Floppy Not Detected on Ascentia 910N Laptop

• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you install Windows NT on an AST Ascentia 910N laptop computer, the floppy drive is no longer detected. If you run Control Panel and choose Devices, the system indicates that the floppy disk driver is not started. If you attempt to start the driver, the following error is returned:

   Error 0121
   Could not start floppy service,
   the semiphore timeout period has expired.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if you attempt to run the Ascentia 910N from battery power rather than AC power. Power management is not supported in Windows NT, thus when Windows NT is booted with the system running on battery power, the floppy disk is not recognized.

RESOLUTION

According to AST Technical Support, upgrading the BIOS to revision 2.5 should alleviate the problem. If the problem still occurs after upgrading the BIOS to 2.5, download the file Set4nt.exe from the AST Web page. This file is a self-extracting executable that contains the Set4nt.com utility as well as a readme file. This utility was used to correct the problem on computers with BIOS earlier than 2.5.

The third-party products discussed here are manufactured by AST Computer, a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.