"John J. LeMay Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> ** Reply to message from Vincent Danen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on Sun, 7 Jan
> 2001 22:38:40 -0700
>
> >
> > This is a compaq... I think I need a disk to get into the BIOS (I
> > recall having to do this with a Compaq 386 I had years ago). Hitting
> > ESC or F1 results in a keyboard error (go figure). I didn't see
> > anything on the mobo specs to indicate a jumper to control the video.
> >
>
> Upon booting, when the blinking cursor jumps from the left side of the screen
> to the right, hit and hold F10 for a second or two. Should put you right into
> the bios.
Which brings up a good point (implicitly, anyway).
Compaq (which is REALLY GOOD at being 'almost compatible' - which is why
I try REALLY HARD to avoid using compaq for anything!) has, as John says,
their 'bios setup' STORED ON DISK in a special partition.
WIthout that partition, you CANNOT set your bios options! (Well, not entirely
true - you can perhaps find on their web site the (dos) boot disks that have
the bios setup on them, so you can boot from floppy to config your machine,
but its kinda painful).
As John said, the secret decoder is to HOLD F10 down when the cursor jumps to
the right side.
So, whatever you do - if you have a compaq DO NOT allow fdisk to delete the
stupid bios boot partition (which has some really strange label on it,
as I remember).
(For the amusement of those easily amused - the bios setup programs run
under dos!)
rc
Rusty Carruth Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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