How Do I "Reset" a Dell System 310?

[DOS lives on!!]

I've been trying to get a Maxtor LXT-200A to work in my Dell System 310. Ole Juul showed me ANYDRIVE.EXE, which lets any hard drive work with any BIOS, since mine isn't listed in the list of availlable hard drive types. When setting up ANYDRIVE, you're supposed to set a hard drive type that has lower settings than the actual hard drive in the BIOS. However, I accidentally set one higher than mine, and now ANYDRIVE won't boot to my hard drive. Even worse, it doesn't give me a choice to get back into the BIOS. I've tried disconnecting the clock battery, but somehow, it still retains the settings. Question is, could I somehow "reset" the computer so I can get back into the BIOS?

 

[Chuck(G)]

If you can boot from floppy, try using the GSETUP diskette (search the forum for it).

If you can get into debug, try this (your keystrokes are boldface):

-[B]a100[/B]
1407:0100 [B]mov al,10[/B]
1407:0102 [B]out 70,al[/B]
1407:0104 [B]mov al,ff[/B]
1407:0106 [B]out 71,al[/B]
1407:0108[B] int 3[/B]
1407:0109
-[B]g=100[/B]

AX=00FF  BX=0000  CX=0000  DX=0000  SP=FFEE  BP=0000  SI=0000  DI=0000
DS=1407  ES=1407  SS=1407  CS=1407  IP=0108   NV UP EI PL NZ NA PO NC
1407:0108 CC            INT     3
-[B]q[/B]

Note that the addresses will be different on your system.

 

[DOS lives on!!]

GSETUP did the trick!! Thank you very much.

 

[DOS lives on!!]

How was it able to retain the settings even though I removed the battery and had it unplugged?

 

[modem7]

How was it able to retain the settings even though I removed the battery and had it unplugged?

Different motherboards have different requirements for how long the battery needs to be removed for.
I'm sure that I've encountered motherboards where the battery had to be removed for 5 minutes or more.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Some motherboards have to short the battery terminals (after the battery is removed) for 15 seconds or so to clear the CMOS. Low-power SRAM can be quite tenacious.