rcstmc@eutws1.win.tue.nl (Maurice Cuijpers) (02/07/90)
I've bought myself a 3.5 inch drive and installed it in my PC\XT compatible. Then I find out that the disk-drive buffers were not cleared as I changed disks. If you are willing to help me read the following more detailed explanation : Original Configuration: PC\XT Compatible (Tulip: Dutch product) with NEC V20 processor. 2 Floppy Disk Drives 5.25 inch (A: B:). Current Configuration: PC\XT (Same as above) 1 Floppy Disk Drive 3.5 inch (A:) a TEAC drive . 1 Floppy Disk Drive 5.25 inch (B:) (Same as above) Problem: The disk drive does *not* seem to notice or does *not* seem to inform the controller/processor that there has been a DISK CHANGE. Consequence: The buffers that contain the directory and FAT-table are not cleared. So a 'dir A:' gives the contents of the previous diskette!!! More consequences: Most programs that require a DISK CHANGE can not be executed. "Solutions": I rang the people/firm where I bought this drive, and they said I had to use 'CTRL C' as temporarily solution until they had found a better one. A few days later they rang and told me the following: I should put the strap (Short bar) of No.34 pin of the signal interface connector wrong. Well I've tried both settings of the Strap : "OP" : open position "ST" : short position but only "OP" works well, but then I had the same problem as I described above. With "ST" (use with PC\AT) my computer cannot read/write from disk ! Does *anybody* seem to recognize this problems and/or can help me solving them??*Any* suggestions are welcome !!!! ------------------------------------ Maurice Cuijpers University of Technology Eindhoven student Computing Science the Netherlands email: rcstmc@eutws1.win.tue.nl ------------------------------------
besler@egrunix.UUCP (Brent Besler) (02/09/90)
controller that wan't specifically designed to handle the 3.5" disk drive, you may want to try replacing it with a Western Digital Fox controller. I have a 3.5" and 5.25" drive set(1.44Mb and 360K) in a clone and am using the Jameco floppy controller card. I recommend the fox though, since the Jameco has the annoying problem of not formatting 360K or 720K disks when the PC is in 8 Mhz mode. I have to put it into 5 Mhz mode to format the disks. Brent H. Besler