I have an old Compaq Deskpro 2000. When I try to start it it has an “options not set” error and a “date and time not set” error. After it gets past that point it trys to boot from the C drive. I want it to boot from the A drive. I have tried all of the key combinations I can think of at startup. I have searched the Compaq site. I tried clearing the CMOS with the jumper. Can anyone think of anything to try to either get into the CMOS setup or force it to boot from a floppy?
I have a four year old Compaq Presario. On this PC, you press F10 to get into setup. Most importantly, F10 only works for the two-second interval during boot-up when the cursor is a block on the upper right hand side of the screen. (E.g., at the beginning of boot-up a small cursor appears on the left of the screen. You have to watch carefully until the cursor switches to being a block on the right, and press F10 during the 2-second window before it switches back).
On my PC, once you are in CMOS, disk-drive bootup is located in the Security Management/Advanced options.
On some older Compaqs there is no BIOS setup in ROM, you have to use a floppy disk with the appropriate setup program. You can run this program from the floppy drive or the C: drive with a clean boot. The soft paq #'s (setup programs) are listed on the compaq website for the appropriate machines and can be downloaded. They will self install on a floppy. These setup programs will work even on newer machines if you can’t get the BIOS keystroke to work.