I've put off asking about this in view of the discussion about what's
on/off topic, but I need some help from Those Who Know These Things.
My specific requirement is to put together a PC to run 22DISK, my
DOS-only PAL/PROM programmer software, and the like. It will run DOS
6.22 in a FAT16 partition (and probably WinXP in another partition
because I will not permit more than one PC in my workshop, but that
part is definitely off topic so I mention it no further). I want it to
be able to support single-density floppies, and eventually 8" drives
too.
Available "ingredients" are an Intel SE440BX motherboard (if it
matters) with a P2 400 and stupid Intel/Phoenix BIOS, a Teac FD-55GFR
5.25" floppy drive, choice of any number of 3.5" floppy drives, the
usual other bits that go to make a PC, and a few harddisk/floppy
controllers, including a Western Digital WD1006V-MM2 F002, and a
Western Digital WDAT-240. I have a couple of older no-name ISA floppy
cards but I suspect they won't support HD floppies (though I wonder if
they'd support 8" DD? Same speed...) and I probably have other 5.25"
drives somewhere. I picked those controllers, by the way, because they
have 37C65 FDCs and the magic second (9.6MHz) crystals and are reputed
to do SD correctly.
A problem is the braindamaged BIOS/mobo, which only handles one floppy.
Yes, really; not content with bastardising the interface to enable
cables-with-a-twist, they've removed all drive selects but one. No
pins, no PCB tracks, or in the words of the manual, "no connection".
However, if I disable the onboard FDC in the BIOS, I can persuade the
machine to see the FDC on a WD1006V-MM2. Only it won't boot; it gets
so far and then hangs. It almost looks as if disabling the FDC in the
BIOS actually disables support for an FDC at the primary address, and
MS-DOS can't complete the boot. Do I need to do something with
CONFIG.SYS? Maybe it would be better to leave the onboard FDC alone,
and use the WD controller as a secondary? I guess I do need DRIVER.SYS
for that, yes?
I have a similar problem with the HD controller. I want to use two IDE
channels, but I can't disable the HDC on a WD card; I can only change
the address between primary and secondary - and I can't even do that on
the WDAT-240, unless someone here knows something I don't. But I can't
get the PC to work properly with the IDE controller on the WDAT-240; if
I leave the onboard controller enabled, they fight, and if I disable
the onboard controller in the BIOS, it seems to stop the WD controller
working properly. Any suggestions?
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Received on Wed Jun 16 2004 - 15:22:56 BST