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Olivetti M300-15 BIOS Setup

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mcs_5

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How do you enter the full BIOS setup on an Olivetti M300-15 (386SX system)?

It will pop up during boot automatically when errors are detected, but you are only allowed to change the settings the system "thinks" are wrong... I need to change the disk type.

According to an Olivetti service document I found, you just have to press CTRL+ALT+DEL. But that keyboard combination does something else ;)
 
mcs_5 said:
How do you enter the full BIOS setup on an Olivetti M300-15 (386SX system)?

It will pop up during boot automatically when errors are detected, but you are only allowed to change the settings the system "thinks" are wrong... I need to change the disk type.

According to an Olivetti service document I found, you just have to press CTRL+ALT+DEL. But that keyboard combination does something else ;)
Click to expand...

My eyesight's not keen enough, try this:
https://archive.org/details/cap36_201908/page/n7
 
Thanks. I have the PDF version :)

The manual just tells you to use CTRL+ALT+DEL or SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+DEL. Doesn't work unfortunately...

There's a setup program on the harddisk, which is inaccessible as long as the BIOS setup is wrong... Are the Olivetti diagnostics floppies available anywhere? I haven't been able to find them.
 
Often, for any system, just holding down a key from power-on until POST catches it will provoke a "key stuck error" and launch BIOS setup.
 
WBST said:
Often, for any system, just holding down a key from power-on until POST catches it will provoke a "key stuck error" and launch BIOS setup.
Click to expand...

Yes. But the "intelligent" BIOS setup causes the problem. It will only allow you to change certain options.

The setup screen I get, looks like this:

Standard_setup.jpg

I disconnected a floppy drive, to provoke an error.

The full setup screen looks something like this (from the manual):

Extended_setup.png

I need the F3 option, but I haven't found a way to get that to appear... Disconnecting the hard drive doesn't do it ;)
 
mcs_5 said:
Yes. But the "intelligent" BIOS setup causes the problem. It will only allow you to change certain options.

The setup screen I get, looks like this:

View attachment 58191

I disconnected a floppy drive, to provoke an error.

The full setup screen looks something like this (from the manual):

View attachment 58192

I need the F3 option, but I haven't found a way to get that to appear... Disconnecting the hard drive doesn't do it ;)
Click to expand...

So, you can do the "four-fingered salute" OK to get a Setup screen now? It's just that it's missing display items?
 
M300-15 is a 386SX from 1992. It had a 20MHz brother called the M300-08, so if you find the disks for that one, they should work perfectly with it too.

Olivetti really wanted you to use their configuration disks. 27 years later, this becomes a big problem...

Have you tried the M300 configuration disk? M300 is an older system from 1989, but it is also a 386SX. If the disk works in the M300-15 and the program writes to the same addresses, it should work. You can find it here: http://www.filedropper.com/m300disk The file is a self-extracting archive with the disk image inside. You must write the image to a disk. If it doesn't work we can try configuration disks meant for later systems, but they are 486-based.
 
Time for an update... I finally did get it solved.

I tried connecting the harddrive to my modern(ish) system. It did detect it, but fdisk reported the drive as faulty and 3MB in size. Then I dug out an IBM 486 board, and built this setup:

OliRescue.jpg

It had no problem booting from the Olivetti drive, so I could finally get the setup programme copied to a floppy.

I noticed that the setup directory contained autoexec.bat and config.sys, so I think the directory is a copy of the missing diagnostics disk. So I now have a re-created, bootable, M300-15 "User Diagnostics" disk...

Is there anywhere I should upload a disk image?
 
Does it have a Dallas 1287 Clock Battery? If it does and its dead you may have limited access to changes until its swapped out with a 12887+. On Youtube, Retrospector78 just restored a Olivetti 286 starting with the PSU and also replaced the Dallas. Check it out!! I think he could enter Ctrl-Alt-Del on his. Hopefully it helps. By the way, this guy is electronics components troubleshooting GURU, finding many common power and short issues on classic PCs!!
 
mcs_5 said:
Time for an update... I finally did get it solved.

I tried connecting the harddrive to my modern(ish) system. It did detect it, but fdisk reported the drive as faulty and 3MB in size. Then I dug out an IBM 486 board, and built this setup:

View attachment 58416

It had no problem booting from the Olivetti drive, so I could finally get the setup programme copied to a floppy.

I noticed that the setup directory contained autoexec.bat and config.sys, so I think the directory is a copy of the missing diagnostics disk. So I now have a re-created, bootable, M300-15 "User Diagnostics" disk...

Is there anywhere I should upload a disk image?
Click to expand...
If you could upload it somewhere or e-mail it to me, that would be nice. Because I also have a m300-15 over here that I am trying to fix.

Maybe I've missed it, but how did you fix the issue with the bios battery?
 
NaoPb said:
If you could upload it somewhere or e-mail it to me, that would be nice. Because I also have a m300-15 over here that I am trying to fix.
Click to expand...

Finally got the the floppy copied - my floppy drives don't like each other...
Just send me your e-mail address.

Maybe I've missed it, but how did you fix the issue with the bios battery?
Click to expand...

What issue? I guess I can just replace it with a CR2032 cell or two. It's a separate battery connected with wires in my system.
 
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