DOS Games Discussion

coinheaven · Member Joined: 16 Apr 2005 Posts: 11

so i bought this 5.25 floppy disk drive off ebay "as is" and guess what, it doesnt power up! bastards. but anyway, does anybody have a clue how to fix this? i attached the power supply and ide wire, but alas, it does do anything. any help would be grateful. i have goblins 1 and indiana jones the fate of atlantis waiting on floppys to be installed, what i am to do? Thanks!!

dosraider · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 5:55 am Post subject:

Usely when you buy something offred "as is" you can expect the only thing you can do with those is to use it for spare parts.
Even if you should get it working, i wonder if your 3.25 flops still are readable.But those flops were indeed 'lifelasting',so you never know....
good luck.
Cool

dokzero5 · Member Joined: 10 Apr 2005 Posts: 17

You can't connect IDE wires to the floppy drive, it uses a different interface. (The connectors of the floppy cable are smaller, not as wide), but i assue you made a typo (if not, watch out! So don't connect anything to the 5,25" if the other side of the cable goes to the harddisk or cd/dvd (it shouldn't be possible), the other connector only fits on 3,5 and 5,25" disk drives)

Have you tested these things:

Try to connect it to a other connector, most of the time the floppy cable has 2 connectors.

You can try to connect it solo, or connect them both but switch the connectors.

Did you correctly choose the right drive format for floppy's in the bios? You can choose 5,25 DD and HD, try them both, you'll be suprised how many DD drives were sold. They're the most common (340 kb a disk :-) )

If the first one is 3,5" flop and the second 5,25", switch them (so make the 5,25 A: )

Try another power connector, just to check.

If this doesn't work, try to put it in another pc (a old one).

If that doenst work too, your drive is probably broken :-/

Anyway, good luck :-)

Wally*Won_Kenobie · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:25 am Post subject:

Its a shame, i would have just given you one if you were australian.. (As long as you supplied postage!)

Ro@m · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:22 am Post subject:

How much did you pay anway for the floppy?

coinheaven · Member Joined: 16 Apr 2005 Posts: 11

I paid 10 bucks. yea, it wasnt the ide wire i connected, it was a bigger one (no clue what its called). i tried the power cord with the cd drive and it worked fine, so it wasnt the power cord. i guess ill just sell it on ebay for parts, which sucks because i have a bunch of games on 5.25 disks.

dosraider · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:09 am Post subject:

Have you consider buying a complete 286?
Here in belgium you can find them for 2 € (aprox 3 us$)
http://www.kapaza.be/detail/820080/Oude_286_PC_met_sherm_en_toetsenbord.html

On a 286 you can install dos and with a null-modem cable transfer your 5.25 to 3.5 flops.Could salvage your 5.25 flopgames.
I doubt if a 3.5 flop could be installed as B drive on a 286,Bios restriction ? Anybody who knows?
I don't know what country you reside, but maybe look around ?
Happy

dokzero5 · Member Joined: 10 Apr 2005 Posts: 17

As far as i know it should be possible. Even my XT (8088 10 mhz) had a 3,5" as second diskdrive. Don't forget that at the time even on 286 5,25" wasn't that strange.

dosraider · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 4:48 pm Post subject:

What i meant was : probably on a 286 there is only a 720kb option. I doubt that a 1.44 mb drive works on a 720 kb parameter.
Excuse me for the confusion, i wasn't very clear on that point.
Also consider:
And finding a (good) working,cheap, 720 kb drive ower days?
And the fact that the late 5.25 flops had 1.2 mb capacity.....

dokzero5 · Member Joined: 10 Apr 2005 Posts: 17

Although i can't remember a single 286 that didn't support 3,5" HD (my old 8088 had a 3,5" HD) i'm sure DD / HD 5,25" were supported.

All this talk about 5,25", i'm considering building my own 5,25" drive back in my dos box Shit-Eating Grin

Ps. Had niet verwacht hier ooit zuiderburen tegen te komen :-)

Wally*Won_Kenobie · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:02 pm Post subject:

coinheaven: Look at all the wiring on the chip set which connects the power connecter (On the FDD) and see if any components are burnt out.

Send an email to the auctioneer if they are. Then you might get your money back.

coinheaven · Member Joined: 16 Apr 2005 Posts: 11

Thanks for all the help. ill check out the inside, but the buyer said it was untested and sold as is, so i knew i was taking a chance. oh well, ill know for next time.

Wally*Won_Kenobie · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:52 pm Post subject:

you mean the seller Wink

jmmijo · Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 10:16 pm Post subject:

Another tip for finding some older parts could be asking your local school and/or library.

Many of them will give away and/or sell you an older box for next to nothing. You could just check out which box or boxes have 5.25" floppy drives installed and only ask if you can take one or more of those Wink

coinheaven · Member Joined: 16 Apr 2005 Posts: 11

DUH!! I got it working. i had to change the B drive in the bios from none to 5.25 1.2 mb. i thought that it would detect it like a cdrom drive. im dumb, but at least i know for next time!