[comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware] Express 386 Floppy disk drive problem ?

mark@vehka.uta.fi (Marko Jauhiainen) (07/12/90)

	Hello,

	I just purchased a brand new Express 386 from my local dealer. It is
right here beside my old Express 286 and it has two floppy drives (A: 1.2 Mb
and B: 1.44 Mb) + 1 hard disk drive. When I went to pick it up the guy who
sold it to me said that everything else works fine except copying from drive
A to drive B or vice versa. He did not have the manual for the drives but
he promised to call the company that imports Expresses to Finland. Meanwhile,
I promised to check the computer.

	First, I ran ROM Diagnostics, and Disk Change Line test (BTW, what
the heck it means ?) said that drive B is ok but drive A Disk Change Line
is 'inoperational'.

	Second, I tried to make a system disk and boot the machine from drive
A. Several times it did nothing, several times it booted ok (after about 15
seconds of thinking), and several times it first told me that it is not
a systems disk but booted after I pressed spacebar.

	Third, I tried copying stuff from A -> B and from B -> A. It gave
me 'Sector not found error reading drive A' both times. But everything else
seems to be working ok ;-)

	Now, I personally think that drive A is toasted but could it be just a
configuration error or misplaced jumper or something ? And what does
Disk Change Line mean ?

	I'd really appreciate any help you could give me. Please use e-mail
and I'll summarize (if there is anything to summarize...).

	My email address is   mark@vehka.cs.uta.fi (128.214.54.129) or
			      mark@kielo.uta.fi (128.214.2.10)


	Thanks in advance !!


		Mark




--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Marko Jauhiainen, Dept. of Computer Science |   Don't talk unless you can
 University of Tampere, Finland              |     improve the silence.
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grege@gold.GVG.TEK.COM (Greg Ebert) (07/13/90)

In article <1421@kielo.uta.fi> mark@vehka.uta.fi (Marko Jauhiainen) writes:
>
> what does Disk Change Line mean ?
>

If, while deselected, the diskette is removed and re-inserted, the drive will
generate a DISK_CHANGE condition. 

DISK_CHANGE is a relatively unimportant signal, and should not affect the 
useability of your drive.

Before you suspect the drive, check the cables.