How do I get into BIOS on a Compaq Laptop?

garthv

Hey folks ,
I recently became the delightful owner of a Compaq Armada 7800. Really old machine but its better than nothing. Anyway, Ive been trying to get into the BIOS screen to boot from disk so i can do a full wipe of the system but it just doesnt want to go. Ive tried holding f1, holding f2 , holding f10 (all the f buttons) , Ive tried delete , Ive tried taking out a RAM chip so the machine should boot into BIOS to detect the hardware change but nothing is working!!! Any help would be really appreciated

SouperComputer

possibly ctrl, shift and escape.

failing that, just hold a few keys down while starting up to generate a keyboard error and you should be able to get into BIOS

KTRIC

I bought an E700 Armada last week from a guy on boards.ie and I have exactly the same problem. I was just about to put up a thread and i seen this.

daywalker

on older laptops you could only access the BIOS thru a diagnostic partition or thru software in windows

have a look at this thread for some references to your answer
forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=514749

if windows is not available the software is accessed from a hidden partition using a compaq boot disk

garthv

Yeh I saw that site...what software in windows do I use though?
Dont have a compaq boot disk...can it be downloaded?

SouperComputer

from memory, the 7800 has a BIOS that you can access without software, but I could be wrong. Some REALLY old deskpros (ala 133mmx) had such a partition.

700 series defo has a BIOS that you can access without software, I had to do it only yesterday.

daywalker

GaRtH_V wrote:

Yeh I saw that site...what software in windows do I use though?
Dont have a compaq boot disk...can it be downloaded?

on my old toshiba laptop i used the toshiba apps, so probably similar compaq apps, there is a link on that forum thread which you could download and try, else you'll have to do a search for 7800 apps on the hp site

garthv

SouperComputer wrote:

possibly ctrl, shift and escape.

failing that, just hold a few keys down while starting up to generate a keyboard error and you should be able to get into BIOS

CTRL , SHIFT + ESC seemed to work, it stopped to start-up and it brought a small blue box up in the top right hand corner saying BIOS with a few numbers after it....But thats it, its not going into the BIOS screen and any key I press does not enter into the BIOS...This is doing my head in!!

tryanythingonce

Try pressing esc or f10 when the curser is on the top right hand corner in boot up