Presario 1210 laptop

[Wolf23]

I have to fix this here 1210 that comes to me w/32M Ram, 1.3Gb HDD Win98 and viral problem (Nimda). Since there was no really useful data on the hard drive, I did not worry about fdisk /mbr, and removing the partitions, repartitioning, formatting, and reloading Win 98.

It will not boot from the CD Drive.
I check the Bios and the CD is set up as a boot device
1 Floppy
2 CD
3 HDD

I can boot it from a floppy and load the dos CD drivers, and see the CD.

I load Win98 by typing in "E:\setup.exe" It loads properly, I guess. and when it is done, I take out the CD and restart from C:
As it is trying to load the onboard peripherals, it asks for the Win 98 CD.

Win98 cannot see the CD drive in Win98.
"My Computer" shows only Floppy and C:, no D drive.

This makes the install go a little sideways, as you might guess.

Just for fun, I decided fdisk again and load Win2K.

It booted from the CD and loaded just fine, but the 336-df modem was missing firmware, and when I got the modem drivers, they would not load. Apparently there is no firmware available for that modem in Win2K

I fdisk again and reinstall Win98, which does not boot from the CD. As before, now the D: drive is gone in Win98, so I booted from the floppy and attempted to copy Win98 directory to the C: drive so I could get at the drivers I needed.

The copy appeared to go as planned, but when I restarted in Win98 from the C: Drive, the Win98 Directory was not on the C: Drive.

However the D: Drive is visible in "My Computer."

I installed the devices I needed from the D: Drive, installed the modem drivers from the floppy driver disk, and restarted the PC. The D: Drive is missing again.

Compaq suggested fdisk /mbr, so I did that. They further said that if the MBR didn't clear the problem, to replace the CD ROM.

This makes no sense to me. My boss said, "@#&&$ you, you &$^%$&$^%$ and that ^%$#$#$ machine," in his usual helpful manner, and so here I am asking you what you think.

[wyvrn]

There are no Win2k drivers for that laptop. I have the 1200 model, and Compaq doesn't make Win2k drivers for that entire model line Plus I spent ample time scouring the web and couldn't find any that actually worked for either the sound or the modem. You are going to have to stick with Win98. You are supposed to use the restore disc they send you. I don't think Compaq's cdrom's are completely ATAPI compliant. Did you try Compaq's cd drivers from their website? When I tried to load my copy of Win98, the cdrom would not work for me either.

[Wolf23]

Could not find cdrom drivers for it, The cd drivers they have for this model are for music controls, and I don't think that will solve my problem.

I don't have restore disk, not for any of these. The brass hats who use them, generally have been given those disks for some reason, and like my 12-year-old, immediately lose the docs and disks.

I have a 12XL500 model that runs on win2k. no sound, but in the place I work, they could care less if your PC doesn't have a working sound card. (the sound card on the 1210 worked fine under win2k)

[Wolf23]

Also, I don't mind running it in 98, that was not ye point. The issue is that the CD Works in 2k, not 98.

[wyvrn]

Yeah I know. What I was trying to say was, the atapi standard cdrom drivers that come with a normal copy of Windows 98 won't work on that compaq laptop, because compaq uses some non-standard cdrom on that model. I had the same problem, and couldn't find drivers for the cdrom on my laptop either.

Compaq has basically stuck you with 3 options. Option 1 is install non-supported Win2k on the laptop, and do without sound and modem drivers. Option 2 is install a normal copy of Win98 and deal with a non-functioning cdrom drive and other possible problems. Option 3, which is the only one Compaq will support, is to use their restore cd to install Win98 with their software and drivers and use their image. Compaq will happily sell you a replacement restore cd for a price

Compaq laptops are not great for do-it-your-selfers. You pretty much have to stick with what they give you. And they don't normally give driver updates for newer OS's, which makes your laptop a throw away. I think they basically want you to buy a new laptop every 3 years, if you get my drift...

Quote:

Originally posted by Wolf23
Also, I don't mind running it in 98, that was not ye point. The issue is that the CD Works in 2k, not 98.

[Wolf23]

I have had similar problems with other Compaq machines, including the Proliant line, that uses proprietary RAM, so all your updates come through them or not at all.

'Preciate your time. I used to do warranty work on these things, but then there was an IT budget that let me get full restore image disks and such stuff.