Compaq PIII Deskpro now won't go into bios

[Doc]

Deskpro EN PIII 933, XP Home, 512 megs ram. I've been having some issues and
trying to go into Bios, it won't let me. It was working a couple of days
ago, now when I hit F-10 for "Setup" when the prompt is there at the start
of boot up, it looks like it's starting to go into it but then completes a
normal boot.

I've never run into this before. What could cause this?

Thanks for all input.

 

[ZZactly]

Format the drive ? You lost the rompaq. I thought they quit doing this
shit, but the BIOS control program is on the HD, the BIOS is fine, but
you just can't get to it anymore.

If you installed XP, especially Pro, the utility is probably in there.
A bit hard to find, but then you can set boot options etc. If you want
to tweak RAM timing and all that, you will need the rompaq. The options
in XP provide a more uniform interface from mobo maker to mobo maker,
but they don't give you all the options.Really though, unless you plan
you mess with RAS and CAS etc, why bother ? XP even allows you to set
shared video RAM in most cases. Hard to find, but it is there.

Thing is, even if you get the rompaq, you need to install it "under" a
running OS ? If it were Linux that would be one thing, but with Windows
I dunno if I want to try it.

Boils down to this; Just what do you want to do once in BIOS ?

JURB

 

[SteveH]

in XP provide a more uniform interface from mobo maker to mobo maker,
but they don't give you all the options.<SNIP

JURB

Are you saying there is a way of accessing the BIOS screens on a PC from XP?
Or are you just talking about the stuff you can get to from Control Panel,
Policy Editor etc?

SteveH

 

[Mike Walsh]

Before doing anything too drastic try resetting the BIOS. If there is no jumper on the motherboard you will have to remove the battery to reset it.

 

[kony]

Are you saying there is a way of accessing the BIOS screens on a PC from XP?
Or are you just talking about the stuff you can get to from Control Panel,
Policy Editor etc?

SteveH

The advice was misguided, one does not need Linux or WinXP
to put a Rompaq on a HDD but at the point of P3-933 era
there should be no Rom on the HDD, and further, whether
there was or wasnt would not account for the problems the OP
had been having to start this quest for resolution.

 

[Doc]

Before doing anything too drastic try resetting the BIOS. If there is no

jumper on the motherboard you will have to remove the battery to reset it.

Tried removing the battery as per your suggestion, it allows me to get into
bios once, then it goes back to exhibiting the same symptoms.

 

[JAD]

jumper on the motherboard you will have to remove the battery to reset it.

Tried removing the battery as per your suggestion, it allows me to get into
bios once, then it goes back to exhibiting the same symptoms.

because of the formatting and eliminating the bios partition, this is going
to be your dilemma from now on.

 

[Andy Cuffe]

because of the formatting and eliminating the bios partition, this is going
to be your dilemma from now on.

Just go to Compaq's web site and see if there is a download for this.
I find it very hard to believe that a computer as new as that would
require a setup program, but it's easy to find out from their web
site. I was able to download the setup disk for a 12 year old compaq
from their web site a few weeks ago, so a PIII should be no problem.

Andy Cuffe

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

jumper on the motherboard you will have to remove the battery to reset it.

Tried removing the battery as per your suggestion, it allows me to get into
bios once, then it goes back to exhibiting the same symptoms.

Try a new CMOS battery and while you're at it, inspect the
electrolytics near the CPU for bulges and leaks.