I found an old computer in a back room of a local radio station. I hooked it up, and turned it on. DOS starts up ok, but the floppy drive's pilot light stays lit. I try to read a disk, and it says, Disk read error. I figured maybe the floppy drive's ide cable wasn't connected properly. I took a look inside, and lo and behold, I found some weird things! The serial/parallel/ide ports were all on a card plugged in to a port where a graphics card, or modem can be plugged in at (not sure of the name). I've never seen anything like this before! I checked the way the floppy was plugged in, and it looked to be correct (I wasn't sure). Just in case it wasn't, I tried switching the cable around, the motherboard would say WAIT..., and then hang. I tried another floppy drive, no change. I tried using different ide cables, still no change. I even tried hooking a CDROM up to the computer, it wouldn't recognize the CDROM either. With this computer, you can only use a serial mouse, and a special kind of keyboard (there are 3 prongs on the end of the keyboard). Very strange. So, my questions are: How can I get the floppy to work correctly? I heard there is some kind of switch that is on the back of the drive that sets it to be a Master, or slave. I don't see a switch---but I see a set of jumpers. The jumper closest to the back says 0, 1, 2. It is set on 1. The jumper next to it says Hi, Lo, & Ho. It is set to Hi. There are no other floppy drives installed. Also, I would like to set up a cd-rom drive as well---it does not have one. I have tried Putting it on slave, since the hard drive was master. I've even switched, but it dosn't work. Any help on that would be appreciated. Sorry for such a long, and scattered message, hope you can understand all I said. Thanks a bunch for your help! Learn how to use DOS. It may be your life saver in restoring Windows. It was me!

The card you refer to is an I/O card. That's the way things were in the "gold old days." There were no PS/2 ports or integrated anything. Everything was on a card. You didn't mention the type of floppy drive, but since you didn't say it was strange then I assume it's a 3.5" as opposed to the older 5.25". The last generation 3.5" floppy drives only supported single-sided media which means they were 720KB as opposed 1.44MB disks (today's floppies have an "extra" hole in them to tell the drive that they are double-sided, 1.44MB floppies). I assume you were using one of "today's" floppies, so the drive wouldn't be able to read it.

Floppy drives generally don't have a "maste and slave" configuration as you only connect 1 per bus. By the sounds of the PC it probably doesn't support any modern CD-ROM drive you are trying to use with it. It really sounds like the whole project isn't worth the effort unless you are running a museum! Wizard ICT. Microsoft Certified Professional

Perhaps a bad floppy controller... -Bob

You advise the pc is old, and then say it is a Pentium DX which is not that old - are you sure? If it is a Pentium, I would be surprised if there is a separate i/o card. You advise the dos starts ok, but the floppy led is on continually. If the floppy led comes on when the pc is powered on and stays on, then the floppy interface cable maybe connected the wrong way around - try reversing just one end. Kevin's advice is goood. If the pc really is old, then maybe it only supports a DD floppy. Is there a hdd and is it being recognised? Good luck - Keep us posted.

Also if you know how check the bios to make sure the floppy is setup right. This would probably tell you at startup, enter setup by pressing ' del, F1, F2' or some designated key. Depending on which floppy drive you have, probably a 3.5 inch check to see it is listed at the correct disk size and format. Exp A: 3.5"/ 1.44MB B: None If you have the wrong flopply listed or two of them listed when you only have one floppy device this can cause the lite to stay lit also. You could also try removing the card and reinstalling it in case any connections may have been corroded. < insert spell check here lol. Are you sure it says Pentium and not intel? I suspose it could be a overdrive chip though. ASUS A7V8X AMD XP 2700+ 2.17ghz 768mb ddr 2700 128mb FX 5200 WD 80gb DVD R/RW

Hi all, Thanks a bunch for all of your replies!! The motherboard dates back to 1995. There was a Seagate 3.08 GB hard drive connected, but it stopped working. I have put the drive in other computers, but to no avail. The fan in the hard drive comes on, but I don't see it in the post. I have connected everything properly. I put the hard drive as Primary Master, with no other devices, but to no avail there. Don't know what to do now. It might be a piece of junk. By the way, I got the floppy drive working. I used the markings on the I/O Card, and on the floppy drive. But I cannot get the hard drive working. Thinking about putting it in the fridge like someone suggested. Thanks for your help. Learn how to use DOS. It may be your life saver in restoring Windows. It was me!