On 12/18/2005 at 5:29 PM Marvin Johnston wrote:
Hmmm, I thought that the need for an external utility
to set up the CMOS
went away with the 286. IIRC, Cntl/Alt/Ins was used on the/some Phoenix
BIOS chipset(s) to gain access to the CMOS setup routines. There were
several other such keystroke sequences but the only other one that comes
to mind was Cntl/Alt/S. Also, I *think* that the IBM Diagnostics will
also work and might be enough to take away the boot error (excepting
that it doesn't support the 47 HD types used in most of the later
BIOSs.)
Well, it's certainly worth trying all of the combinations:
Del AMI, AWARD
ESC Toshiba
F1 Toshiba, Phoenix and later models from Late model PS/1 Value Point and
330s
F2 NEC, Dell
F10 Compaq
Ins IBM PS/2s
Alt+Return Dell
Alt+"?" some PS/2-Models
Ctrl+Esc General
Ctrl+Ins some PS/2-Models
Ctrl+Alt+Esc AST Advantage, Award, Tandon
Ctrl+Alt+"+" General
Ctrl+Alt+S Phoenix
Ctrl+Alt+Ins Zenith, Phoenix
Ctrl+S Phoenix
Ctrl+Shift+Esc Tandon 386er
Ctrl+Shift+Alt +Del(num.Keypad) Olivetti PC Pro
But I've also had a 386 with setup diskette--I remember keeping a copy of
it taped to the inside of the case (a good place for MB jumper settings and
other nicities, too).
Cheers,
Chuck