Member Panel

Hi Gayle,

I think that machine must be older than I thought as It's been a very very long time since we have needed a floppy disk to access the BIOS. What does it say on the front of this disk? When you first switch your PC on, what do you see a Compaq logo or a black post screen similar to:



^ You can see on this screen that it is asking for you to press DEL to enter Setup/BIOS. Instead of holding the key down, you need to press it once only, and only when you see the option to enter BIOS. If you hold the button down, press it too early it will result in a keyboard error similar to the one your describing.

Hello Again,

I think the computer is about 9 years old, it came with windows 98 on it so it must be there about's, When I said floopy disk, I was talking about a 1.44 (3.5 inch) not one of the really old floppy 5.inch things! lol,
All of the disks I have think I have made or downloaded myself when I was using that computer,
If I start it with the diagnostics disk {I think I downloaded that from Compaq) you get the nice blue screen saying loading Setup and then the Compaq logo, then you get 3 options,1 setup {that's like the bios screen} 2 power management, and 3 diagnostics,
I have also found some other disks that will start it to the A:\> prompt but everything I type I get a message Bad command or file name, etc I have managed to copy a few things but its made no difference,... the computer still will not boot,
I'm really lost at this A:\> prompt, I have no clue how to make it do its job, lol,
My other computer is XP so it has different commands {that I am also very bad at!} but chkdsk, mkmbr, fixdsk, fixboot ect all work with XP but not with this computer, I am not sure if I'm not typing the right commands or the windows 98 is damaged,
Also I did try to get the battery out of the comos today, but it just wont move and i can't see a release catch, the instructions on the Compaq help and support web don't apply to this computer, { i have looked today for this modle for hours!} the one they show is totally different, Its like the battery is glued in, { God this gets better! lol}
I really think that if I can get the bios sorted out and get the CD ROM working I'm out of the woods.lol...... Well i live in hope!!!
What next? any ideas?
Gayle,

Yeah, the older PC's used to have their batteries soldered on, and would be very very suprised if that battery is even still working after all of this time. The battery is responsible for holding the BIOS settings and the PC time, but not the BIOS itself. This did occur to me earlier, however since we cannot even make it into BIOS in the first place, it's a pointless excercise at this point. Getting into BIOS is the key to everything at the moment.

Do you have the facility to take a picture of the Setup screen you mentioned, it would really help. If the BIOS does require a disk then we could try any get it from Compaq, now HP directly, but again, after all this time, I don't like our odd's.

Also, regarding the details I posted earlier, does your initial post screen look like that or do you get a compaq logo (this is the first thing you see when you first switch your PC on)?

On the bright side, I do have one possible solution to that flashing cursor problem. It's a long shot, but will need to get the software and make up the procedure first before I post it here.

Hi Again,

I will take a picture of the screen with my phone, im not sure how well it will come out but i will do my best,... As i am new to all this posting on here im not even sure how i will get it on to this site but im sure i will be able to sort it, even if i have to email it to you,
Today i went into the set up from that disk and i added the cd rom on the secondary drive 1, its on there now but still not working, i suppose its not configered right, {That was helpfull!}
Also i think something like this happened before on this computer and thats how i have ended up with the diagonstic disks, disk 1 and disk 2 i have even found the diagonstic test results, .... If only i knew what to do with them! i also have compaq back up but i can't do anything with it, ..... maybe i should just post the computer and disks to you, If only! lol
Ok im going to sort the pictures out now and i will send them asap,.. thanks so much you are a saint,
Gayle,

Some thing to try go here get a 98 boot disk Bootdisk.Com - Free Windows Bootdisks, Free DOS boot disk boot of it and when it gets to the A:\ prompt type "C:\" without the" and press enter it should change to a c:\ prompt
the type "dir" and press enter has it got a window directory there?

Hi,

I just did that and for the first time the computer booted, Anyway having said that i booted with the first option cd support but the cd drive is still not working, Also when i got to the c:\ prompt and typed dir. the message was Invalid Media type reading drive C, What Next?
Gayle,

Hi Gayle,

You wanted some DOS commands, here's one I think might just work!! Boot using that same disk you used to access the c: drive. This time, before typing in c:, type in the following command: fdisk /mbr