IBM Desktop won't start from A: Drive

I have an IBM ThinkCenter, Core 2, 3.6Ghz, 3Mg RAM, XPP SP2. The startup routine is set at Floppy, SATA CD, SATA HDD.

Problem is, on startup the floppy will not engage. I can change the starup routine to a USB FDD and it works fine but the internal FDD won't.

I have tried 3 other FDD's which all work in other computers so, the problem must be in this computer.

Any thoughts are welcomed.

TIA

 

Not that I might have a quick answer, but do you see the LED on the drive flash when you press the power button? Is there any flashing after the system finishes POST and should be looking for a boot drive?

Could there be anything wrong with the disk you are using? What type of boot floppy disk is it? If it is something like a Win 98 Startup floppy, try making one from www.bootdisk.com .

Check through the other settings in the BIOS, I work with ThinkCenter workstations and sometimes you will find one that does strange things. Look at updating the BIOS. You should be able to do it from the USB Floppy Drive, otherwise you will need to make a boot CD to run the update.

A reset? Try disconnecting the cables to the drive and start up. You should get an error message. If you are sent to the BIOS, save the settings and go into Windows. Shut down, reconnect the drive and try again.

Matt

 

Thanks for the reply.

I don't see any light on the FDD. For that matter there is no light on the DVD at startup. The FDD wowrked in the machine I ttok it out of and the DVD works and will start the machine if it has the appropriate media.

The Boot Disk worked in the machine I took the FDD out of.

I updated the BIOS from Lenovo.com.

Have not tried removing the cables, that's tomorrow morning.

 

Try cleaning the floppy drive with a drive cleaner [wondering if these things are still available] or the drive itself may be faulty.

 

Be sure the bios setup has the FDD enabled and the correct size of drive.

 

Good point TopFarmer. Check it says 1.44MB.

The LED not flashing at startup is a concern to me though. Do you have access to any other FDDs to try?

Matt

 

Sorry for the delay, here is the scoop.

I have done the following:

• installed a good floppy drive from another machine
• created a new boot disk
• set the bios to be sure that the Legacy Diskette A was enabled

The FDD lights up, the disk starts but then the machine hangs at a cursor and the boot disk won't start the machine. If I take the floppy out and let the machine go through its normal startup, it doesn't start. It also hangs at a cursor.

I have to disable the Legacy Diskette A to get the machine to start but of course, the FDD is not available.

I don't know if this is relevant but the machine has 2 SATA HDD's and a SATA Optical drive.

Under Devices in the BIOS:

• Serial ATA is enabled
• Native Mode Operation is Automatic
• SATA RAID Enable is Disabled
• SATA AHCI Enable is Disabled

Thanks for any assistance

 

"Do you have access to any other FDDs to try? "

Matt, read the information first!

I don't think you should need to make any special settings. In the BIOS I would "Reset Defaults ", then check that the floppy drive is set to first boot device.

If none of the suggestions look like working, I would update the BIOS.
Example:http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-55824
That reminds me of when I had an "invisible" FDD, I updated the BIOS, it worked. You will need the "CD ISO image ".

Matt
Note: You will need to find the files and instructions for your model
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-49QTT6&sitestyle=lenovo

 

Now I see this. I am running low on suggestions.

Matt

 

In your first post you state that the USB FFD works but the internal FDD does not, are you using the same boot floppy ? I think you likely are but need to be sure.

Try a different power connector to the FDD/hdd , look in the bios and see if it lists the PS volts, one of the volts used only by the hdd/floppy could be bad (?).

same here.

 

Have you tried a different data cable?

 

The ribbon cable is the only thing I haven't tried and will do that.

PSB

 

Well I changed the cable and I can now if I try to read a floppy it clicks and whirls endlessly. Nothing shows on screen until I remove the disk from the FDD at which point the contents of the disk pop up on screen in My Computer.

Strange thing is, I have a Memtest boot disk which sill start on boot but the Win98 boot disks (multiple copies made on different disks) will not start the machine.

 

Try formatting a disk (not your boot disk) in the drive that's giving you problems and then do a disk copy from the USB drive to the internal.

Test the copy and see if that works. Sometimes heads are not directly aligned and two drives may appear to work fine but if using disks formatted on another drive could have problems. Quality of the disk itself would also affect this, try and use a new disk (HD 1.44mb disks formatted previously as DD 720kb can also show this kind of problem)

 

Sounds good to me, I have had some success from formatting on the drive(computer?) that seems to have problems.

Just a maybe, replace the CMOS battery. It works wonders on some OEM computers occasionally.

Matt

 

I tried a few things

I took a disk, was able to read the contents of it and then was able to create a boot disk with it on the drive in question. I then clicked on it but wasn't able to read the contents of the boot floppy and, it still wouldn't boot from the disk. On start up the computer appeared to try to read from the disk but eventually gave up and Windows started. I could not then reformat the disk from My Computer

I was able to format it from a command prompt. I then did a disk copy in My Computer. Shut the computer down and tried to boot from the disk and voila, it worked. No I'm confused as I really don't know what this is telling me.

I don't have a CMOS battery handy but will pick one up.

Thanks for all of the suggestions thus far. Any further explanation will be helpful.

 

Did you format first?

How many times did you try and what error(s) was indicated?

1) Your internal drive is faulty (but given you've had issues with 3 drives it's unlikely).

2) Your USB drive is faulty (assuming your disks were previously formatted using that drive)

3) Your drive's data cable is faulty, you said previously you changed the cable.

4) Possibly the PSU try using another floppy power connector (if available), with any luck you'll see 2 or more lines of cable with HD/CD/Floppy connectors use a floppy connector from another line if possible (previously mentioned but you didn't comment on whether you'd tried or not).

5) Software conflict with your USB floppy driver and internal floppy driver (honestly can't comment I've no experience with USB floppies).

6) Motherboard floppy controller failing?

To be honest it's not easy to diagnose because every time we resolve one issue a new one appears

 

I did it from the command prompt, not My Computer

This is after I restarted the computer with the newly created boot disk. At that point I could not read the contents of the disk. I then tried to reformat it from My Computer once and it wouldn’t work (reformat that is)

Agreed

A boot disk in the USB floppy will start the computer

Yes

No luck, only have the one. There are no IDE connectors on the mobo, all SATA

The USB drive was not connected when I tried to boot from floppy

Is that software related? Can it be updated or reinstalled?

That’s a computer for ya

 

Still not definitive, it's quite possible that the USB drive can read floppies formatted on other drives but cause problems for other drives reading floppies formatted on the USB.

Think of it this way if the fault tolerance for drive head alignment was +- 10% and your USB drive is +9% but the floppies your try were e.g. -5% then they could have problems.

I'm assuming you mean no compatible floppy power connectors, this is nothing to do with PATA/SATA data cables e.g. a 3.5" floppy (not an IDE device) uses the same power connector as an LS120 internal drive (which is an IDE device)

That wouldn't matter, the drivers would be present and could still cause conflicts.

Unfortunately not, other than updating the BIOS which you've already done then it's gone or at the very least unreliable.

At this stage you have to ask yourself do you really need to use floppy disks?

 

If you use the My Computer formatting, you will see "quick" or "full ", use the full type.