C
Casey Tompkins
Ok, yes, this IS an old computer! I anyone could steer me to a more
appropriate group, I would be grateful.
I used to own one back when they were state of the art, <g> and
decided to see if I could pick one up on eBay. You can frequently find
someone selling one.
Since I'm on a bit of a budget right now, I went for one of the lower
prices, natch. The machine was sold "as is" and I expected thing to be
wrong with it. I figured I could hack most of them by replacing a
card, or a drive, etc. Anything but the built-in monitor, anyway.
So. This machine is a Compaq Plus (gold label) and comes with one
floppy and a hard drive. When I turned it on I got (in order) a 301
error, and a 1701 hard drive error(or was it 1705? damn, should have
written that down) ; something I used to know about, but it's been a
long time since I messed about with an XT class machine.
I didn't see a memory check.
Anyway, the system got to the "bad or missing system disk, insert boot
disk and press a key" message, so I figured the HD was dead or in need
of formatting, so I dropped in a 5 1/2" DOS 5.0 boot disk w/o
autoexec.bat or config.sys on it, just so I can see what's working.
Press a key. Nothing happens. Not good.
Ok, I cold boot with the boot disk in the drive this time, and I see
the 301 & the 170x error, then get to "Enter date:" Excellent! It
boots!.
But again, when I try to *enter* a date, nada. The keyboard is
completely unresponsive.
So I turn off the machine, drop the floppy into my main system (still
have a 1.2 meg drive) and create a little autoexec.bat with just dir &
checkdisk on it, to see if at least the memory and disk checks work,
but this time when I powered up, there's no damn video! Arrgh.
Otherwise I could have told you exactly what 170x error was reported.
I'm hoping the video is fixable by replacing the display card, but I'm
stumped on the 301 error. Any old-timers remember what that one was?
I'm figuring it's probably a keyboard error, but I'm not sure.
I took the keyboard apart, and I don't see any obvious problems, like
someone spilled crap all over it, and melted some of the traces
(something I once managed with an AT keyboard and some iced tea,
once), and everything seemed plugged in ok.
Also: my original Compaq was the silver label: the PC equivalent. I
later upgraded it by replacing the BIOS so it could take 640k on the
motherboard, and added that memory. I was told that the BIOS upgrade
made it the equivalent of the XT/Compaq Plus model, and read last
month that many of the later-run silver label models included the XT
BIOS when sold. Anyone know anything about that?
Sigh.dunno if I can fix keyboard problems, unless I can find one and
swap out the circuit board.
Thanks in advance for any advice y'all have,
Casey
appropriate group, I would be grateful.
I used to own one back when they were state of the art, <g> and
decided to see if I could pick one up on eBay. You can frequently find
someone selling one.
Since I'm on a bit of a budget right now, I went for one of the lower
prices, natch. The machine was sold "as is" and I expected thing to be
wrong with it. I figured I could hack most of them by replacing a
card, or a drive, etc. Anything but the built-in monitor, anyway.
So. This machine is a Compaq Plus (gold label) and comes with one
floppy and a hard drive. When I turned it on I got (in order) a 301
error, and a 1701 hard drive error(or was it 1705? damn, should have
written that down) ; something I used to know about, but it's been a
long time since I messed about with an XT class machine.
I didn't see a memory check.
Anyway, the system got to the "bad or missing system disk, insert boot
disk and press a key" message, so I figured the HD was dead or in need
of formatting, so I dropped in a 5 1/2" DOS 5.0 boot disk w/o
autoexec.bat or config.sys on it, just so I can see what's working.
Press a key. Nothing happens. Not good.
Ok, I cold boot with the boot disk in the drive this time, and I see
the 301 & the 170x error, then get to "Enter date:" Excellent! It
boots!.
But again, when I try to *enter* a date, nada. The keyboard is
completely unresponsive.
So I turn off the machine, drop the floppy into my main system (still
have a 1.2 meg drive) and create a little autoexec.bat with just dir &
checkdisk on it, to see if at least the memory and disk checks work,
but this time when I powered up, there's no damn video! Arrgh.
Otherwise I could have told you exactly what 170x error was reported.
I'm hoping the video is fixable by replacing the display card, but I'm
stumped on the 301 error. Any old-timers remember what that one was?
I'm figuring it's probably a keyboard error, but I'm not sure.
I took the keyboard apart, and I don't see any obvious problems, like
someone spilled crap all over it, and melted some of the traces
(something I once managed with an AT keyboard and some iced tea,
once), and everything seemed plugged in ok.
Also: my original Compaq was the silver label: the PC equivalent. I
later upgraded it by replacing the BIOS so it could take 640k on the
motherboard, and added that memory. I was told that the BIOS upgrade
made it the equivalent of the XT/Compaq Plus model, and read last
month that many of the later-run silver label models included the XT
BIOS when sold. Anyone know anything about that?
Sigh.dunno if I can fix keyboard problems, unless I can find one and
swap out the circuit board.
Thanks in advance for any advice y'all have,
Casey