[neles]

Ok folks, this is just over my head. Please, if anyone has any idea how to solve this, it is really giving me the creeps and it's even more important to me.

Anyway, story goes like this: I got an old Dell Latitude CP 233mmx/96/3.1 etc etc. I'm running win98se, and I can say that all worked fine. I had Softex Bay Manager running, but lately, on startup, app dockapp.exe used to get stucked and I had to kill the process. Nonetheless, the system it self worked fine without it. A few nights ago I tried to format a floppy to 720kb - I didn't had any empty ones so I copied the contents of one to the hd, which proves that the drive and the disc were working - and when I attempted the format I got error how the disc is not of right capacity. Since that moment - I cannot read, write or format any floppy disc. I tried rebooting, BIOS tampering, removing the drive and the controller, thus letting windows find it itself on startup - nothing. Curiosly, windows explorer ALWAYS shows the 3 1/2 floppy in the list, even when I remove it and reset it - but does not find a cdrom, when I put it in a modular bay. I can't get rid of this problem. Even more, now the battery problems started to show - I shows it has 30% power, but when I pull the power cable, it just shuts down instantly, like there is no battery. I can't even start it. But that's another story - this floppy crack is going on my nerves. If anyone has any idea pleaaaasseeeee help!?!?

P.S. There is more to it: no one had an answer to this, so I got ****ed and formated the entire hdd (don't ask how, but thw floppy is still jammed). Now, when I start the comp, even when the both modular bays are empty, thus no floppy, battery or cdrom, on startup the computer reports that the disc in floppy drive is not a system disk, so I should replace it and press any key (!!!) I got the point, I done at least a thousand different installations in my "carieer" (w95, w98, wME, w2k, wXP, different linux distribs - so I have some experience) but I really have no idea what to do about this. I heard it could be a bios prob, but I cannot flash it since I can't establish any control over floppy.

As I said - pleaaaaseeee anyone...just...help

[tech4hire]

but does not find a cdrom, when I put it in a modular bay. I can't get rid of this problem

Does it find the cdrom if you hook it up external. Then i would get a bootable cd and try to reload the OS> if you have a restore disk which i doubt because of the age of the laptop will it work. Either the OS is hosed or you have more indepth hardware problems.

[Turbo-Athlon5]

most ppl are too lazy to read long stories, write shorter next time

[XT]

Originally posted by Turbo-Athlon5
most ppl are too lazy to read long stories, write shorter next time

such as you j/k

[neles]

Well, as for the long story, trust me I know - but I couldn't write a shorter one if I wanted to describe the problem in detail. Anyway, as for the booting externaly, I must admit I didn't try it, since I lost the cable somewhere, but I'll give it a try for sure. Though, I'm not really optimistic, since everything so far indicates that the comp keeps detecting floppy even when I disable it in bios and remove it from the bay. As for the OS, I don't know what to think. I formated the hdd. ****...I'm affraid that the controler is messed up, or something more indepth...