Update on Floppy problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vic
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Vic

I had posted my floppy problem in several places and everybody pretty much
had the same thing to say that I needed the older 3 connector cable. What
they didn't realize was that in my post I had stated that I was having a
problem with the bios, I had already physically plugged it in. I have been
in contact with Asus about this problem and thought that you should all see
the solution they gave to me.


[5/17/2004 1:52:00 PM - lee]
Sir unfortunately the bios for this board does not support 2 floppy's this
was taken over to allow access to smart card readers and other usb mass
storage devices.Please do not respond to this email if you have any further
questions please contact our tech support office at 502-995-0883 and one of
our technicians will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

When I called the number and got to talk to a person he stated that only one
floppy has become the standard. So, check your boards lads.
 
"Vic" said:
I had posted my floppy problem in several places and everybody pretty much
had the same thing to say that I needed the older 3 connector cable. What
they didn't realize was that in my post I had stated that I was having a
problem with the bios, I had already physically plugged it in. I have been
in contact with Asus about this problem and thought that you should all see
the solution they gave to me.


[5/17/2004 1:52:00 PM - lee]
Sir unfortunately the bios for this board does not support 2 floppy's this
was taken over to allow access to smart card readers and other usb mass
storage devices.Please do not respond to this email if you have any further
questions please contact our tech support office at 502-995-0883 and one of
our technicians will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

When I called the number and got to talk to a person he stated that only one
floppy has become the standard. So, check your boards lads.
Click to expand...

I didn't want to respond to your post originally, because I don't
have a datasheet for the SuperI/O chip that is on your board. Some
other chips from the same manufacturer, multiplex SIR/CIR infrared
pins with the control pins needed for a second floppy. If the vendor
offers SIR/CIR, then there is no control available for a second floppy.

To make this work, you would need a couple things. One would be hooking
up some pin(s) from SIR/CIR to the floppy cable. The second would be
modifying the BIOS for two floppy drives. I think the BIOS modification
is the thing that will stop this project in its tracks. (The BIOS
has to be designed to prevent conflicts between the use of the pins
for either Infrared or Floppy use - the pin function type
is selected by the BIOS at POST.)

You might consider a USB floppy drive as a substitute for one of
the drives. You might not be able to boot from it, but at least
you could copy files to it. (I tried looking for a PCI card floppy
controller, but a quick search didn't turn any up.)

I wouldn't say that "one floppy is the standard". It is a matter
of which SuperI/O chip a board uses, and what priorities the
marketing team have. I don't think too many people want a
slow infrared interface (the Asus SIR/CIR cannot do the 4Mbit
speed used by some printers), so I cannot imagine this decision
to be very bright. As in my floppy suggestion above, you can
buy a USB to infrared dongle, if you want 4Mbit/sec IR on the
computer. The SIR/CIR is kind of a waste.

HTH,
Paul
 
There should be all kinds of pci bus based controller cards available. I'm
at a loss to think why you would want 2 floppies but I suppose you have your
reasons.

Paul said:
"Vic" said:
I had posted my floppy problem in several places and everybody pretty much
had the same thing to say that I needed the older 3 connector cable. What
they didn't realize was that in my post I had stated that I was having a
problem with the bios, I had already physically plugged it in. I have been
in contact with Asus about this problem and thought that you should all see
the solution they gave to me.


[5/17/2004 1:52:00 PM - lee]
Sir unfortunately the bios for this board does not support 2 floppy's this
was taken over to allow access to smart card readers and other usb mass
storage devices.Please do not respond to this email if you have any further
questions please contact our tech support office at 502-995-0883 and one of
our technicians will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

When I called the number and got to talk to a person he stated that only one
floppy has become the standard. So, check your boards lads.
Click to expand...

I didn't want to respond to your post originally, because I don't
have a datasheet for the SuperI/O chip that is on your board. Some
other chips from the same manufacturer, multiplex SIR/CIR infrared
pins with the control pins needed for a second floppy. If the vendor
offers SIR/CIR, then there is no control available for a second floppy.

To make this work, you would need a couple things. One would be hooking
up some pin(s) from SIR/CIR to the floppy cable. The second would be
modifying the BIOS for two floppy drives. I think the BIOS modification
is the thing that will stop this project in its tracks. (The BIOS
has to be designed to prevent conflicts between the use of the pins
for either Infrared or Floppy use - the pin function type
is selected by the BIOS at POST.)

You might consider a USB floppy drive as a substitute for one of
the drives. You might not be able to boot from it, but at least
you could copy files to it. (I tried looking for a PCI card floppy
controller, but a quick search didn't turn any up.)

I wouldn't say that "one floppy is the standard". It is a matter
of which SuperI/O chip a board uses, and what priorities the
marketing team have. I don't think too many people want a
slow infrared interface (the Asus SIR/CIR cannot do the 4Mbit
speed used by some printers), so I cannot imagine this decision
to be very bright. As in my floppy suggestion above, you can
buy a USB to infrared dongle, if you want 4Mbit/sec IR on the
computer. The SIR/CIR is kind of a waste.

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...
 
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