[SplinteredChaos]

I apologize if this isn't the right folder, mods feel free to move it there. I just got my hands on an old laptop, I mean OLD. It's a Compaq Armada 1530DM. Without going into the real long details, I need to reformat the hard drive, but I can't get the system to recognize the CD-rom anymore. Doesn't even show up in device manager. I believe it isn't even searching for one during the boot up sequence. I need to know if anyone knows how to get in to the BIOS on this particular model laptop. The usual hit F2 option isn't there. Hitting F2 or Delete doesn't work. It just goes about it's merry lil way and loads the corrupted version of Windows 98.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Google thus far has been unhelpful, aside from leading me to here.

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Just as an aside and if you might be interested:

Compaq Armada 1500 Notebook PC series

BIOS Upgrade, Drivers and Software

Troubleshoot a problem

Don't know that much about this series, but is F2 the one used for getting into BIOS? Maybe try tapping F8 or Delete key during boot up. You don't see any onscreen text indicating which key to press should you want to enter BIOS? Tried Safe Mode? Out of ideas for now.

Ron

[Major Payne]

Just as an aside and if you might be interested:

Compaq Armada 1500 Notebook PC series

BIOS Upgrade, Drivers and Software

Troubleshoot a problem

Don't know that much about this series, but is F2 the one used for getting into BIOS? Maybe try tapping F8 or Delete key during boot up. You don't see any onscreen text indicating which key to press should you want to enter BIOS? Tried Safe Mode? Out of ideas for now.

Ron

[SplinteredChaos]

Ron, thanks for the reply. No, that's part of what makes this even more odd. There is no text at all indicating what I would need to get in there.

How do I manually force the system to boot in Safemode?

I tried the delete key, nothing. I'll give F8 a shot next.

Thanks for the links.

[Tyger]

It appears to be the F10 key that you need.

[SplinteredChaos]

Nope. Doesn't work either. LOL. I know the drive works, that's how 98 got on the system in the first place.

[Tyger]

Nope. Doesn't work either. LOL. I know the drive works, that's how 98 got on the system in the first place.

It says you only have a couple of seconds to hit the F10 key when the cursor appears, so you may have to do it a few times before you get it right. When you do get the setup open you have to set the boot order to CD first.

[SplinteredChaos]

Tried it a couple of times, but I'll give it another go in the morning. I'm tired, and I have a few other computers I need to test out before the night gets too old.

[123Runner]

I did some searching at HP's forums. The F10 key during bootup is to get you in to the bios. They say you should see a white rectangle in the upper right corner of the screen and this is when you hit the F10 key.
I also found referance that the bios resides on a special partition on the HD.

Here are a couple links. I found the second one most interesting.
SEARCH RESULTS- link 1
ACCESSING BIOS- link 2