disk drive controller problem?

[lurch@eskimo.com (Erik Kloeppel)]

Ok - I've asked everybody locally (i.e. my useless Mac dealers and a very
small user group) and nowbody seems able to help me.  I have a IIe I'm tryijng to get running for my son.  I know it USED to work, and the Kernal checks 
ok.  My problem is the darn thing won't boot.

It's an enhanced IIe, mono monitor.  I've tried three different disk ][
drives and three different drive controllers.  All respond in exactly
the same way.  Or don't react.

I insert a boot disk (it boots P8 on my GS just fine) into drive one and
trip the power (or three-finger salute.  I re-boot, anyway).  The machine
beeps (it's supposed to) and the drive chuckles to itself for a few seconds..
fo far so good.

But the days of wine and roses end here.  From this point, the system 
behaves as though there were no floppy at all in the drive.  The drive
keeps spinning and spinning and spinning (and sinning). My son loves it,
but A) I think he'd like it better if it really ran some software and B)
I want the damn thing to work.

As I said, I've tried three different drives and three different drive controllers.. what are the odds that all of one of them are toast?  Could it be
a motherboard problem (nah - I get teh same response on my II+, but that's
another story.  Isn't it?)

Lurch