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Clearing bios on a Compaq

H

habba

Senior member
I'm fixing a friend's Presario 5120 system. Had to format and reinstall. I wanted to clear the bios but can't seem to find the jumper. Can I clear it by taking the battery out for a few seconds. The reason is, it has two PCI slots and I've tried both and neither one recognizes the Nic card. I figured it can't hurt trying the bios. I don't know how to get into the bios on these factory made systems.

thanks
habb8
 
You can try the F1 or the F10 key on boot up to get into the BIOS on that Compaq. I think it is the F10. Just start pressing it immediately after you see the Compaq logo on the screen. That will get you into the BIOS but all you could do from there is reset it to Failsafe or whatever they refer to it as. I am not sure how to reset it though.
Will the PCI slots recognise anything other than the NIC cards?
 
I haven't tried anything else. The system only has a Nic card. This project has been a pain. I'd rather not try anything else in the slots yet.
Read more about the pain HERE
I'm wondering if taking the battery out of the mobo will clear it?

lmk what you think

habba8
 
Taking the battery out should clear the BIOS. I would leave it out for several minutes though. Afterwords, go into the BIOS (did you try the F1 or F10 methods?) and check for any additional settings that there may be for the PCI slots. It does sound as though that project has been a real PIA. I did the same recently for a friends Compaq. It was a 5400z. I tried using his Restore CD set and it did "OK" except that it didn't load all the necessary drivers for some reason. I had to search down both an audio and a modem driver. The modem driver was on the Compaq site but the audio driver did not work. I ended up using a generic one from drivers.com to get it to work. Moral of the story: Compaqs can be more trouble than they are worth.
It really is beginning to sound like a BIOS corruption in your case. Resetting it might work but you may end up having to reload the BIOS. Good luck finding that on the Compaq site. 🙁
 
You didn't mention the what OS or NIC you are using.
A suggestion would be to DISABLE PLUG'N Play on the NIC card.

Also, when clearing the BIOS on Compaq's, remove the POWER CORD.
 
Let's see, the Nic card is D-link 530TX+, OS is Win98. Where would I disable the plug and play on the Nic card?
Also, I have the restore disk that I haven't gottin around to yet (been busy). I'll try restoring all the drivers first and see what that does. Once I get the Nic card to work I'm done with it.
BTW, the Nic card isn't even recognized in either slot.

🙁
 
You would disable "plug and play" in the BIOS. I don't think there will be that setting on the card, but I have seen it on some older ones.
Good luck with the Restore disks; they are problematic as I found out and confirmed on the Compaq site.
 
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