NEC Multispeed boot error... what now? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

12 Apr 2002

Rose,

   I still have my MultiSpeed (the original non-hard drive, non-back lit screen version).
First you MUST have a good battery. I you don't want to buy a battery just for testing
then you need to hook up a good regulated power supply (not a wall wart!) in place of the
battery.  The MultiSpeed that I have doesn't have the hard rive so I don't know if
my DOS disk will work or not but it should at least get it to boot. I know where's
there's a hard drive version of the MultiSpeed (MultiSpeed HD) and I may be able to
get disks there.  However IIRC the MultiSpeed is very IBM compatible and will boot and run
IBM DOS. But IBM DOS won't have all the utilities.

    Joe

At 04:07 PM 4/11/02 -0700, you wrote:
...
         I am hoping you can send me in the right
direction for restoring
this very old laptop that my father gave me.  It is posting a message that
reads as follows:     Fixed disk setup (1701) incomplete.     Trying to
boot from A drive:   Warning!!  Fixed Disk Controller is bad or Low Power, 
 Can not boot up from fixed disk, insert system disk drive A or B&#8230;  
Press any key when ready&#8230;.        What precisely do I need to look
for when getting a system disk for this computer?  It didn&#8217;t have
anything in the original bag it came with.  The screen reads as follows
when I turn on the computer:     Phoenix ROM BIOS Version 2.51  Copyright
&copy; 1984,1985,1986 Phoenix Technologies, Inc.  NEC Multispeed     Please
offer any guidance you may have!  Thanks for you time!     Rose               