old compaq cd boot problem

[RelandR]

I've got an old compaq 4000 with a bootable cdrom and I want to launch knoppix from it ...
but I can't get into the bios with F10 ... I think someone before me broke this function (I get keyboard errors but all other keystrokes work fine)

does anyone out there know a work around from DOS perhaps so I can enable cd-boot ?

Thx in advance

R

[glasdave]

Don't know what kind of comp your compac is, a laptop or desk top, but why not just which keyboards with something ekse?

[ph34r]

Google is teh win!

http://www.edlug.ed.ac.uk/archive/Mar2003/msg00072.html

[RelandR]

the 4000 is a desktop ...
& I've allready switched keyboards and that is not the problem (I'm fairly certain) as the keys all function fine under other conditions

it's just not working under boot-up ... F10 is (according to compaq) the key to launch into boot sequence to enable the cdRom but it's returning a "44 301 keyboard error"

so I'm wondering if there is a set environment type command in the DOS-CLI that would work around this (?)

[RelandR]

thx .. I did google till I was near blind and didn't find ^^^^that one... thx again !!!

R

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by RelandR
I can't get into the bios with F10 ... I think someone before me broke this function (I get keyboard errors but all other keystrokes work fine)


It could be the system partition is corrupted or missing altogether. The older Compaq's used a hidden system partition on the HD for the bios instead of the bios being on a chip.

You can download the system partition setup from Compaq.

Does Knoppix have a bootdisk you can use instead of booting directly from cd?

[RelandR]

yeah, that seems to be the ticket - I was up till 4 this am scrounging compaqs site for info / drivers / etc.. this is what I've got so far:

1) a library worth of pdf's all indicating that this box should have/support a bootable cdrom
2) 3-boot disks w/diagnostics & setup which when run got me 'in' but "boot order" option is greyed-out (?)
3) the latest firmware (5-98) ... confirmed-installed
****still no cd-boot*****
4) explored the knoppix cd and ran mkfloppy.bat (this would not work in command - files wouldn't fit on floppy (?) but it succeeded from the gui (?)

reboot off knoppix floppy and am now getting errors like:
"passed undefined mode number"
"PCI device unknown header ..."
"can't find knoppix file system-dropping to (very limited) shell..

arrrg
read-up and try again - there's a cheatcodes.txt on cd