fayne@tellab5.tellabs.com (Jeffrey Fayne) (02/21/90)
I have a Wells American AT (the old AT not the new modular system)
that I have been trying to install a 1.44 3.5 floppy in( a Toshiba
ND3561). The controller is a WD1006V-MM2. According to the CMOS setup
utility the BIOS supprts both a 720K and a 1.4mb drive. I am presently
using an NEC 720K with no problems.
The problem I am having is that the drive will not read/write a previously
formatted 1.4 OR a 720k disk. However it will read/write both a 1.4 and a
720K disk that IT formatted!! I then tried this drive in another system
I have (a 386 w/AMI bios) with no problems. Swapping a different model
TOSHIBA drive (a ND356T-A) from the 386 into the Wells yielded different
results: Would only read/write/format 1.4m if setup for 1.4m and would
only read/write/format 720k if setup for 720k (ie wouldn't "switch"
between 1.4m and 720K). BTW, I am using a 1.4 disk and a 720K disk for
testing.
I called Toshiba and spoke to a very helpful support person. Her opionion
was that the drive was OK, but the BIOS (even though it would allow
the 1.4mb selection) was not fully capable of supporting the 1.4 mb drives.
OK I thought, just a simple BIOS upgrade should do it. Unfortunatly,
Wells American picked this month to go belly up, hence no tech support
and nowhere to turn to!.
The Bios version I have is Wells Bios v3.014. A quick search with
DEBUG tells me that AWARD wrote the Bios for Wells, but no Award
version number to be found.
The questions I have are:
Does this bios FULLY support 1.4m (meaning it's not a bios problem)?
Is there a newer version than 3.014 (if so, does it fully support
the intelligent 1.4 drives) and where does one go now to get it?
Will another AT BIOS (Phoenix, AMI or Award) work in th WELLS?
(according to the schematic there is a jumper for a WELLS BIOS or
an IBM bios (if it can use an IBM bios it must be VERY IBM compatible))?
Thanks in advance,
Jeff
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