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MS-DOS 6 General failure reading Drive A: - With a twist!

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btrains

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Joined
May 6, 2012
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Hello all, first post here. I know we've all heard or seen the DOS general failure at some point, and there's a boatload of help out there, all pointing mostly to faulty disks or drives. Not mine:

I picked up a 486DX for use in trying to program a two-way radio I own. The computer works wonderfully, with DOS 6 and Win 3.1 installed from the previous owner. The inside of the case, aside from mild dust, is minty clean. The aluminum case parts still have that shine to them! Anyway, I tried reading a 3.5" floppy, nothing... general failure. I know the disk is good because I tried it in two other desktops which are Pentium 3s and my daily driver, which is a quad core (and the originator of the data on the floppy). Being a 90s kid and remembering the trial and error that is DOS, I swapped to another floppy drive.

A completely different floppy drive worked for about a minute and displayed the files on the disk, but I couldn't access them. I went to try another disk, and the failure came right back.

So, if the disks are fine and the drives are functioning, this leads me to cables. I tried two separate floppy controller cables, both known to be functioning correctly. The same thing happened.

So what do I do now!? Thanks!
 
You might want to post specifics as to the system like BIOS version and manufacturer plus clock speed just in case someone recognizes a specific flaw.

There is the possibility that the floppy controller itself has is failing or a trace between the controller and the floppy connector got damaged. Unlikely but it has happened. I mean that is all that is left if you have tested with known good disks, good drives, and good cables. The easiest course of action is to track down a replacement floppy controller card and see if that works.

Try booting with an empty CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT just in case you have some strange driver that requires unconventional floppy formats. Check to see if you can find a BIOS update. Make sure the configuration is correct. All these are uncommon problems but it is all I can think of.
 
"General Failure" is a catchall error for floppy errors. It could mean that the boot sector doesn't conform to later DOS standards (you sometimes get this when you try to read a DOS 1 or 2 floppy on a later version of DOS). It could mean that the controller has an issue or that the system is misconfigured (e.g., you've got some other card attempting to use IRQ 6 or port 3Fx.

Is the floppy you're using shedding oxide? If you clean the heads of the drive you just used, does it start working again?
 
btrains said:
Being a 90s kid and remembering the trial and error that is DOS, I swapped to another floppy drive.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums. :) But I couldn't help but be offended by that bit of trolling there. As a long time DOS user (still am) I can tell you for sure that there is no "trial and error" involved. It is however possible that if one does something wrong, one will have to try it again - that is not OS dependent. :)
 
Given its an old pc, have you try reseating the card yet, or swapping its slot, or is it integrated into the motherboard? If it is integrated, does this machine happen to be a compaq slim desktop? If so they have a known problem and blow one of the 74xxxx logic chips with age.

I have 3 boards here that otherwise work, sans floppy controller. And sad part is on the compaq's YOU CANT TURN IT OFF! So using an aftermarket controller is not an option. :\
 
This computer is a CompuTel 486DX-33. I have no more specifics aside from AMIBIOS and a 233 MB HDD.

I found a working floppy drive and cable that worked successfully in this computer for a while. I was able to run my programs and everything just fine... that is until I started DOS Shell. I tried to read the files in Shell, and received an error saying my floppy drive was unreadable aand I had two options: try again or disable
So I just cancelled. But since then, my "working" floppy drive and cable has been error messages. I need to recheck this drive in another computer now. Because now I have a feeling this computer is frying floppies. I cannot get another floppy controller because there is one single peripheral board for FDD, HDD, and com ports. I need to just get a compact flash drive and IDE adaptor and then I can take these floppies out for good!
I
 
You are not trying to read a 1.44 Mb HD diskette in a 720 Kb drive, now, are you? ;)
 
You haven't tried cleaning the heads with a cleaning diskette and liquid as Chuck suggested earlier, have you? You know, once the heads get fouled by oxide they wont read *any* disks, even so-called known good ones. That, IMO, is also the most common cause of drive failure.
 
The computer stores around me do not carry floppy drive cleaning disks, since they also no longer carry floppy disks. They do still sell the drives however. At any rate, I cleaned the heads using alcohol and cotton swabs. This did nothing. I cleaned the four drives that were giving me failures, and none of them started working again in a known working computer. Could the controller board be frying my drives somehow? Like I said, the last working drive I put in worked for a while until I tried to copy the contents to a directory via DOSShell. Then I received my first error message and nothing but failures after that. I have two floppy drives left, both of which work, and neither of which I'm willing to destroy since they are attached to my two P3s.

Should I just start buying floppy drives and run them until the 486 burns them up, and then exchange them for new ones? I seriously am confused!
 
Power surges might be damaging your drives. Test the power supply if you can and the power the floppy is getting. Confirm you are not trying to use floppy drives intended for a PS/2 on a non-PS/2 system or the opposite.

The controller should not be able to damage the drives in any lasting way during a relatively short connection. Okay, if the controller tries to access extra tracks with a floppy drive that can't, eventually the drive will fail but that takes a lot of time usually.

The other probable cause of numerous drive failures is a very bad disk. The disk may be gummed up and gumming the drive heads or might be damaged and destroying the drive heads. Don't keep using the same disks after a drive fails.

Look for a different 486 and/or a backpack external drive. A different computer might work better and the backpack drive will avoid any problems with the current 486 system's power and controller.
 
Floppy drives simply do not fail like this. I have floppy drives that I use frequently that are over 30 years old. I still think your heads are getting contaminated--I use Perc to (carefully) clean the heads on my drives.

Also, check your power supply outputs using a voltmeter.
 
Just reconfirming what the others have said mostly.
It is probably just dirt on the heads - using a disk on a dirty drive will damage the disk permanently - and using a dirty disk on a clean drive can infect it's head also. The drive heads slide along the disk surface, so the smallest amount of crud can scrape bits of disks clean off - look at one of your disks that is not working - if it's bad enough you may see one or two rings engraved on the magentic material. I'm feeling this pain at the moment after attempting to read 80 old floppies - I should've known better but really wanted to see if they worked :/

You might be able to find a cleaning kit on ebay as old-stock. But usually I just remove the drive, take the lid off (its usually just clip-on or maybe 2 screws) and use some q-tip's with cleaning alcohol on the heads (top and bottom).

Testing the PSU voltages are a good idea, but from all the old gear I've been collecting I've yet to actually find a PSU that over-powered. Bad PSU usually has other symptoms as well, complaints from people are normally system instability, blown electrics etc like HDD or RAM rather than just simply a floppy drive not reading a floppy. it could happen, just saying dirty floppy heads is a LOT more likely.
 
krebizfan said:
Power surges might be damaging your drives. Test the power supply if you can and the power the floppy is getting. Confirm you are not trying to use floppy drives intended for a PS/2 on a non-PS/2 system or the opposite.

The controller should not be able to damage the drives in any lasting way during a relatively short connection. Okay, if the controller tries to access extra tracks with a floppy drive that can't, eventually the drive will fail but that takes a lot of time usually.

The other probable cause of numerous drive failures is a very bad disk. The disk may be gummed up and gumming the drive heads or might be damaged and destroying the drive heads. Don't keep using the same disks after a drive fails.

Look for a different 486 and/or a backpack external drive. A different computer might work better and the backpack drive will avoid any problems with the current 486 system's power and controller.
Click to expand...

I know for a fact this system is not PS/2. It uses the single large 5-pin connector for keyboards (I want to say it's called ATX?) and uses COM1 for mouse support.

I have also tested the voltages and they are +5.03 and +12.00 respectively, with no surges or fluctuations. I tried plugging in the original floppy drive that came with this computer (that I also cleaned!) and using a different disk. Still nothing.

I never knew there was a difference in floppy drives.
 
Last edited:
btrains said:
I know for a fact this system is not PS/2.
Click to expand...
Does the system in question use a floppy drive where power and data are delivered over the same cable? The IBM PS/2 and a few other systems did something like that. I've got my doubts this is the case, as an incompatible drive would probably fry immediately. Still, it never hurts to check.

The 5 pin keyboard port is known as a "DIN" type. :)
 
Just wanted to let you guys know I resolved this issue! It was a combination of several issues:

I had four drives I attempted to use. I cleaned all four. Upon opening one, I found a floppy disk door wedged inside. I removed it, but that drive is too far gone to be of use. The other drives still came up with errors after cleaning, so I tried other floppy disks. Eventually I found that two of the three remaining floppy drives could be resurrected. The issue was also bad disks. I find it amusing that the current floppy drive I'm using in this old 486 just so happens to be the Panasonic floppy drive that came in my first computer (386SX Packard Bell). That computer was long pieced apart and recycled, but it amazes me how some things from 20 years ago work like brand new, and modern computer parts basically die as soon as you plug them in!
 
Nice to know. Floppy drives are really very rugged things, but dirt is their enemy and old disks that shed are their worst enemy.

I wonder how many drives have been needlessly discarded because the power supply fan makes the case pressure negative, thereby ensuring that dirty air will get sucked in through the floppy slots. Many industrial PCs include an extra fan or two that suck in outside air through a filter. System components inside stay very clean.
 
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