TEAC FD-505 COMBO DRIVE

Hello, All!

I am trying to run a TEAC FD-505 3.5/5.25 Combination Drive on
Windows 2000 and am having little success getting the machine to
recognize the 5.25 drive. I called TEAC tech support and they told me
that W2K does not support 5.25 1.2mb drives. Is this true? I have
tried both jumper settings and have successfully gotten it to recognize
the 3.51.44 mb as drive A: with no problems. I will try booting up in
DOS and see what I can come up with. In the mean time, has anyone out
there had experience with these drives?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Bobby

"Bobby" <bwickes@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1141943530.904852.321230@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hello, All!
>
> I am trying to run a TEAC FD-505 3.5/5.25 Combination Drive on
> Windows 2000 and am having little success getting the machine to
> recognize the 5.25 drive. I called TEAC tech support and they told me
> that W2K does not support 5.25 1.2mb drives. Is this true? I have
> tried both jumper settings and have successfully gotten it to recognize
> the 3.51.44 mb as drive A: with no problems. I will try booting up in
> DOS and see what I can come up with. In the mean time, has anyone out
> there had experience with these drives?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
> Bobby
Does your BIOS recognize 2 floppies? Many modern BIOSes
only recognize one floppy. The Teac is 2 separate drives in
a single case. The jumpers merely decide which is A or B.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/dta/79788/

Hi, Pen!

Nope, my BIOS only sees A:. When I switch it to 5.25, 1.2MB and
reboot, it still does not see the floppy. I have downloaded the manual
from TEAC and gone both ways with the jumpers. Option A (The default
in those days) shows the 5.25 as A: and the 3.5 as B:. However when I
run that configuration, the bios gives me a floppy(40) error.

Now I called TEAC and they said that W2K will not recognize floppies
at all. Go figure. My DOS ensamble is at work. I will rig up a DOS
DOS tomorrow night and see what happens.

Thanks for the feedback!
Take Care!
Bobby

"Bobby" <bwickes@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1141949934.203004.294190@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi, Pen!
>
> Nope, my BIOS only sees A:. When I switch it to 5.25, 1.2MB and
> reboot, it still does not see the floppy. I have downloaded the manual
> from TEAC and gone both ways with the jumpers. Option A (The default
> in those days) shows the 5.25 as A: and the 3.5 as B:. However when I
> run that configuration, the bios gives me a floppy(40) error.
>
> Now I called TEAC and they said that W2K will not recognize floppies
> at all. Go figure. My DOS ensamble is at work. I will rig up a DOS
> DOS tomorrow night and see what happens.
>
> Thanks for the feedback!
> Take Care!
> Bobby
Sorry I misread your post. The BIOS should read the 5.25. Needless to say
WIN2k and all other Windows recognize floppies if the BIOS does. At this
point
I would guess the drive is defective as the other causes all involve either
the
cable or the controller. You are changing the floppy identity in the BIOS
aren't you?

I have a TEAC FD-505 302 running on WinXP HE SR-2 and it seems to be
working just fine. So, the TEAC.com info you got appears to be
inaccurate.

However, when I first assembled the system and fired it up the FD-505
was anything but workable - it even bogged the system down to the
point that I was afraid I had fried something.

To make a long story short it turned out to be the cable between the
MOBO and the floppy - specifically the PIN 1 orientation of the cable
connector on the floppy end. I matched up two new cables
(conventional flat and the new round one I wanted to install). I
performed a continuity check pin-by-pin and found that both cables
matched exactly but neither would make the floppy work in the new
system. I tried the FD-505 in an older machine and it worked as
advertised. That's when I discovered the older system cable
connectors were completely flat on both sides - no keying feature.
Back in the "old days" you had to pay attention to the
location of the red conductor and make sure it was oriented for Pin 1
on both the MOBO and the floppy. Pin 1 is usually marked on the MOBO
but you must examine the floppy closely to make the determination.
The "rule of thumb" says the Pin 1 for the floppy is
"usually" closest to the power connector.

Would you believe the red conductors on the new round cable are on the
Pin 33 and 34 end?

Well, due to the KEY FEATURE on the newer cables, I was not making the
correct connection - my Pin 1 conductor was over at Pins 33 and 34 on
the floppy. Since there is NO key way on the floppy circuit board,
it takes a bit of force to push the cable keying feature over the
edge of the circuit board and fully insert the cable connector onto
the floppy. It will fit and seat
completely using firm even force but be CAREFUL.

I installed the FD-505 and the new round cable and fired the system
up. I went into the BIOS setup and selected the A and B Floppy
Drives according to the selection jumpers on the floppy circuit board
and allowed the machine to complete its boot routine. Sure enough,
it's workin just fine!