Adding a Zip and Floppy? Is it this hard?

[crisp82]

Hey Ppl,

My bro asked me to insatll a zip drive and floppy drive on his computer, so I set to it. The problem is that his power supply has only 1 4 pin floppy connection, which is already taken up by his SoundBlaster Live! Drive. So I took the 4 pin floppy connection off of an old power supply and wired it to the existing one. I plugged the zip drive and floppy drive in and the computer booted, motherboard POSTed, and it found and recognised the zip drive, then it booted Windows 98 as normal, but when it came to logging it I copuld get as far as typing 2 letter on the keyboard before it was stop working. Mouse to. I Removed the Floppy - same problem, I removed the Zip and put Floppy back on - booted, but floppy wouldn't read.

I'm pretty sure it's a 300W PSU on an Asus K75sa (not correct name, but very similar). The PSU currently is connect to 1 hard drive, 1 CD drive, 1 SoundBlaster Live! drive, 1 CPU fan, and another fan that I bodged on in much the same way as above.

All cards are seated, all connections ok.

Does he need a better PSU, or an electrician?!

Thanks guys

 

[crisp82]

Come on guys, someone know the answer

 

[mechBgon]

My guess is that something shorted due to the makeshift wiring. That would explain why your floppy doesn't work when it did before. Try the drives in a different PC, if you have one you can use to test with. If they work, that points toward your PSU, and a new 300W Sparkle Power is about $33 shipped. If the drives don't work anymore, then I'm thinking new PSU and drives might be sensible, so you don't have to fuss with the wiring.

 

[crisp82]

not the answer I wanted, but an answer all the same. Cheers Mate 😉

 

[networkman]

The board you're working with is most likely the K7S5A made by ECS - sounds rather similar to Asus. 😉 In any case, many of the older models of that board were particularly sensitive to the kind of power supply in the system, and as such ECS only recommended AMD "approved" power supplies, though some others would work.

I'd agree with mechBgon's advice.. not much way to tell without testing the components in another known working system; this is also an excellent reason to keep more than one computer in the house. 😀

 

[mechBgon]

Hehe, networkman, you should post a link to your basement pics so they can see your definition of "more than one computer in the house." 😀😉

 

[Macro2]

The floppy uses a mini connector and the zip ( i assume ide) uses a molex (bigger). I was wondering how you plugged a molex into a floppy? Or did you?
You can wire it like you did matching colors or just buy a Y extender to make one molex end up as two... plus the mini before the y. I like the Y extension over splicing of course.

Assuming you have everythng hooked up right, data cables and power cables... you have yet to tell us where you put the zipdrive... on what IDE channel, what position on the cable, whether you set it to master or slave via the JUMPERS on the back.
Also reaze a IDE zip runs no faster than PIO4 and it will slow the other device down to that speed if it on the same IDE channel.
You also failed to tell us what motherboard and chipset you are using, ECS K7s5a or an Asus. There are known issues with internal zipdrives and certain chipsets. If it's the ECS ten forget that the chipset is ok. If it has a VIA 133A chipset then that could be a problem.

Disconnect the zip. Set jumpers correctly on other device on ide cable if applicable.
From reading you symptoms you could have a bad floppy drive, bad floppy disk or have a bent pin or a bad floppy cable. Eliminate the floppy disk idea by trying some others.
If that's not it, disconnect your floppy cable, inspect for bent pins and reinsert it. If that doesn't help try another floppy cable. I'm trusting that you have the cable inserted correctly. Pin 1 is red. make sure that's in pin 1 on the floppy and the ide socket on the mobo.
If that doesn't work, try another floppy drive.
Also look on the mobo around the floppy connector and see if you've broken off any capacitors.

Asumming you get the floppy working. Reinstall the zipdrive. set jumpers correctly. power cable correctly etc.
If you still have trouble either you have it jumped incorrectly or you have a chipset conflict.
(Also try booting with a zip disk in the drive). If you have a chipset conflict their are fixes.
Quickest is to install a seperate ide controller card and run the zip off that.