problems with first boot of new computer

[Davermonk]

I installed the following components before first boot...

Asus A7V26-E
Athlon 1800 (& heatsink/fan)
(2) PC2100 DDR
Asus GeForce 3 ti2 vid card
Mistumi (oem) floppy drive

Without a disk in the floppy, the bios came up & I configured it to mostly default settings. I put a system disk (from Win98) into the floppy and rebooted. The drive light stays on and the screen freezes at "PCI device listing". According to Mitsumi's site, if drive light stays on, then connector is backwards in floppy.

I reversed the connecter into the floppy and rebooted. I freeze at the same place but now the drive light runs for a short time, and then goes off (like it should?).

I've tried enabling & disabling boot virus protection in bios with no change.

I installed my DVD, went into bios & disabled floppy on boot, and put my Win XP Pro CD into the drive. Same as above.

I went back into bios & disabled hard drive so now only DVD is bootable. Win XP CD starts.

I installed win XP. It recognizes the HD but when I try to access the floppy, it freezes up.

[rextex]

The floppy drive is unrelated to anything else on the system.It may just be bad or the cable.Try another one.The only thing really you can do.The floppy is controlled by a chip on the motherboard.It has nothing to do with PCI.As you may know Floppy drives predate the PCI bus by many years.
It you're getting a long hang up at boot its probaly just because you don't have O.S. and motherboard drivers installed.And just coincidental, that the floppy seek goes at boot, just like all other POST and so forth sequences.
If the situation doesn't clear up after you've replaced everything try a bios update.Or a new board.Like I say, its an onboard device.Its controlled by the chip and the bios.

[Davermonk]

After I installed XP, I went back into bios & enabled HD & FD in boot order.

Now, if nothing is in the floppy, XP boots up. When I goto My Computer, it "opened" the system disk and showed the pie chart that there was data on the disk but it wouldn't show any files.

I restarted Win and the next time it wouldn't read the disk... it just hung up while trying to read it.

How can I flash bios w/o a floppy? I thought flashes had to be done off of floppy?

Could it be a bad drive?

[HRM]

Just FYI...only the end plug on the floppy works....the middle plug (if it has two) will only work with two devices.

I recently "forgot" that.

[Commandos]

It seems that it's a bad floppy drive.Otherwise,like Rextex said,it could be the chip on the motherboard..No more reasons can cause such problem. Anyway,try getting another board if it's a new system and that the warranty is still valid.

[rextex]

You probaly just need to replace the cable or the floppy drive itself.But of course first check with a floppy disk you know is good, as disks go bad often.. and so do cables and drives!Even new ones!

[Davermonk]

Still can't get floppy to work. The good news is that I set up a router and am able to transfer most files from my "old compter' to "new computer" and connect via DSL. I can't believe how much faster the new computer is on the DSL (I'm using it right now as a matter of fact).

My plan is to goto Best Buy & get a new floppy & cable (they're so cheap I figure I'm better off doing that than sending the old one back to Newegg... and at this point I'm too impatient to rule out mobo problem!).

Thanks for help so far and I'll keep you posted.

[Davermonk]

Just wanted u to know that I went to BB & purchased new FD & cable. I had to pay $19 for the drive! what a rip.

But anyway, I replaced them both & everything works just fine now.

Thanks for all the help!!