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Compaq Portable 486/ 486c - Setup new harddisk - need right diagnostics

hagelaars

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2016
Messages
39
Location
The Netherlands
Dear forum members,

First of all, I'm very happy that I found this forum. I love vintage computers.. but it takes a lot of time to repair and maintain them.

I got a Compaq Portable 486 with a broken harddisk. It had a Conner 120 MB in it. I replaced this one with an IBM 320MB. The disk seem to work in the system, but when starting up I get the message "disk does not support block mode" run diagnostics.

There begins the problem.. I need the right diagnostic software to set-up the system in a right way. I tried a lot of SoftPaqs, but they all don't work.. some of them work, but ask for utility disks? The utility disk I downloaded will not support on the SoftPaq version and so on...

For this reason I hope to find someone who has more experience with this, and can help me further.. I almost give up trying to get this beautiful machine working again.

Thanks for reading!

Thomas.
 
Dear Kyodai,

Thank you so much for your kind help! Vielen dank!!

I tried SoftPaq 1363 before. After booting, I'll get the message "The SETUP program does not support this machine" :(

The set of Compaq disks seem to be a lot more effective.. thanks! But..

After running "Compaq EISA Configuration Utility Ver. 2.06" disk, I'll choose "Configure computer" from the menu. Unfortunately, after loading I'll get this message:
FullSizeRender.jpg

When choosing "Continue" brings me to the main menu again...

So it seems like the owner before used newer software that avoids me to configure the system. Any idea how to fix this? Will a bios reset help?

I hope to hear from you. Thanks in advance!
 
Thanks Larry, it seems like I can go further in setup.. However, the software warns me that the version is not compatible to the hardware..

In attached image, you can see the different windows i'll get through.

Screen 1: I can now just press enter, and it leads me through screen 2;
Screen 2: When I press escape, it leads me to screen 3;
Screen 3: It seems like there is no right CFG file that matches the system board. When I press ENTER leads me to screen 4;
Screen 4: I can select the right CFG file out of this list. I tried them all, but none matches my system board.

My system is a Compaq Portable 486/66 (so no color), Series 2711.

Can anybody help me further to get the right config file?
Thanks in advance!

SCREEN.jpg

IMG_1151.jpg

IMG_1152.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dear Larry,

Thanks again for your help, already tried those.. they al don't work.. But thanks for your effort.

I hope someone can find the right CFG file that suits my system board.
 
Finally I found the right SoftPaq! SP1855 does the job! It's an older version of the configuration utility..
One step further, but again another issue..

Yesterday I runned the config utility of this SoftPaq. I couldnt save the new settings for some reason, so I decided to reboot and run the utility again.. The utility uses MS-DOS, and with booting the system stopped when it tries to load DOS. I tried another DOS boot disk, but it gives the same problem..!

Anyone common with this issue?

Thanks again!
 
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