Modem Error: "fdc failure press f1 to continue"

Posted on behalf of a friend. I told him I didn't know beans about hardware but knew some folks who did.

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I fitted a 56k modem to my computer yesterday & have had nothing but problems since, its a P2 233 mmx & everytime i boot up now it says

"fdc failure press f1 to continue "

It also says "fujitsu summat s.m.a.r.t. cable but disabled" so what does that mean??

& how do i re-enable my fujitsu thingumy & what is an fdc failure?

Oh & although it recognises that the 56k modem is there it won't use it even if i delete the other modem's program & remove it (its a supra 336 i)

 

Newt, the general gist of that would lead me to believe that the Floppy Disk Controller was impacted by some new driver that was installed by this modem card. I would recommend contacting the maker and reporting the issue for their further advice. While waiting, read the directions. Ya neva know. Cheers.

 

I must also mention that perhaps he disturbed the Floppy Disk data or power cable while installing this card and perhaps he should get someone with smaller thumbs to do this work in the future.

 

Thanx Zephyr. Hopefully Trogg will be looking in here. Certainly should give him a starting point.

 

OK, Newt. I think he probably just dislodged the data cable.

As for the modem not being used although it's recognized, it probably went for the free com port3 or whatnot since the existing had already grabbed the normal COM2 port. Programs won't look any further than COM2 unless you tell them. With the old one removed, reinstall the new and it'll probably grab COM2 and do fine. You could let the using program discover it and keep it on COM3 even.

Good luck.

 

Oky Doky,

He probably just loosened the Cable.
SMART is a Bios setting for cables as far as i remember.

Make sure the Driver is for the OS
Assuming below that the OS is Win98. If the driver is not for Win2000 or XP, it could cause problems.

If not,
Go into device manager and remove the floppy drive
Reboot and let the system find it again.
If not,
uninstall the modem Remove it physically
Reboot
If not,
Go into device manager Again and remove the floppy drive again.
Reboot
Post back,

Rookie
- -

 

Hi -

is it a PCI modem, pls?
also, is FDC on the motherboard or on a expansion card?

what Rookie says makes lots of sense although I'd be tempted to try (physically) pulling out the modem & its software as the first step, to see what state that gets things back to. Using thumbs as small as possible (!) but keeping eyes open... ie trying to leave a disturbed ribbon cable or the like as it was. That way would split the problem between a nudged ribbon cable and some sort of software hassle... might perhaps save much time and grief in the long run?

**afterthoughts** if it's a power cable dislodged (much less likely as more firmly inserted but...) better put it back in asap else might blow things up. Ribbons can go naff very readily particularly when they are old. Watch out for bent pins where they plug in, particularly the end pair of pins - its very easy to unplug a ribbon wiggling it a bit sideways, bends the pins.

it's not only the ribbon & power cables to think of if the FDC is on a plugin card, cards can come slightly out of their sockets; happens very readily with old ISA cards if you are trying to put in a card next door - the screws overlap the metal bracket for the nextdoor card slightly - so the nextdoor card gets dislodged a bit - should push it back in again but tend not to think of that as it isn't the "new" card. That's me with the big thumbs...

if the PC has got dusty inside, suspect any card-to-motherboard connector which has been disturbed. Putting the card back in "properly" can also push grime into the connector between the mating surfaces. Hoover! My Compaq chokes itself with dust in less than a year rendering the CPU heatsink nearly useless.

Best Wishes, Hugh

PS my modem (PCI) goes in as COM5 all by itself - but Windows has no trouble finding it there. If I install the drivers in a different order it uses COM3 instead. I do it to make it COM5 as that leaves me COM1 and COM3 without a clash.

 

hi All

Newt
Cheers for giving me the link to this place mate, its gonna make my life a whole lot easier (i hope!! LOL)

PCI, hmmm all i can tell you is the new modem fits in a little slot while the old one (supra) fitted in a big black slot.... does that help any??

I fitted my cd re-writer & a few other things like usb ports etc with no problems but this modem has really got my temper gong.

The reason i got this computer is cos i put my boot through the mother board of the old one in a fit of rage

I suppose my hands are a little on the large size but being a manual worker (forestry work & mechanics plus fair ground before that) seems to make your hands grow larger anyway.

Well its just after 1 am here so i'm off to bed for the night before i do some damage to this soddin thing.

A big thanks for all the help so far, i'll try some of the ideas etc over the next few days to see if it helps any.

 

Hi Trogg 'n' all

sounds from what you say like it's PCI as they have smaller sockets - usually brown I think?, the big old black one's almost certainly ISA...

Thinks - these messages are when you turn it on, am I correct? - if so there's bits to get right way before doing anything within Windows

It sounds as if the trouble's well and truly hit before the OS tries to start... it's pointing to hardware, fair and square. Windows hasn't even started, the PC doesn't even know what a driver is yet.

Trogg, sorry it means opening the box but:

first up, look to the ribbon cable going to the floppy: see that it's in OK at both ends. If the cable goes to a card rather than straight to the motherboard, check that the card's plugged in to its socket securely. Sometimes the cards stand a bit proud out of the socket at one end.

if you think that there was something loose and you've fixed it, try booting the PC to see if you still get the FDC failure message.

If that's lost the FDC failure message, you can then go on to doing drivers and things within Windows - changing the Windows settings will then make sense.

If you make changes to the Windows settings, modem settings or whatever while you're still getting the FDC error message, you'll probably only have to change them all again when you fix the floppy! - also this is dangerous, without the floppy working you can't "emergency boot" from a startup disk, rescue disk - so if things go badly wrong there's little chance of getting out of the deep doodoos.

If all the cables and connectors checked firm, but you still get the FDC failure message: pull out the new modem from its socket - don't have to uninstall any drivers or anything at this stage, just take the modem out. (If you put your other hand on the metal case of the computer before touching the modem, you don't have to be paranoid about static; same for putting it back in: other hand on the case, before card into socket. Easy route for peace of mind )

Now, try booting the PC to see if this has lost the FDC message. This should have lost the FDC failure message and probably the smart cable message - please post back the results... you may get other messages, if so pls let us know what you get.

I'm hoping that getting the floppy etc cured may well wipe out many other weirdnesses at the same time - all too often can get a "pack of cards" effect. And the floppy gets checked very near the beginning of the chain...

Good Luck, Hugh.

 

Hugh i could kiss you (but won't cos i ain't like that)

opened up the old biscuit tin ripped out ....erm sorry carefully removed the new modem , rebooted & its all gone normal now.

Puter boots up & shuts down a lot quicker than it was doing so i'll leave it out n stick with the supra for now.

Thanks to all of you for the help.

 

Hi Trogg

excellent news!

I'm afraid it looks like you have a dud modem though... there's a couple of other possibilities but they are very long shots - dry joint where that slots's connector is soldered to the motherboard, frinst. Rare but not unknown. To bear in mind if you ever try putting another card into the same slot and get trouble again, maybe?

Regrettably even brand new modems etc. can be faulty, it wouldn't be the first time...

If it had been one of the ISA (big black slot) creatures, they have jumper links which need to be set correctly, if these are set wrong can give this sort of trouble. But PCI devices are "meant" to sort themselves out - only this one didn't...

Thanks for posting back the results, 1 it made me (glad you qualified your first line though!) and 2 if someone hits this thread when searching for something similar, they get a better chance...

Now I must try sort out my geblinkin' drivers!... got one which seems to self destruct, still trying to suss out what keeps on clobbering it.

Good Luck, Hugh.

 

Nothing new there. A quite common problem with PCI Modems. A lot of us have ( or had ) the same problem with a PCI Modem.

The Modem may actually be fine. But what we got here is the age old problem of IRQ conflicts which a PCI Modem either causes or won't work because it wants to use an IRQ that is already being used and WILL NOT SHARE. And they can stop and existing item ( like Sound caard or NIC ) from working properly. Mostly Sound cards.

And the worst part is that any conflicts * MAY NOT * ( and usually don't ) show up in the Device Manager.

But if everything works when you took the PCI Modem out it is 95% a certainty that it was an IRQ problem.

I myself do not recommend ( or use ) Internal Modems. They can be too much of a pain it the butt. Even when changing the OS a PCI Modem * MAY * cause all kinds of grief.

BillyBob

 

I know that normally we don't think of a Modem casuing problems until Windows boots up ( or at least tries to ). But I forgot to add something to my previous reply.

I had one PCI Modem that when I plugged it in I got a straight out IRQ Confilct in a nice whiite on black message.

Another PCI Modem plugged in the machine would not boot at all. Not even from a floppy.

But both Modems are ( or were ) in other machines and worked fine. And I still use them for setting up some machines.

BillyBob

 

Hi BB and all

BB, I must add a bit of a caveat before anyone gets too enthusiastic about trying the modem in another machine.

I still suspect the things just plain blown up.

OK you could perhaps get it working in another PC - particularly if there are not any other PCI devices fitted. Hardly unknown...

But the other possibility is that you could fry other PCI devices in the adjacent slots in the attempt. Thus, I urge caution. In no way am I saying that it will happen; but cognizant of the possibility, one could take precautions at the least. Like, not have any "precious" cards in the adjacent slots while you're doing it...

I do take what you say about external modems being preferable in many ways - the most basic of which is the LEDs on the front panel which give one a nice clear show of what's actually happening. And they look good! Heck - if I had a penny for every dry joint I've resoldered I'd probably get one tomorrow! Broke as I am though I put up with this PCI doobry, happily sharing IRQ11 with the sound card - it has been known to happen...

Surely from what Trogg says the most likely scenario is more to do with INTs not IRQs - if it's to do with interrupts at all? The original sussout (usually before even POST proper - ?have I a keyboard &tc..) relies on the sockets getting activated individually, sharing just isn't part of the picture at this stage.

What is very much part of the picture is a card that will not take itself off the PCI bus - won't go tristate properly - static damage causes this, it's a hardware classic. Not saying Trogg did it by any means - could well have been at the factory or anywhere.

The other really horrible one is is when the direction control naffs out leaving the card insisting that its an "ouput" when anything else including the motherboard wants to drive those wires. That one's lethal.

Sorry for going on a bit, I just want to keep the fried chips in the food department where they belong.

I had a nasty experience awhile back - old hard drive I'd been given had blown data bus buffers. It wiped out the buffers on the IDE controller card - wihtout realising what was happening I put another HDD to see "which was at fault" (of course they both were by now). This blew the new HDD, and another IDE controller before I woke up to what was going on. It was pretty soul destroying - you can perhaps imagine...

Thus, I urge caution.

Best Wishes, Hugh

 

Hugh Jarss

Cautions are agreed too.

Internal Modems not agreed too.

BillyBob