compaq bios

A friend of mine asked for help reformatting a drive and re-installing windows.
The computer is a Compaq Presario 5184 (shudder).
I can't get the damned thing to let me into bios....for all intents and purposes bios seems to no longer exist on the computer.
I tried booting to windows installation cd and got an error that file i386/bios (something to that effect....unfortunately I didn't write the exact file name down.) could not be found.

I've never run into non-existant bios before, possibly the cmos battery?

I want to exhaust all options before trying to replace the battery...it's a compaq and they do't make the motherboards overly easy to see....let alone replace something on.

Umm... I always thought that Compaq's BIOS are usually kept on the drive itself. It's one of those ugly "proprietary" things that people often forget. Might want to check the HP/Compaq Presario 5184 website. Might be something there that could help (assuming you're installing Win98?)

MsM got it right, they usually have a 1GB or so partition that encases the BIOS and the recovery cd all in one.

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MsM got it right, they usually have a 1GB or so partition that encases the BIOS and the recovery cd all in one.

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Nope not me, i have a presario 80US. I only have 7 MB's unpartitioned space. And i have formatted and delete and made and everything you can image to both my hard drives, you would think the BIOS would be deleted if it is on the HD ! (Or is it some partition that is extremely protected ? )

Well they may have changed it at some point that's why I'm not sure if the BIOS partition is still a "feature" of Compaqs' anymore. Depends on how old this machine is (given that the website shows support for Win95 for this version it might still be one of those that required a BIOS partition). Are there any recovery diskettes or CDs?

I KNOW the recovery cd is on that 1GB partition, at least on the three I have worked on lately. All were P3's, all had the recovery cd on the 1gb partition. I don't know about the BIOS thing for certain though.

no, there are no diskettes or cd's to work with....I can't even boot to DOS to get partition info to work with.
I havn't been able to find a download for the compaq partition ya'll speak of, the downloads on the compaq site are all .exe files that have to be run from the compaq itself (does me little good since I can't boot the thing.) :(

Gotta love big computer companies. Try www.bootdisk.com. Maybe that will help some. I hate compaq.

A little more info:

How to find the BIOS on the Presario 5184

BIOS Configuration Options for the Presario 5184

Exactly how did you erase the hard drive?

And if you carn't fix it then you just earned yourself one expensive Paper Weight :D

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Originally posted here by .:front2back:.
And if you carn't fix it then you just earned yourself one expensive Paper Weight :D

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If you throw that thing out because of that send it here! Good Lord, if it's because the HD had the BIOS on it I could at least use it for parts or something. Wasteful people.

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I tried booting to windows installation cd and got an error that file i386/bios (something to that effect....unfortunately I didn't write the exact file name down.) could not be found.

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Well if you are getting a message in that situation I would say that you must have a BIOS somewhere, as it has detected your VDU, and CD drive. I am assuming that this message does not happen if you try to boot without the CD?

Have you tried powering up and keep hitting the F-10 command key...............that should get you into BIOS setup.

When you just power it up do you get any "beeps"...........if so, how many?

Go to the link that MSM gave you and get the "emergency recovery diskette" program. That should let you make a bootable floppy.............try booting it with that.

Try looking on the Compaq site for a diagnostics diskette/program as well. Try booting with that as well.

Please let me know what happens when you try those suggestions.

:)

Faqt, If you want pretty decent help for compaq's go over to The Compaq Zone and "talk" to a guy named Toby B.

On his main page, you'll see a link for the listing of released softpaqs. I do believe you'll find a softpaq that will recreate your lost bios partition. If you don't see it listed you might still find it at either compaq's or HP's ftp sites.. Here is a thread that will give you more info and tips on finding rompaqs not listed in Toby's LORS pages. Also, if you don't see Toby hanging around much at his site, you might also locate him at motherboards.org's forum..

If you still seem to be getting nowhere, shoot me a pm and I'll do some digging for you..

good luck..