FDD errors on present due in 2 hours--HELP!!!!!

[TheCableGuy]

Put together a new Duron system for little brother's graduation present that I have to give to him at 3:00PM today. Here's the spec's and problem:

Biostar M7vkl Mobo w/ onboard aound and video
Duron 750
128mb of Micron PC100
WD 20 Gigger
TDK 12/10/32
Netgear 310tx (rebadged Lne-100tx
Enlight 7237 w/300W PS

Error on post:

"Floppy disk(s) fail (40)"

What I've done:

-Swapped fdd with one from my system that I know is good
-Swapped fdd ribbon
-Reset CMOS
-Ensured FDD Controller is enabled; set FDD to 1.44MB 3.5
-Disabled "Boot up floppy seek", but still won't boot to CD-Rom
(yes CD-Rom is listed as boot device)
-Pulled my hair out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could the Mobo be bad (FDD Controller), or is their something I'm Missing?

Please help, Can't show up with no present!!!

 

[JW310]

Check to make sure that you're putting the floppy on the end of the cable, after the twist in part of the cable. Also, does the light on the floppy drive stay on when you turn the computer on? If it does, then flip the connector around on the end that's going to the floppy.

Another thing I would try is just setting both floppy drive settings to 'none', disconnect the floppy, and then see if it'll boot to a CD that way. If this works, but you can't get the floppy drive to work any other way, then it's probably the controller on the motherboard. One option you'd have in this case is to get a LS-120 drive for the computer. It'll run off of an IDE controller, so even if the floppy controller's dead, he'll still have a way to use floppy disks on the computer.

JW

 

[Mikendi]

Sounds like your "pin 1" on the cable is backwards. They are usually toward the middle of the drive, but not always.

 

[GAZZA]

If the light is continually on then you have the cable connected wrongly , as in flip the ribbon cable 180 degrees , not all pin1(Red Mark on ribbon) line up like they do with Cdrom's/HD's