🚀 go-pugleaf

Pat,

As several other poster have noted, this Compaq 286/LTE model, beige color with
CGA (bluish colored screen) does use a diagnostics/setup diskette which
contains the setup program for the computer.  And yes, it is still available on
the Compaq site.  What is not still available is the old Conner 40mb MFM drive
which most of these units used.  The setup program has options for other size
drives as well, but I have only seen it with the 40mb Conner.  This is an old
MFM drive no longer made.

I gave one away two months ago.  Worked fine booted off of floppy, and ran word
perfect and other programs just fine.  Wouldn't run win3.1/  3.11.  because of
the CGA screen.  If you find a working drive, you can doublespace it (gasp....)
and end up with about 70~75mb disk space.  I used to use it for carrying
diagnostics programs around on service calls.  If you  find a drive, you can
use the dos debug command to access the address space for the drive controller
and format it that way (low level) or with commercial setup programs.  Unless
you are desperate for a DOS workhorse, I say give it away to an aspiring DOS
student.

Good Luck!

Mangey wrote:

>      I have a 286 Laptop given to me for nix, it says it has a hard drive
> error, dos installs on floppy is OK but I can't seem to get into any Bios
> Options (to try hardformat the drive) using the usual delete key on bootup.
> It's a Compaq LTE.
>
>     I found a Sys Req key and have tried various combinations with Alt, Fn,
> Shift and Ctrl keys and also Ctrl / Alt / Esc.
>
>      I would like to know if it works or goes in the bin.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sorry to post this again but I thought maybe I should supply a bit more
> info,
>
> Pat,
> Brisbane, Australia,
>
> Live Hard, Die Upside Down!
> It's a Land Rover Thing, Nobody Understands!
>
> Keeper of the Mangeysaurus Rex
> http://www.powerup.com.au/~mangey/

Of course, I might be wrong, but I've installed and run Win3.1  on many
machines with both the monochrome "Hercules" card, which was approx 400x720
resolution, mono    and the EGA cards, which were 16 color 640x400 resolution.
I never knew, and have never seen or heard of CGA drivers for Win3.1.

I learn something new every day.

Thanks

Valentin Guillen

Pat,

The diagnostics you want are called  SP0308.zip  and is available here:

http://www.compaq.com/support/files/obsolete_diagnostics.html     click on the
appropriate entry or read the Text file available here as well


or go directly to here to download via FTP

 ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp0000-0500/sp0308.zip

In either case, do read the detailed instructions and description text.

For your other LTE286 needs, go here:
 http://www.compaq.com/support/portables/out_of_production/LTE286.html   or
here
 http://www.compaq.com/support/

Good Luck

A lot of older Compaqs used a setup program that came on a diagnostic
floppy usually it was called setup.exe (original).  You might be able to
find it
somewhere on the net thru ftp ...

Mangey wrote in message <3784dfde@news.powerup.com.au>...
>     I have a 286 Laptop given to me for nix, it says it has a hard drive
>error, dos installs on floppy is OK but I can't seem to get into any Bios
>Options (to try hardformat the drive) using the usual delete key on bootup.
>It's a Compaq LTE.

There are several shareware and freeware programs available that can change
BIOS options from a dos boot even if you don't know the key combination to get
inside the BIOS.  Search some shareware sites (I don't have a handy url) and if
you don't come up with anything let me know and I'll try to find it.
regards
-Mritunjay

Mangey wrote:

>      I have a 286 Laptop given to me for nix, it says it has a hard drive
> error, dos installs on floppy is OK but I can't seem to get into any Bios
> Options (to try hardformat the drive) using the usual delete key on bootup.
> It's a Compaq LTE.
>
>     I found a Sys Req key and have tried various combinations with Alt, Fn,
> Shift and Ctrl keys and also Ctrl / Alt / Esc.
>
>      I would like to know if it works or goes in the bin.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sorry to post this again but I thought maybe I should supply a bit more
> info,
>
> Pat,
> Brisbane, Australia,
>
> Live Hard, Die Upside Down!
> It's a Land Rover Thing, Nobody Understands!
>
> Keeper of the Mangeysaurus Rex
> http://www.powerup.com.au/~mangey/

I still have the CGA drivers for windows 3.1, I ran it on a 286 with a CGA
card from an XT.
Eugene

Paul wrote in message <7m2p8g$kte$1@zeitung.ngc.com>...
>A lot of older Compaqs used a setup program that came on a diagnostic
>floppy usually it was called setup.exe (original).  You might be able to
>find it
>somewhere on the net thru ftp ...
>
>Mangey wrote in message <3784dfde@news.powerup.com.au>...
>>     I have a 286 Laptop given to me for nix, it says it has a hard drive
>>error, dos installs on floppy is OK but I can't seem to get into any Bios
>>Options (to try hardformat the drive) using the usual delete key on
bootup.
>>It's a Compaq LTE.
>
>
>