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286 laptop, what's wrong with it?

D

dongfeng

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2003
Messages
1,348
Location
London, England
I'm interested in a 286 laptop I have seen for sale. It is apparently a "Compaq SLT/286" (white in colour). The seller has described it as not working due to the problem below:

The computer is a Compaq SLT/286 Laptop. Im not sure if this works or not as i know nothing about it or laptops. When it starts up it goes through some kind of test and then says :

1790- disk o error

1620- system options not set- run setup insert diagnostic diskette in drive a

resume "f1" key

When i hit the f1 key a cursor flashes for a bit and then says non-system disk or disk error replace and strike any key!

Im no genious but i could hazard a guess and say there is no operating system! It does not work when the battery is in place, I had to take the battery out to make it start.

It is kinda grubby, not too bad but someone has used felt tip pen to mark a few of the keys!

It comes with that power box thingy
Click to expand...

Any ideas what could be wrong with it? I have lots of versions of Windows (windows 286 would be cool on it!), does it seem like a matter of missing OS?

I don't really want to buy it and find it doesn't work... thanks :)
 
I'll bet someone wiped the hard disk. The other possibility is that the hard drive is dead. . .

A BIOS disk will probably be required to get the thing configured to at least boot. If the HD works, it'll be a fun toy! :)

Erik
 
oh, great news! Thanks Erik! So the worst case scenario is that I would need a new HDD.. hmm.. I'll keep you all posted :D
 
The best case scenario is that the guy has a non-bootable disk in the floppy drive and it's trying to boot off of that. . .

Erik
 
As much as I would like that to be true...! :D

If the HDD is dead.. what kind of replacement can I use? Standard 2.5" drive, or some strange type you can't get anymore...

I have a 486 laptop that burnt out, I think it's 700mb or so... would that drive work?
 
From that era it may be an odd sized drive. You might get lucky and find a replacement for it easily, but you also might not.

Are you paying for the machine or just to ship it?

If it's going to cost anything do a Google search first to see what information you can find.

Good luck!

Erik
 
Re: 286 laptop, what's wrong with it?

dongfeng said:
I'm interested in a 286 laptop I have seen for sale. It is apparently a "Compaq SLT/286" (white in colour).
Click to expand...

Compaq computers are unique. They, at least those I have seen and owned, have a diagnostics partition which contains BIOS-type stuff. It is possible to find a "softpack" for each model which creates the appropriate bootable diagnostics disk. When powered on, there will be a block cursor in the upper-right corner of the screen during the search for the Diagnostics partition. You can press F10 (I think that's the right key) to do "BIOS-type" stuff such as configure drives, set RTC, and also diagnose the hardware.

Before you buy it, you might want to read up on the details and see if what I've typed is even accurate.
 
If you're not too far away, I'd have a Conner CP2044PK 2.5" drive lying around.
 
Ah.. ok... this drive came from a compaq iirc, but must have been a different one then
 
Thanks :)

It's actually on eBay, but I think I can get it for under around £20. I'm just trying to work out if the problem is simple to fix one ;)

I've managed to find the Softpaq disk file on the Compaq FTP site:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/obsolete_diagnostics.html

The thing is... I really want an early PC, preferabally a 286 or earlier that is capable of running an early version of Windows, for no other reason than I think it would be cool 8) I have not enough room for another computer here, so early laptop would be ideal :)

I've also spotted an early IBM PC, but it would cost £30 including postage and the seller doesn't know if it works :(
 
"barryp" wrote:

>> I'm slightly confused, why isn't this being
>> discussed in the IBM & PC Clones section?

> I just assumed that the OP didn't know if it
> was a clone???

In some of the computer forums, I've noticed
that Erik has posted little Sticky messages in
case anyone wanted to post stuff there, then
they'd know if it was relevant. So perhaps it
maybe an idea for future readers who come
here to post some sticky messages in those
sections, so that they know. For people like
myself who have come from Usenet groups,
the forum speaks for itself, cause it's kinda
layout in Usenet form. The Other section is
another one which could do with a sticky (if
it hasn't already got one). This section is
for machines which haven't got a section of
their own yet & anyone new who comes here
probably doesn't realise (even though it has
been discussed in here), but not everyone
who comes here, will necessary start reading
that backlog (unless the subject sounds
interesting).

So perhaps Erik should put some more stickys
in those forums (which don't have stickys) &
put a message in the Administrative section
saying that it's vital that those Stickys are
read before posting there! ;-) But Hey, that's
just my view of it! :)

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
CP/M User said:
I'm slightly confused, why isn't this being
discussed in the IBM & PC Clones section?

Or at least to the effect on why it hasn't
been moved there?

Puzzled,
CP/M User.
Click to expand...

...or perhaps even in the Handheld & portable forum.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
dongfeng,

Before you spend any money on a not-fully-functional laptop, you might want to have a look at this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2784585102&category=4193

--T
Click to expand...

I would, but postage is a lot from the USA! :lol: I'm in the UK. I've seen VIC-20 go very cheap on eBay.com too, maybe I should ship a container :shock:

The reason I posted in the section I did is I was unsure which section to put it in. hardware? software? IBM/clone? or compact/portables? there's about 4 sections it can go into!!
 
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