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386 machine FDD problem

D

Dusannn

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
57
Hello!
I am new here!
I have an old pc with Intel i386 DX-33 processor.
It has one 3,5 inch 1,44 MB floppy and one 5,25 inch 1,2 MB floppy. Hard disk is Western Digital WDAC2200.
When I try to boot, it says "HDD Controller Failure". Then, I removed HDD and removed HDD from BIOS, and left 3,5 inch floppy as drive A: and 5,25 inch floppy as drive B:
I tried to boot and it says "FDD Controller Failure" "Insert Boot diskette into drive A: And Press Any Key When Ready".
I removed both floppys physically and from BIOS and it keeps saying "FDD Controller Failure" "Insert Boot diskette into drive A: And Press Any Key When Ready".
I tested both floppy drives in other computer and they work.
CMOS Battery is capacitor-like and it doesn't work(NiCd, its greenish), it keeps every information except clock.
Motherboard is PAT38PX V3.10
Help Me!
 
Hello and welcome to the forums!
Your motherboard is like this:http://http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/T/TMC-RESEARCH-CORPORATION-386-PAT38PX-REV-1-0.html or like this:http://http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/T/TMC-RESEARCH-CORPORATION-386-PAT38PX-VER-4-0.html
From what it seems it is a problem with your floppy controller (usually in motherboards of this era the floppy controller is a part of a multi I/O ISA card that also has a HDD controller and the serial/parallel ports).First of all check the cable that connects the FDD with the card (change it with another one for example).If the problem remains try to check the card's FDD settings (it is usually has jumpers to change them).You can also check if the card works in another computer.Please also tell us if the battery has leaked on the motherboard (a photo will help)
 
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That is the same way with my 386 machine. It has both the floppy and HDD controller one a single board.

First things first, does the hard drive and floppy drive connect to a controller like described above? Can you tell us the model of the controller card, and if you can, get a picture of it. In the case of that 386 I described above, the computer would produce the same error you are having. I swapped the controller out with another one that is the same model. It still wouldn't work. I found that it wouldn't work with that specific controller, and only a different-branded controller would work.
 
It may be that if the battery's bad, the BIOS has lost its settings for hard drive and floppy drive types. Try putting in a new battery and setting these appropriately.
 
FWIW, you don't need a battery to set CMOS. You only need a battery to avoid having to set CMOS every time you turn the power on.
 
Stone said:
FWIW, you don't need a battery to set CMOS. You only need a battery to avoid having to set CMOS every time you turn the power on.
Click to expand...
Indeed! But if that 'greenish' is corrosion it can cause all sorts of problems and the battery should at least be removed ASAP, even if you don't replace it.
 
I wonder if it would be worth a sticky to advise questioners to include a photo of the board or card they're working with? It would save a lot of back-and-forth trying to figure out the poster is talking about.
 
While most of the barrel batteries are blue, there are green ones too. To the OP, is there a set of pins near the battery that has "Ext. Battery" printed near them? If so, then you can attach an external CMOS battery, thus enabling you to save the CMOS settings.
 
MikeS said:
Indeed! But if that 'greenish' is corrosion it can cause all sorts of problems and the battery should at least be removed ASAP, even if you don't replace it.
Click to expand...
Indeed, again. :) While agreeing with what you said, I was only addressing the CMOS issue, which I will address again in the next post, as well.
 
DOS lives on!! said:
While most of the barrel batteries are blue, there are green ones too. To the OP, is there a set of pins near the battery that has "Ext. Battery" printed near them? If so, then you can attach an external CMOS battery, thus enabling you to save the CMOS settings.
Click to expand...
Yes, but there is no need, at least not yet, to install any external battery which might just be a waste of time if the board has more serious flaws or damage. If setting the correct CMOS values does nothing to solve any problem there won't be any need to save them, will there?

BTW, I have a red barrel battery to go with the red and green ones you mentioned. :)
 
DOS lives on!! said:
Anything that doesn't kill the computer will help us diagnose it. Never hurts to try....
Click to expand...
As usual I agree with Stone. Adding an external battery doesn't help, it just adds another variable; what voltage, rechargeable or not, which pins to connect to what etc.

Lots of time to sort that out once you get it going, if you do; meanwhile my big question is still whether 'greenish' is the colour of the battery or the corrosion around it...
 
As Chuck(G) pointed out, pics would help. Especially of how everything is connected. Is the green just the color of the heatshrink around the NiCd, or something else ?
Do you have another IDE drive handy ?
Also, in your BIOS, is there a setting for a user-defined type, or type 47, or something like that ?
patscc
 
I second the fact that the CMOS battery must be removed to prevent other problems. Replace it if you want the BIOS settings and clock to remain as they were when the PC is off.

Now, I for the problem, it looks either as a bad controller card or bad CMOS settings. I suppose this PC was once working and therefore the cables/jumpers etc are properly connected as long as nobody changed them. Incorrect CMOS settings can be a reason, because since the battery is dead, the correct settings were also lost. In particular you must pay attention to the HDD cylinders/heads/sectors real values (written on the HDD, these boards can't auto-detect them). For the floppy drives, appart from the 1,2MB and 1,44MB you must also correctly specify which is drive A and which drive B. Normally drive A is the one that is connected at the "edge" of the floppy cable, while drive B the one in the "middle".
 
People, problem SOLVED! The metal part which fixes HDD/FDD controller card to the housing prevented card to connect to slot. I removed metal thingy and pushed controller card all way inside. I installed MS-DOS 6.22 and it works perfectly.
 
Glad to hear you got it working! Ironically, on my same 386 computer, one of the tabs that holds the motherboard to the case was dislodged, causing the motherboard to bend. That was causing the cards to be pushed out of the slots, but not all the way to cause trouble. Just glad I caught that before the motherboard snapped in two.
 
Nothing was hitting motherboard. It's only because of computer metal housing.
 
angel_grig said:
Hello and welcome to the forums!
Your motherboard is like this:http://http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/T/TMC-RESEARCH-CORPORATION-386-PAT38PX-REV-1-0.html or like this:http://http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/T/TMC-RESEARCH-CORPORATION-386-PAT38PX-VER-4-0.html
From what it seems it is a problem with your floppy controller (usually in motherboards of this era the floppy controller is a part of a multi I/O ISA card that also has a HDD controller and the serial/parallel ports).First of all check the cable that connects the FDD with the card (change it with another one for example).If the problem remains try to check the card's FDD settings (it is usually has jumpers to change them).You can also check if the card works in another computer.Please also tell us if the battery has leaked on the motherboard (a photo will help)
Click to expand...
My mobo is the first one. Do you know specs of external battery? Is it possible to buy old barrel NiCd battery?
 
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