The others are right, the AT needs a diagnostic diskette to enter setup.  I
like the disconnected battery suggestion, but I think you have a real good
chance the diskette drives or controller are flakey because the ribbon
cable has been moved around or tampered with.  I would try this:
 disconnect all drives except 1 floppy 5 1/4 high density.  This was the AT
default diskette.  Even with improper settings the drive should do
something.  A BIOS that refuses to read its floppy but requires a
diagnostic diskette is really in trouble, so it should do something even
while it complains.  The battery removal could help but is tricky if you
don't have the diagnostic diskette to use as a fail-safe.  Your going to
lose the memory setup and the hard disk setup too and that's bad.

Second attempt, I would try a low density diskette as the only diskette
drive present.  In either case, make sure the single floppy  is connected
to the A drive harness.  I saw this problem once caused by some unknown
individual moving the A: drive harness to a 3 1/2 diskette drive.  That
worked fine for a while then the system stopped and nobody could figure out
how to get the 3 1/2 (which wasn't an option originally on an AT) to work
as A:.  When I switched it to B: and installed the IBM device command for
it in config.sys the system booted fine.

Third, throw the AT out. (just kidding)  My first 3 builds were AT's from
scavenged parts.  I used them biefly as unattended display terminals.  I am
impressed by some first-timers who are willing to tackle Pentium II's,
considering what the cost of an errant static discharge can be.

I hope the ribbon cable is at the root of this but don't discount the
possibility the drive or drives are bad.
Tom Turak
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----------
From:   Frank Jr.[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Saturday, February 14, 1998 8:19 PM

Does anybody know how to access the BIOS setup utility on an
IBM AT 286?  I've been working on one, and it refuses to
recognize its floppy drives.  When I boot, it says BIOS
options are not set and to run the setup utility.  It then
boots off of the hard drive and refuses to read from the
floppies.

Frank Shelleby
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