floppy drive ribbon cable glued onto onBiard controller ETC

hello,
briefly: vtech "platinum series" p54c (100 mhz) amiBIOS '95 *had* 32 mbs 70ns ram (4 simms) but was VERY slow so reseated the chips => wouldn't boot. (no video. no floppy or hd light but fans ran and power light stayed on. (no post)
(no manual))
was win95B
trying to reseat the floppy drive cable (data) (GENTLY) the ribbon broke from the connector and it appears to have been glued to the board.
i have an IDENTICAL data cable for the floppy but the "glue" is obstructing pin 1
before trying to remove the glue which is positioned like a jumper on the pins want to ensure that it wouldn't further damage things.
currently the pc won't boot however the a-drive remains on (the power cable is ok)
sorry this is not brief
also would like to know how to find a compatible addOn floppy controller card in case the onBoard floppy controller is damaged.
i would GREATLY appreciate any and all advice!
thank you in advance!

 

You can go to www.pricewatch.com and key floppy controller card in the search box. I'd then go to www.resellerratings.com to see how each vendor stands up.

 

does the PC have any expansion cards in it pls.? if you are lucky(!) you might find a card providing extra COM and LPT ports, "Super IO "cards and the like, many similar.
- asking because most of these cards have FDC on them, ready to go but jumpered to disable. (also often have HDD controller similarly jumpered off)
But your main hassles might be to find out 1) how to set the jumpers (getting hold of data can be extremely hard)(if you are really lucky though, some expansion cards have the settings printed on the card) and 2) disabling the other FDC. Which might point in the direction of a gentle glue removal job perhaps?
best wishes, HJ.

 

hello Hugh and Chiles4,
thanks very much for the replies!
no expansion cards that have a floppy drive / hd interphase HOWEVER several vacant pci and isa slots (plus there *were* available irqs)
there are several other pcs here -- 2 of which DO have cards with fdc and hdc interphases...
(haven't really examined the cards... i guess i'll remove the glue gently and if that does not work, i'll try the cards from the other 2 pcs)
...and assuming the manufacturer is on them somewhere i'll try the 2 URLS thanks!
main concern was adding something to the current pc that's incompatible with the board...
thanks again!
sincerely
Tanya

 

cleaning the glue is surely easiest. Looking up the old cards can be very frustrating. If you want to look up the cards, see if you can find a FCC number printed on them - can sometimes get results that way when tracing manufacturer data directly fails (usually does!)
let us know how it goes?
good luck, HJ

 

hello Hugh,
thanks again for the reply and the suggestions!
appreciate it!
removing the glue was not very easy -- almost microSurgery!
if that doesn't help, i'll check the fcc codes on the controller cards...
thanks again!
sincerely
Tanya