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Compaq SLT/286 and standby

jtornes

New Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Messages
7
I have a Compaq SLT/286 that after replacing the RTC/battery is working, however I can not get the machine to go into standby. I tried to configure the standby settings using the setup disk as well as running the C:\cpqdos\pwrcon.exe program. However it still does not go into standby after the system has been idle for the time indicated by the settings. What am I missing?

The machine is running MS-DOS 6.2 which was installed on it when I received it. Is there some other driver that has to be loaded? I tried adding the power.exe program to config.sys, but that did not change anything.

I have also tried pushing the standby button on the front and that does not cause the machine to go into standby.

Does anyone know how to make the machine go into standby or have documentation on this machine?
Thanks
James
 
Is it possible it needs a working main battery to do that? Some dumb rule as such?
 
I agree that the system needs a good battery and has one. I have tried to get the system to go into standby powered on AC and powered by the battery. I could get neither of them to work.
James
 
I haven't dragged my SLT/286 out to see if I can reproduce standby, but here's a thought? I know later compaq machines often had two partitions on the drive. The first very small (invisible) partion held specific compaq files which were used for things like power-saving, diagnostics etc. This partition was created using the special compaq setup disk when the hard drive was first prepared for use?

I don't know if the SLT/286 is suppose to have this kind of configuration or not. If so though, is it possible that someone has (low-level) reformatted the hard drive from scratch and just applies standard MS-DOS, wiping out that partition (and with it files to implement the standby feature)?

Tez
 
I agree that the system needs a good battery and has one. I have tried to get the system to go into standby powered on AC and powered by the battery. I could get neither of them to work.
James

I also have a working slt 286, You say you have a useable charged battery, that is rare! as long as you are using this machine on battery only , then the standby will work, if you have the mains adapter plugged in , no standby. As you have replaced the backup battery,(the dreaded dallas rtc/battery I presume) You must have the diagnostic disk to run the setup . in the set up , software utilies, there is the power conservation utility,in there is an option to turn this feature" on " which enables stanby, or "off" which disables the standby. If you are using the genuine compag disks, I'm sure you could set the system to default settings, this would enable standby. If your operating system is not genuine compaq, the standby utility may not be reconised, or exist.
hope this helps............Harry
 
Last edited:
Harry,
Thanks for the help. I purchased a new main battery and have replaced the Dallas part. I am using the Compaq Setup, Inspect and Diagnostics 8.00 DP256 disc that I downloaded from the web. From the setup utility I have been able to configure the standby parameters. The screen saver works, but the system does not go into standby when it is running from battery. One thing I have noticed is that standby program lists the current power source and lists mine as "External Power Supply" even when I am running from battery. I don't know if this means that I am using the wrong setup program, my hardware is broken or something about the replacement battery is not working correctly. The low battery light does start flashing after it has run on the battery for a while so clearly part of the machine knows it is running on battery.

I have installed dos from the Compaq Fastart 3.31 disc with the setup and operating system disc as well. Unfortunately I don't have the "Compaq User Programs" disk that is requested when you install DOS. I don't know if that installs some piece that is important for standby to work.

Does one need to add the power.exe device driver for standby to work? I have tried adding it to config.sys but it does not seem to help.
James
 
Tez,
I have re-installed DOS from the Compaq Fastart 3.31 disc with the operating disc and setup disc which I downloaded from the web. At first I tried the automatic configuration and it just created one partition. I then tried the manual configuration and was able to create a second partition which became the D drive, but Fastart did not load anything onto that partition. Unfortunately I don't have the "Compaq User Program" disc that it requested during the Fastart install, so maybe that contains the missing s/w components.

I did save the contents of the cpqdos directory that was on the machine originally before I reloaded DOS and have copied those files back to the system. This includes the device driver power.exe and power configuration tool, pwrcon.exe.
thanks
James
 
Yes, maybe it doesn't create a partition like that found on later machines but maybe you really do need the "Compaq user program" disc? Does anyone else know?
 
Harry,
Thanks for the help. I purchased a new main battery and have replaced the Dallas part. I am using the Compaq Setup, Inspect and Diagnostics 8.00 DP256 disc that I downloaded from the web. From the setup utility I have been able to configure the standby parameters. The screen saver works, but the system does not go into standby when it is running from battery. One thing I have noticed is that standby program lists the current power source and lists mine as "External Power Supply" even when I am running from battery. I don't know if this means that I am using the wrong setup program, my hardware is broken or something about the replacement battery is not working correctly. The low battery light does start flashing after it has run on the battery for a while so clearly part of the machine knows it is running on battery.

I have installed dos from the Compaq Fastart 3.31 disc with the setup and operating system disc as well. Unfortunately I don't have the "Compaq User Programs" disk that is requested when you install DOS. I don't know if that installs some piece that is important for standby to work.

Does one need to add the power.exe device driver for standby to work? I have tried adding it to config.sys but it does not seem to help.
James

Hi James, you seem to have most things configured , although I use a different version of set up to reset my machine , ( ver 6.06 rev g ) but as long as the disk reconises your machine configuation , should work. one thing you could try, let the machine run down the battery power , until you get to the low battery level 1, the yellow led should start to flash,(which you say does happen,) and the speaker should make some beebs, at least this would show the system is reading the voltage left in the battery, if you continue to run down the battery further, it will go into low battery 2 mode, this now means the green power led should start flashing, if you get no indication of low battery levels , and no beebs, then something needs further investigating.
once it goes into low battery 2 mode, with flashing LED it would normally put itself in stanby , and to get out of stanby ,the mains adapter would be connected and the stanby button would have to be pressed to resume . your machine should at least give the LED signals down to level 2. further use would then result in a flat battery and loss of data, one other small point, the screen saver is a seperate utility, and runs outside of the PWRCON utility, and is not part of the stanby power conservation prog. I would have to check out what drives this utility within the system , but for me the battery in my machine is now defunct, so I taped across the battery terminals,and only run on the ac adaptor. well at least you have a super little computer, that has a superb keyboard action, and is a pleasure to use, even without the stanby working!! .............Harry
 
Harry,
Thanks for the information. I tried to find version 6.06 of the setup disc but could not find it.
So here is what my Compaq SLT/286 does when I run it from the battery. It runs for 3+ hours and then the yellow LED labeled "Low" starts to flash. About 7 minutes later the laptop turns off. I don't see it saving state or anything. I then plug the machine in to the AC adapter and push the standby button like you said above and nothing happens. So I don't see it go into low battery mode 2 before it turns off. It also does not beep at all.
Do you think there is a hardware or s/w problem?
thanks
James
 
Harry,
Thanks for the information. I tried to find version 6.06 of the setup disc but could not find it.
So here is what my Compaq SLT/286 does when I run it from the battery. It runs for 3+ hours and then the yellow LED labeled "Low" starts to flash. About 7 minutes later the laptop turns off. I don't see it saving state or anything. I then plug the machine in to the AC adapter and push the standby button like you said above and nothing happens. So I don't see it go into low battery mode 2 before it turns off. It also does not beep at all.
Do you think there is a hardware or s/w problem?
thanks
James


James, it looks that you are running with power conservation turned off, this would disable any warning beebs, and standby would not control any of the normal shutdowns at low battery level. you definately need the correct setup disk with the PWRCON utility software, if you do not have this utility on your present disk's, this will not be enabled, and explain your situation.
If you are unable to find any of this as a downloadable images, I may be able to help with the utilty files you need . best of luck .........Harry
 
startup disc and pwrcon

startup disc and pwrcon

Harry,
I have looked again and can not seem to find ver 6.06 rev g of the setup and diagnostics disc. I have a version of pwrcon, but I think it might also be a newer version since the help says it is to go with MS-DOS 6. If you could somehow provide the right files that would be a huge help and I would greatly appreciate it. I would be happy to pay for materials and shipping if you want to send me a disc.
Thanks
James
 
Harry,
I have looked again and can not seem to find ver 6.06 rev g of the setup and diagnostics disc. I have a version of pwrcon, but I think it might also be a newer version since the help says it is to go with MS-DOS 6. If you could somehow provide the right files that would be a huge help and I would greatly appreciate it. I would be happy to pay for materials and shipping if you want to send me a disc.
Thanks
James

Hi James , I will dig out the Compaq stuff,and see what I can do to help, I may already have a back up of my set up disk, ..........Harry
 
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