the ribbon-cable which connects the drive to the
mother board. If you start counding from the red side, the twisted ones are
10 to 16.


This sounds good. If you replace the new drive with the old one does
the phantom B problem disappear ? This test will determine whether the
new drive is the problem.

What does HTH stand for?


HTH = hope this helps.

-- Steven


  #13  
Old January 18th 06, 12:23 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
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Posts: n/a
Default Phantom floppy drive

Many thanks for that additional info. I now have a greater understanding of
floppy drives.

As I replied to Steven, I have now solved the problem (though I do not
understand how it ever arose!).

Pete


"Jeff Richards" wrote:

If you can't find provision for jumpering the drive then you will have to
assume that it's permanently configured as drive 1. Some drives provide the
jumpers, some don't, some have them as traces that need to be soldered, and
I guess there might be some with DIP switches (although I think they
disappeared with 5 1/4" drives)..

If you have two drives both jumpered as drive 1 then the one on the far side
of the twist (the end of the cable) becomes drive 0, or the A drive as far
as DOS is concerned, and the one nearest the motherboard connector (middle
of the cable) becomes drive 1 (or B).

Unless, of course, you have selected the BIOS setup option to reverse the
floppy drive numbering, which is an option supported in some motherboards.
In that case, it's exactly the other way around.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"peter_cologne" wrote in message
...
Hello Jeff,

Thanks for your suggestion. I have looked carefully all over both the new
and the old floppy frives with a magnifying glass. I cannot see any
jumber
setting such as one would find on a hard drive or CD-drive.

What exactly am I looking for? A "DIP" switch or bank of, or a tiny
removable item? Should I be able to see it without removing the casing?

Would apopreciate any further advice/suggestions.

Pete




 




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