Compaq e500 laptop issue

[ctcsoft2]

Compaq Armada e500 366mhz laptops.

I just bought 2 identical laptops which are in great shape. Almost PERFECT.

I power them on and try to boot from CDROM but no go.

I power on and boot with a floppy disk, selecting w/ cdrom support.

It will then boot up but it will not install cdrom drivers. It says no cdrom is present ??

Anyone know what might be the problem? I've tried this on both laptops and get the same thing. I can get into bios but all the settings look right to me.

** Right now there is no HD in either laptop since I'm waiting on caddys for them. Once I get a caddy then I will be able to put HDs in them. For now I was just trying to test them out.

 

[ctcsoft2]

anyone got a suggestion? even without a HD present, it still should boot up from the cdrom???

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: CTCSOFT
anyone got a suggestion? even without a HD present, it still should boot up from the cdrom???

Where are you expecting the drivers to be installed?

 

[ctcsoft2]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Originally posted by: CTCSOFT
anyone got a suggestion? even without a HD present, it still should boot up from the cdrom???

Where are you expecting the drivers to be installed?

I know it wouldn't install windows, but it should atleast boot into windows setup and then it would start stepping me through the process and then I'd get the " There is no hard drive detected on your computer" error message.

Atleast this is how it works on IBM Thinkpads I've owned and all the desktops I've owned.

Never had this issue before. I'm almost 100% windows setup should still boot up without a HD present.

Anyone else have info/suggestion? I get the same error on two identical Compaq e500 laptops. These were sold to me without caddys so I have to wait until the ones I bought off fleabay get here.

Right now all I wanna do is make sure they work right. Ahhhhh.

 

[slyedog]

no hdd-no windows setup-sorry