Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bwdls58!mlord
From: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Floppy wipes out in Turbo speed?!
Message-ID: <3979@bwdls58.UUCP>
Date: 24 Aug 90 15:15:40 GMT
References: <1990Aug23.183342.17123@hellgate.utah.edu>
Sender: mlord@bwdls58.UUCP
Reply-To: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 26

In article <1990Aug23.183342.17123@hellgate.utah.edu> bwilliam%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Bruce R. Williams) writes:
>
>My AT-compatable was put together piece-by-piece by the guy I bought it
>from.  I got it for a good price but it has this problem--floppies get
>scrambled when the machine is in Turbo Speed (8 Mhz)!  This only happens
>when writing to the disk and never when in the 6 Mhz mode.

I see two possibilities (at least!):

	1) the floppy controller is an old design, for 6Mhz AT's only.
	2) the BIOS is using a "timing loop" in writing to the floppy,
	which does not take into account the current CPU speed.

>One less disturbing problem... when I use the reset button, before
>even turning on the floppy drive light in it's search for the system
>files, the hard disk makes a loud noise for a second.

This is probably "normal".  The BIOS looks at the equipment list in CMOS,
and then looks at the hardware to verify that those items are present
and functional.  That's why the hard drive gets accessed even when booting
from floppy.  The noise is probably just due to the brand/model of drive.
-- 
 ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________
| ..uunet!bnrgate!bmerh724!mlord | Climb Free Or Die (NH) |
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