Floppy problem on 80286 machine

[Columbo]

I currently do not have another machine with DOS. My preference of course is to get the floppies working so that I can re-install DOS 6.22 (with all of the files), and then be able to install my Clipper 5.0.

[Columbo]

I have just got hold of a 1994, 486 machine with a 80GB hard drive, 3.5" floppy, a tape drive, and a 2X CD. The fellow is dropping it off at my place this Saturday. He says that it works perfectly so I will install a 5.25" floppy in this machine and see how it works.

I still want to get the floppies working on the 80286 machine though,.... if possible.

[SpidersWeb]

Excellent. That is going to make things a lot easier for you having that machine.

[Columbo]

Yes, it is going to be a lot easier if it works as he says it does. Should be a little bit faster as well.
I really want to thank all of you guys for all of the suggestions that were put forward on the floppy drive issue. I really do appreciate it very much.

On the 486, I think that I'll just replace the tape drive with a 5.25" floppy, because he didn't mention having any software for the tape drive although it might still be available somewhere on the internet. I'll have to see what make and model it is after he delivers it on Saturday.

[Gibsaw]

Well, keep us posted on how you go... particularly on how the floppy drives behave in the 486. Then when we come back to the 286, we'll hopefully have some working floppy drives as a starting point.

[Columbo]

No problem Gibsaw. I'll let you know how the 486 works and if everything works ok on it I will try the floppy out on the 286 and see what happens.

[Columbo]

I got the 486 machine today. I had to replace the 80GB hard drive and put a 5.25" floppy in it since it came with only one 3.5".
I removed the tape drive to make room for the 5.25" floppy. I didn't have any software for the tape drive anyway. So I have the 5.25" as drive a: and the 3.5" as drive b:. I formatted the hard drive and loaded in DOS 6.22. I also replaced the battery on the motherboard of course. Everything seemed to go well and I was finally able to get my Clipper 5.0 installed on the hard drive. Yippeeee!

I still have to figure out what the problem is with the 80286 though. It can't be the floppy drive because the new 5.25" floppy that I tried in the 286 and would not read is the same 5.25" floppy that I just installed in the 486 and it works perfectly there so there has to be something else going on. I am waiting on another FDD controller and I'll see if it makes any difference.

The 486 has a modem card installed but I don't know what the baud rate is. I'm guessing 1200 but I couldn't see anything on the card itself to indicate the speed. There were a couple of extra modem cards in the box as well. So now I can finally do some Clipper programming.

[SpidersWeb]

Baud rate on a 486 would've commonly been 9600 or 14400 (all depends on when it was added - but in 1995 I had 14.4 in my new computer and upgraded to 28.8 soon after).

Switching out the FDD controller is a good idea, and double checking the BIOS settings, hopefully it works after that. Congrats on the 486