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  • #2083754

    Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

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    by bazz22 ·

    How do I get to the bios on laptop when booting up ?
    I have a Compaq Armada 1700. I got it at an auction with no documentation or warranty etc. The hard drive has now refused to go. I know very little of laptop technology and are reluctant to “fiddle’ too much with the inside of it. All I can find is that you press F10 while booting but I fear this only accesses Compaq utilities on hard drive…. which does not go !!
    It is a P2 233, 48 meg RAM, IBM 4 gig HD.

    It can boot off floppy or CD_Rom.

    Any help ideas etc much appreciated.

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    • #3780463

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by avachon ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      Hi, well, I’d begin by trying to collect my documentation by starting with compaq’s site (www.compaq.com). Does the harddrive seem to work at all? Any light or flashing light on the laptop? compaq’s site should also tell you the command sequence forgetting into the bios and this does differ from manufacturer. You could try cntrl+alt+esc or F10 or F1 cntrl+shift+esc. Unfortunately if the harddrive is no good, you would need to replace it, but fortunately this is an easy task. Again, find your documentation first and if it’s not on the site, call compaq and they should provide it for a small fee. Good luck.

    • #3780461

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by spiceman ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      You need to update your BIOS by downloading the ROMpaq from compaq:
      http://www.compaq.com/support/files/portables/us/index.html.

      There is usually only one method of going into the bios on these machines either f10 or f2. Maybe after the bios upgrade you will have no problem. If you have Windows 98 or NT you definitely need a BIOS upgrade!

      Good luck.

    • #3780450

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by other ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      Usually, the Del key works for all computers. Compaq builds their “own” version of a MSD dos command. Some of the bios settings are available under the F10 option which is almost a 100% thing with Compaq computers & laptops.

    • #3780435

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by wbutler188 ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      heres the problem you have, your hard disk isnt booting. heres teh problem with compaq… they put there bios info on the hardrive. if the hardrive fails your done. the advice of the bios flashes are good but you have to be absolutely certain you have the right one. you may want to remove the drive and have it checked by a tech shop near you to test the drive itself. if there is something wrong with the drive itself then downlaoding the bios upgrade will be useless. heres another suggestion, make a boot disk and copy scandisk on it. my question is, do you see the c drive by typing c: ? if so is there any data on it? if you can see the drive so go back to a: and run scandisk. let it do a thurow test. also run fdisk, go to opt4 and diskplaycurrent drive info. if you get info on the drive then it there. if it is a black screen with no info after opt4 you may need to create a partition, format it then get the bios update put it on the drive then install window on it. in the future stay away from compaq prod

    • #3772112

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by rohilaman ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      Compaq, unfortunatly, placed their bios within a hidden partion on the Hard Drive. This is done when you factory install all the software and it repartions everything. You can go to their website, to download new bios updates. This will add everything you are looking for.

    • #3772034

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by timber ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      You can download a ROMPAQ from Compaq’s webpage that will create a bootable floppy. This will boot you into the BIOS. The answers above stating that compaq puts the bios on the hard drive are close but it’s actually just a front end GUI that lets you setup your BIOS. You don’t have to have this to configure your BIOS goto http://www.compaq.com and find the downloadable section for your laptop you will find the file I’m referring to if not e-mail me..

      • #3775837

        Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

        by bazz22 ·

        In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

        Sorry for delay in reply. I have tried most of the things mentioned in answers and downloaded heaps of stuff from Compaq. Am going to attempt this week to see if I can get any further.

    • #3772030

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by timber ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      I believe this is the file that will work for your laptop.
      http://www.compaq.com/support/files/portables/us/download/8093.html

    • #3771920

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by atc-computing ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      Timber is right about the BIOS not being on the drive. It is a diagnostic partition that I have often deleted.
      If you feel adventuresome, my method of accessing tough to enter BIOSes is to disconnect a device (usually floppy, sometimes memory (not all of it either!)can work too) which delivers an error at boot. The system usually hangs and gives you an option to enter Setup to update the configuration. If it has a watch style board battery, sometimes resetting the BIOS by removing it will alsoprompt you with an ability to enter upon reboot.

      • #3775839

        Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

        by bazz22 ·

        In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

        Will try your ideas as last resort later in week and post results.

    • #3771894

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by jimmydawe ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      the answer is F10. it is like this on all compaq machines.

      james

    • #3768959

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by springfoot ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      If you suspect the HDD has failed, then you can go to Compaq’s website and download SoftPaq 8975.EXE. This will create a diagnostic bootable disk. You then can run diags.

    • #3775831

      Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      by bazz22 ·

      In reply to Laptop Bios… Can’t find !!

      This question was closed by the author

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