Sergey's Multi-Floppy BIOS - Behaviour of version 2.2
IMPORTANT: VERSION 2.2
NO HARD DISK CONTROLLER IN THE COMPUTER
During the computer's POST, the Multi-Floppy BIOS will display its bannner/splash text. Pictured at here.
Later, the Multi-Floppy BIOS will display "Press F2 to run the Multi-Floppy BIOS configuration utility".
When that text first appears, the floppy drive's access LED is off, and if desired, you can press F2.
You only have about 2 seconds to press F2.
After that 2 seconds, the floppy drive's access LED turns on, and pressing F2 does nothing.
At this point, the Multi-Floppy BIOS is waiting for you to insert a boot floppy.
If no boot floppy is inserted within about 30 seconds, the following will be displayed:
"Boot failed, error 80. Press F for the original IPL or any key to try again"
If your motherboard has BASIC on it, pressing the F key will take you to BASIC, although not straight to BASIC: The floppy drive's access LED will come on again, then about 30 seconds later, BASIC will present.
THERE IS A HARD DISK CONTROLLER IN THE COMPUTER
During the computer's POST, the Multi-Floppy BIOS will display its bannner/splash text. Pictured at here.
In difference to the 'NO HARD DISK CONTROLLER' scenario above, the "Press F2 to run the Multi-Floppy BIOS configuration utility" text may or may not appear. It depends on whether the address of the BIOS on the hard disk controller is earlier or later than the Multi-Floppy BIOS. Examples follow.
Example #1
Address C8000 = XTIDE Universal BIOS, version 2.0.0 beta 3+
Address D0000 = Multi-Floppy BIOS, version 2.2
I would have thought that the XTIDE Universal BIOS (XUB), being at a lower address, would show its bannner/splash text first, but it doesn't. (Later, the technical reason was explained to me at here.)
First, the Multi-Floppy BIOS displays its bannner/splash text.
The sequence then is the same as for the 'NO HARD DISK CONTROLLER' scenario above.
At the "Boot failed, error 80..." text, press the F key.
You then (immediately) see the XUB's bannner/splash text appear.
Example #2
Address D0000 = Multi-Floppy BIOS, version 2.2
Address DE000 = XTIDE Universal BIOS, version 2.0.0 beta 3+
First, the Multi-Floppy BIOS displays its bannner/splash text.
The "Press F2 to run ..." text does not appear.
Then, the XUB displays its bannner/splash text.
In this example, the only way to boot from A: is to press the A key when the XUB displays its bannner/splash text.
In this example, if you need to reconfigure the Multi-Floppy BIOS, you will need to temporarily remove the hard disk controller so that you temporarily get the "Press F2 to run the Multi-Floppy BIOS configuration utility" text to appear.