Questions about ASUS ASP2B98 board: FDC and BIOS

[clh333]

I saved the motherboard, PII CPU and memory from an HP system that I once owned - I think it was Win98 but it doesn't matter for this discussion. I'm running the board once again, this time with Novell DOS v.7 as the OS. This board is interesting because it has a split ISA / PCI configuration and I'm going through old hardware to see what still works. Some of the support software is on 5.25 disks.

The Phoenix BIOS, V4, rev 6, dated 9/28/98 allows one "legacy" diskette, and choices are 360, 720, 1.2, 1.4 and none. The on-board FDC recognizes only a 1.4 3.5-inch drive. I have tried mounting various 5.25 drives with no success. I swapped cables and drives and jumper positions all to no avail, even though a given drive will be recognized on another system.

This leaves me with three alternatives, none of which are easy: Try a BIOS update (and as yet I haven't found one), add a second controller card in one of the ISA slots, or forget trying to mount a 5.25. I have a couple of ISA controller cards: a DTC and a Maxtor. I have no documentation for either, alas. The on-board FDC can be disabled, and in theory the ISA card could be used for both the HD and floppies, but when I tried this the machine would not boot.

I'm hoping someone here has insight into this problem and can suggest a solution.

Thanks.

 

[krebizfan]

Which chipset is it using? Or for that matter, what HP system is it from? Something that can be researched specifically to this system not just generic comments about Pentium II systems.

Does your BIOS allow you to manually set IRQs for ISA cards?

 

[clh333]

Which chipset is it using? Or for that matter, what HP system is it from? Something that can be researched specifically to this system not just generic comments about Pentium II systems.

Does your BIOS allow you to manually set IRQs for ISA cards?

The system was a Pavilion desktop, maybe 6xxx or 7xxx series, but I no longer have any documentation or receipts. However, I do have information on the motherboard from the ASUS manual: Screen shots are attached for your reference. Chipset is Intel, with on-board ATI video. BIOS allows disabling the on-board FDC and also reserving of IRQs and DMA for ISA cards.

My concern is for the features, base addresses and jumper settings of the controller cards. Assuming I can disable the FDC and still use the on-board IDE, I will need to avoid conflict with the IDE on the ISA controller. And without the BIOS reporting floppies to the OS, I don't know how to make DOS see the floppies.

-CH-

 

[krebizfan]

So it is a 440BX system which frequently only supports a single floppy drive. Also, IIRC there was some change to the ISA slot that prevents some cards from working. I have seen threads which suggest some ISA floppy controllers will work with a Win 98 system. But, of course, which card works isn't mentioned and the passage of 15 years makes it unlikely to get an update.

Some systems with 440BX had BIOSes did support 2 floppy drives. I think the full model of the ASUS P2B did but I can't find anything which would tell me if the HP cost reduced version can use a BIOS intended for other P2B models.

My Pentium II systems that support 5.25" drives use the older 440FX and 440LX chipsets. Hopefully, someone else with a closer match to your hardware can provide useful information.

 

[yuhong]

The PIIX4 southbridge would drive the ISA cards, not the northbridge.

 

[Chuck(G)]

In my junkbox, I've got an ASUS P2B-VT motheroboard; similar to yours and used in the Pavillions, but uses a VIA chipset, instead of an Intel one--and only 1 ISA slot.

However, if yours, like mine uses an SMSC 37B802 "Super I/O" chip, you can find the datasheet here. I believe that this chip was originally intended for the laptop market, as it's pretty pin-challenged and affords use of an external floppy on the parallel port interface (see p. 102 of the datasheet) by multiplexing some of the parallel port pins for FDC use.

So, you may find a driver somewhere that allows for second FDD support using the parallel port, but the motherboard connector is only good for a single floppy. Pity--if my board were completely populated with all the goodies, it'd probably worth using, but as it stands, it's a Slot 1 board with minimal functionality and lots of unpopulated spots.