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No B: Drive !

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  • No B: Drive !

    Here is something I found out about my ASUS P4C800 Deluxe motherboard the hard way!
    I wanted to transfer a trusty TEAC FD505-100 Dual Floppy Drive (3.5" + 5.25") from one of my old W95 computers to a new computer I just built that has the ASUS and Windows 2000 Advanced Server for the OS. The TEAC uses only one ribbon cable to handle both drives.
    I installed the TEAC in the new computer, but when it booted, there was no B: drive! I re-booted and went to the BIOS (v1010) main page. There was no line for a B: drive, just the "Legacy Diskette A" line. I was able to use that line to toggle between the 3.5" and the 5.25" as the A: drive, but I could not figure out how to add a line to the BIOS for a B: drive.
    After several hours of changing cables, examining the drive and tinkering with the Computer Management tools in W2kAS, I gave up, and e-mailed ASUS tech support. Here is the surprising answer they sent back within an hour (ASUS has very responsive tech support!):
    >[9/23/2003 3:10:00 PM - lee]
    >Sir this board will not support to floppy drives, the feature was removed to allow access for the new smartcard readers. >Please do not respond to this email,if you are still in need of assistance contact our techs
    I checked through the User Guide, and there is no mention about having a BIOS that doesn't allow for two floppy drives. I don't know what he meant by the reference to the Smartcard readers. I think he may be referring to the fact that there is only one floppy connector on the ASUS. However, I was clear in my e-mail to ASUS that I was only using one floppy connector for both drives, and I was also clear that the TEAC used only one floppy connector in the old computer and the A: and B: drives in that computer worked simultaneously.
    I think the problem is in the BIOS, not on the board. Does anyone know how the v1010 BIOS for the P4C800 Deluxe can be tweaked to allow for both the A: and B: drives to work simultaneously, rather than having to toggle between them ?

  • #2
    please tell me one good use for a 5.25" drive on a P4 machine .. even a 3.5" drive is pretty useless these days, except for the odd bios update.
    We have enough youth - What we need is a fountain of smart!


    i7-920, 6GB DDR3-1600, HD4870X2, Dell 27" LCD

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    • #3
      LOL 5.25" that's like listening to vinyl discs (and at least vinyl discs have awesome quality. on the other hand 5.25 )

      ever thought of using an old computer to do this type of job? (and link them to ur HDD)

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      • #4
        Yes, 5.25" disks are outdated, but still, you would expect to be able to connect them (or just 2 floppy's for that matter) to a modern computer... I'm not sure there is much you can do about it...

        You could of course set it to 5.25", and use an external USB 3.5" drive (but the you won't be able to boot from the 3.5")...


        Jörg
        pixar
        Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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        • #5
          Actualy, thought that the teac uses only one conector it is still using both conectors so to say

          There is only one header on the board, the "second" conector on the cale has a couple of vires reversed wich the teak acomplishes internallly

          Asus bios programmers are probaly using the "floppy B" to let a smartcard reader show up in windows without having to load drivers, casue the OS would see the smartcard reader as Floppy B
          If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

          Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

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          • #6
            They could put this in bios, e.g. in the section where you can define which drive you've got. Simply add the smartcard selection there would still give the user the ability to choose...


            Jörg
            pixar
            Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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