Disk boot failure

[Brian Todd]

I'm getting a +vdc reading at the cd-rom power, as per Brian. Shall I leave floppy drive connected?

Patrick, will you please also measure the voltage at the power connector to the floppy drive? Also look into the connector to make sure that there is no burning as you got the spark there I think? Does your PC power supply only have one floppy power connector? If there is another one then try using that and see if you get any acivity on the floppy LED. If not, the unit is defective and disconnect it for the meantime as Dave suggests.

From you original pics, it looks as if your CD Rom was on the same IDE ribbon as the hard drive? Looking to the pics of your controller card, the pins of the second IDE connector are very dusty and don't look as if they were connected to anything.

 

[Ol Rattler]

I'm getting a +vdc reading at the cd-rom power, as per Brian. Shall I leave floppy drive connected?

I disconnected cd-rom power to take a volt reading at cd-rom power plug with floppy power connected, computer did not power up. Floppy power is on the same circuit as cd-rom. I powered the computer off and then unplugged floppy power. With both power plugs disconnected, I was then able to obtain a proper volt reading for cd-rom. Rd/Blk=+5.12vdc; Yel/Blk=+12.14 vdc

 

[Brian Todd]

I disconnected cd-rom power to take a volt reading at cd-rom power plug with floppy power connected, computer did not power up. Floppy power is on the same circuit as cd-rom. I powered the computer off and then unplugged floppy power. With both power plugs disconnected, I was then able to obtain a proper volt reading for cd-rom. Rd/Blk=+5.12vdc; Yel/Blk=+12.14 vdc

Good those are the voltages we are looking for. Can you take the readings at the floppy power plug too just to be sure it is getting +5V

 

[Ol Rattler]

Patrick, will you please also measure the voltage at the power connector to the floppy drive? Also look into the connector to make sure that there is no burning as you got the spark there I think? Does your PC power supply only have one floppy power connector? If there is another one then try using that and see if you get any acivity on the floppy LED. If not, the unit is defective and disconnect it for the meantime as Dave suggests.

From you original pics, it looks as if your CD Rom was on the same IDE ribbon as the hard drive? Looking to the pics of your controller card, the pins of the second IDE connector are very dusty and don't look as if they were connected to anything.

Secondary floppy power plug also reads: Rd/Blk= +4 vdc and Yel/Blk= +11vdc.
As per Dave, I've disconnected floppy drives signal and power cable. Also, I plugged secondary floppy power and computer did not power upI then turned off power and disconnected floppy power. So, with cd-rom power plugged in and floppy power disconnected, along with floppy signal cable, system booted to floppy error.

 

[Ol Rattler]

Secondary floppy power plug also reads: Rd/Blk= +4 vdc and Yel/Blk= +11vdc.
As per Dave, I've disconnected floppy drives signal and power cable. Also, I plugged secondary floppy power and computer did not power upI then turned off power and disconnected floppy power. So, with cd-rom power plugged in and floppy power disconnected, along with floppy signal cable, system booted to floppy error.

Oh, i forgot. At the floppy power plug, there is some scorching, but nothing melted.

 

[Ol Rattler]

No. Disconnect the floppy drive (both signal and power) if it is not working.

That is a good question about the CD-ROM cable.

Can you remember how it was cabled originally?

Dave

Not really. After all of the hands and time that's been in there. As of now: Floppy power and sig cable, disconnected; one black block 40, plugged into cd-rom and the middle black block 40, plugged into hard drive and finally, the other end of the cable is plugged into Disk controller. I also have the sound board installed. There's no available cable for the ct-2800 IDE interface on disk controller card. Shall I power up?

 

[Ol Rattler]

Patrick, will you please also measure the voltage at the power connector to the floppy drive? Also look into the connector to make sure that there is no burning as you got the spark there I think? Does your PC power supply only have one floppy power connector? If there is another one then try using that and see if you get any acivity on the floppy LED. If not, the unit is defective and disconnect it for the meantime as Dave suggests.

From you original pics, it looks as if your CD Rom was on the same IDE ribbon as the hard drive? Looking to the pics of your controller card, the pins of the second IDE connector are very dusty and don't look as if they were connected to anything.

Yes. same cable. one end of the cable to cd-rom, the middle blk block to hard drive and finally blk block 40 to disk controller. all red stripes next to #1.

 

[Brian Todd]

Not really. After all of the hands and time that's been in there. As of now: Floppy power and sig cable, disconnected; one black block 40, plugged into cd-rom and the middle black block 40, plugged into hard drive and finally, the other end of the cable is plugged into Disk controller. I also have the sound board installed. There's no available cable for the ct-2800 IDE interface on disk controller card. Shall I power up?

Secondary floppy power plug also reads: Rd/Blk= +4 vdc and Yel/Blk= +11vdc.
As per Dave, I've disconnected floppy drives signal and power cable. Also, I plugged secondary floppy power and computer did not power upI then turned off power and disconnected floppy power. So, with cd-rom power plugged in and floppy power disconnected, along with floppy signal cable, system booted to floppy error.

Ok so we can now safely assume that the floppy drive is toast as the computer refuses to power up with either floppy power cable connected ... suggest you grab another floppy drive from Ebay .. they are mostly generic.

And yes .. go ahead and boot up the system. Unless you disable the floppy in the Bios, you will just have to press F1 until you get a new floppy! Let us know whether CD Rom and sound card are recognised!

 

[Brian Todd]

Something like this would be fine....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256392960165?hash=item3bb23618a5:g:5EwAAOSwTn5ltuSi

 

[Ol Rattler]

Ok so we can now safely assume that the floppy drive is toast as the computer refuses to power up with either floppy power cable connected ... suggest you grab another floppy drive from Ebay .. they are mostly generic.

And yes .. go ahead and boot up the system. Unless you disable the floppy in the Bios, you will just have to press F1 until you get a new floppy! Let us know whether CD Rom and sound card are recognised!

These leds don't matter, for now? Leds plug into motherboard, one of them plug into disk controller.

 

[daver2]

You did take note of which way around the connectors were originally didn't you? Don't forget that LEDs are polarised...

Dave

 

[Ol Rattler]

You did take note of which way around the connectors were originally didn't you? Don't forget that LEDs are polarised...

Dave

No. I know. Stupid Dumb a-s. The good news is that computer booted up all the way to the flight simulator and I flew a mission. I simply followed the prompts and bypassed the errors. There's no sound. There ARE labels on the circuit board and the leds. I also noticed that there are silkscreens, but can't tell if it's a number 1 or an arrow.

 

[daver2]

They are '1' to indicate pin 1 of the associated connector.

The switches shouldn't matter which way around they are installed.

The LEDs will... This is why you should take lots of photographs (and write notes) about where everything is connected to BEFORE taking anything apart. Just so that you can put it back together again...

Where did you take the sound from last time? I assume from the sound blaster card. Are the cables plugged into the sound blaster card correctly?

Dave

 

[daver2]

Do you use speakers on your system or an external amplifier and speakers?

If you use speakers, these should be plugged into the jack socket immediately next to the joystick port.

If you use an external amplifier, this should be plugged into the next jack socket along from the speaker jack socket.

The order of connectors on your Sound Blaster 16 sound card is:

Line In Jack socket.
Microphone In Jack socket.
Line Out Jack socket (to external amplifier).
Speaker Out Jack socket (to external speakers - no amplifier).
Joystick (multipole) connector.

The manual is at: https://archive.org/details/creativelabssoundblaster16manual/page/n9/mode/1up

Dave

 

[Ol Rattler]

Do you use speakers on your system or an external amplifier and speakers?

If you use speakers, these should be plugged into the jack socket immediately next to the joystick port.

If you use an external amplifier, this should be plugged into the next jack socket along from the speaker jack socket.

The order of connectors on your Sound Blaster 16 sound card is:

Line In Jack socket.
Microphone In Jack socket.
Line Out Jack socket (to external amplifier).
Speaker Out Jack socket (to external speakers - no amplifier).
Joystick (multipole) connector.

The manual is at: https://archive.org/details/creativelabssoundblaster16manual/page/n9/mode/1up

Dave

They are '1' to indicate pin 1 of the associated connector.

The switches shouldn't matter which way around they are installed.

The LEDs will... This is why you should take lots of photographs (and write notes) about where everything is connected to BEFORE taking anything apart. Just so that you can put it back together again...

Where did you take the sound from last time? I assume from the sound blaster card. Are the cables plugged into the sound blaster card correctly?

Dave

I use external speakers and now I have sound, but the new rinkle is that after boot up, it's asking for a password. What password! Never had one.The there's only a two wire cable plugged into sound card. Pic is from the soundboard.

 

[Ol Rattler]

I use external speakers and now I have sound, but the new rinkle is that after boot up, it's asking for a password. What password! Never had one.The there's only a two wire cable plugged into sound card. Pic is from the soundboard.

A full screen red brick wall with a little window is telling me to enter password. It didn't do that before.

 

[daver2]

I can only see a tiny piece of the sound card in your photograph. More to the point, I am not sure WHY you are showing me a picture of a sound card for?

It would have been more useful to me to post a photograph of the screen asking you for a password!

Dave

 

[Brian Todd]

No. I know. Stupid Dumb a-s. The good news is that computer booted up all the way to the flight simulator and I flew a mission. I simply followed the prompts and bypassed the errors. There's no sound. There ARE labels on the circuit board and the leds. I also noticed that there are silkscreens, but can't tell if it's a number 1 or an arrow.

If the LEDs don't work just reverse the connector .. this has never failed me before. Your "no label" is the PC speaker (double check where the wires go to).

Re your sound card ... if you have sound that is good. Don't bother connecting anything to the IDE interface of the soundcard. The 2 wire cable plugged into your sound card should plug into the back of the CD Rom if I remember correctly.

Re the red brick wall .. when do you get prompted for a password? Make a pic of the screen as Dave says. By the way, if you never used a password before, try just pressing enter!

 

[Ol Rattler]

If the LEDs don't work just reverse the connector .. this has never failed me before. Your "no label" is the PC speaker (double check where the wires go to).

Re your sound card ... if you have sound that is good. Don't bother connecting anything to the IDE interface of the soundcard. The 2 wire cable plugged into your sound card should plug into the back of the CD Rom if I remember correctly.

Re the red brick wall .. when do you get prompted for a password? Make a pic of the screen as Dave says. By the way, if you never used a password before, try just pressing enter!

 

[daver2]

The REQUESTER error is possibly because you haven't got the ETHERNET cable connected to a network?

I have no idea regarding the brick wall. It is clearly not a BIOS password.

What have you done since it last booted OK?

Dave