On Mon Jan 08, 2001 at 08:52:48AM -0700, Rusty Carruth wrote:
> > > 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.
Yeah, well, like I said.. this thing was free. Trust me, I would not
willingly pay for a Compaq anything anymore... =)
> 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).
Yes, I've done this before... on an old 386 I had, there were three
floppies that were required to make any BIOS changes. It was
extremely slow and, like you, said, kinda painful. =)
> As John said, the secret decoder is to HOLD F10 down when the cursor jumps to
> the right side.
Once I've got a few minutes, I'm going to try that.
> 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).
Well, I installed 7.2 using text mode since it crapped out in graphics
mode. It auto-created the partitions, so I have a feeling that if the
system partition was on there, it's gone now... =)
> (For the amusement of those easily amused - the bios setup programs run
> under dos!)
Yup... gotta love compaq... =)
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