1 Oct
2008
1 Oct
'08
7:03 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad Parker" <brad at heeltoe.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 9:24 PM
Subject: help (re) booting xenix after cmos battery failure
A friend of a friend has an old xenix machine; Compaq DeskPro 386
running Xenix. He shut if off after running for years and it won't
boot because the cmos battery is dead.
The disk is an ESDI drive attached to a Compaq ESDI/FLPY controller
(copyright 1989) ISA bus card.
He says can't see any way to enter a "setup" mode in the BIOS.
Anyone know how to fix this?
Those old-school machines usually required a setup disk, unlike regular
clones.
I remember using a program naemd something like 'GSETUP.EXE" or .COM on a
Compaq Portable III,
and it worked fine.
I think all you need is a bootable DOS disk, with a generic setup program,
and set up the HD drive type
in the BIOS.
Changing the CMOS battery would be a good idea, so you don;t have to do the
same process at every power-off.
Tony