Your gonna luv this!!!

I have a customer that brought in a Compaq Deskpro 4/33i computer. Its a 486\33 DX. Actually he brought in 7 of them. The systems were all origionally setup as boot rom work stations. He also brought in a box full of misc hard drives, ram, cds, etc. I suspect that all this stuff probably came straight from a dumpster. He wants me to make usable word processing systems outta these!!! I tried to explain to him that the cost of labor makes this a stupid move, but he insist and the guy seems okay with the price that I quoted him.

Here is my problem: I can get the system to see a hard drive but I can't get it to boot from it. I've scanned the bios with no sign of any kind of a boot drive setup and reinstalled the op system (DOS 6.22)with no luck. I've done all the obvious things with no success. I know that in the past I've put hard drives in boot roms and made em work. Any suggestions?? Thanks

WildTech

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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

Probably a silly question, but do these drives have an active partition?

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I always do what the voices in my head tell me!

There are no silly questions dude. Thats actually good thinking. The partition is active and the drive boots up fine on a newer machine. Thanks for the post though

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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

do they still have netcard in them or is it right on the mb? if in slot remove the nic, otherwise possible jumper on mb

Do they hang on the red Compaq screen or does it go off? Will they boot from a floppy? Maybe look for a bios flash, unless the bios is on the drive. I just love old Compaqs.

those old compaqs are wonderful,
does the cursor appear top right at boot ?
if not then the diagnostics partitions may need to be created.
to do this you will need the softpaqs from compaq for that model these are two floppy disks. one diagnostics and the other setup.
hope this helps
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and the meek shall inherit....microsoft??

Thanks for the quick responses guys.

Oldman, yes the systems had actual stand alone network cards in them but I removed them before starting. I went to the Compaq site and looked for a diagram with jumper settings for this particular board. I found the diagram, but unfortunately no jumpers that offered a solution.


ShawnMT, the system doesn't hang up, it simply won't boot from the hard drive. It says that the operating system is missing. I loaded DOS 6.22 on that drive myself and it boots perfectly in another machine. Oh yeah, the bios is on the drive........lol. Good ole Compaq...........grrrrrrrrr!!!

Maku99, yes the curser does appear at the top right. What do you think?? Should I try the diagnostic software anyway?? At this point I have nothing to lose......

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I apprecitate it. https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2000/09/1.gif

WildTech


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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

[This message has been edited by WildTech (edited April 29, 2000).]

It's possible that the BIOS is configured to ignore C: drive and will only boot from A: Compaq's always were a pain in the butt when it comes to contract machines which these obviously are. If You can't change boot up settings in BIOS there is sometimes a jumper on the board of old Compaqs to set the boot sequence. It's just a matter of finding it. Sorry if this don't help.

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Smudge

hi i have also a compaq for the daughter..
all i can say who needs the bios on the harddisk?
format the drive and then copy the system
to the harddisk...

just like this

insert a bootdsk in a drive then type

when in a:
sys c:
followed with enter..
after this it will boot out the hdd thats for sure..
if you want more advice come to http://eurobyn.homestead.com/

What size is the hard drive?? I know these old Compaqs have problems with anything over 540MB.
If you boot with a floppy disk, can you access the hard drive?

Two things. First, most boot-ROMs have a screen that comes up prompting you to hit some key to boot locally. Second, if you pull the Boot-ROM chip, you need to configure the card to tell it not to try to boot from the ROM. I've had quite a bit of experience in this department, but it's been about 8 months since I've seen a diskless workstation. Depending on the manufacture of the NIC, you should be able to download the configuration utility (3Com especially has very good config utilities) and specify that there is NO Boot-ROM in the card.


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R. Bret Walker, CNE

Yes, I understand. In death, members of Project Mayhem have a name. His name is Robert Paulson.

That's what I get for skimming through the responses. Someone said to get into the BIOS and check to see if its set to boot from the A: drive, that's the way I'd go. I think the older Compaq's let you in if you hold down the Esc. key when you turn the machine on, giving you a stuck key error, which then prompts you to continue booting or go into setup.

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R. Bret Walker, CNE

Yes, I understand. In death, members of Project Mayhem have a name. His name is Robert Paulson.

To get into Compaq bios hit F10.

Wow!! I'm blown away by all the responses to this post.......lol.. Again, all the responses are great and the ideas are on the right track. But still no cigar!!

Since my last post, I have gotten my hands on a jumper setting card for this board. There are no jumpers on the board to enable or disable booting from c:.

I removed the network card long ago so that shouldn't be an issue. I have tried a fresh hard drive with just DOS 6.22 on it with no luck. I even tried to Sys the old drive with no luck.
The hard drives I'm using are all Connors and less than 540mg in good working condition that boot on other machines. {Thanks to ShawnMT for that copy of Spinrite. I've resurrected many drives with it!!} Yes, I can access C: if I boot from a floppy.

I checked the bios long ago for settings that enable hard disk booting.......no go!! This system has some off-breed NIC so I don't know for sure if there are utilities available to set the system for local booting. I will check into this. Good idea Shark!!

Oh, and yes, you do hold down F10 to enter setup.

Thanks gang, I'll go to work on Shark's suggestion about NIC utilities. Its worth a shot..

WildTech https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2000/09/1.gif



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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

I probably missed something, but did you say the bios was on the hard drive, like they are these days. If so, have you tried deleting the non-dos partition and reloading a rompaq? Possibly an updated one?
If the bios is not on the hard drive than just be glad that I am not long winded and you no longer have to burn your retinas reading my post!

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I always do what the voices in my head tell me!

Thanks for the post Larommi

Yes the bios is on the hard drive and yes I have already tried the rompaq........

Thanks anyway https://forums.windrivers.com/images.../2000/09/1.gif

WildTech

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I'd rather be lucky than smart!!

hi,this may sound silly but have seen work,try using a drive manager to install the drives,after all you got nothing to lose,
like i said try first and laugh after,cheer`s Clauded

I have those same machines changed the hd from the 245 and 345 mgs to a 850 mg had all sorts of those problems finally I used the win 98 boot disk ran the fdisk . It took a while due to the fact that at first it didnt see the drive. Then after getting into the bios I got it to see the drive and then ran the fisk program.

I had a machine about four years ago that I changed the hard drive on and did the same thing. It would not boot from the hard drive, but would recognized the drive and work perfectly if booted from floppy. Then I found that if I soft booted (ctrl, alt, del) it booted from the hard drive everytime. I never got it to boot from a cold start -- would have to turn it on, let it post -- then soft boot and it worked every time.

Thanks for the posts gang.

I tried the compaq software with no success..

I already tried Fdisking, in fact, I've tried about ten different drives with various operating systems and configurations on them with no luck.

I tried using EZ Drive with an older Western Digital Drive. The drive sets up ok but the system still won't boot from it.

The soft boot was a no go also........grrrrrrrrr.

I feel like this is certainly an issue with the motherboard or the bios...

I'm getting backed up at the shop right now, and this guy is in no particular hurry so I'm gonna set this aside for a few days and think on it.. Thanks to everyone for the ideas and suggestions. They were all good.

WildTech

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I shoulda been born rich!!

[This message has been edited by WildTech (edited May 03, 2000).]