I have a compaq armada 1750 here and these are the following problems The desktop does not take up all of the screen it has a large black border around the desktop. its like it has shrunk. Is there a way to fix this I can not boot into bios ive tried all the F keys and nothing. I need to get to the bios so I can change the boot order to A:/ and format

You may find the softpaq used by Compaq works in conjunction with your bios and that could be why you can't enter bios. See below site. http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/armada/us/download/8093.html

I downloaded the file and saved it to floppy. I tried to transfer it onto the laptop but it would not do it I tried to run it from the disk but it said it is an invalid .exe file

Ah, yeah, you`ve got to love those Compaq Armadas. I spent about a week trying to figure out a Compaq 1592DMT, just barely scratched the surface. Your`s might be different, or work different, try start/settings/control panel/display/settings/in the area where it says screen area, try setting the size to 640x480, apply, and ok out, not saying this will work, but something to try, if it doesn`t then just put the screen area settings back where they were. As for you not being able to get into the bios, if the hard drive on that machine has been fdisked, and formatted, the software that lets you get into the bios is on the hard drive, if it has been erased, then it is gone, then you have to do as street1 suggests, download the softpaq, put it on a floppy and use it to access the bios. As I said above, the one I worked on was a 1592DMT, not the same as yours, but you should not need to enter the bios just to change the screen size. I could be completely wrong here, I`m sure if I am, someone will let you know. Good luck, I`ve been there before. Regards IKE

You don't save it to a floppy it is a file you use to make the floppy.Read the instructions again at the website I directed you to in response number1.

1. Obtain a formatted 1.44-MB diskette. 2. Download the SoftPaq to a directory on your hard drive and change to that directory. The file that is downloaded is an executable with a filename based on the SoftPaq Number above. 3. From that drive and directory, execute the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions. You will be prompted to insert the formatted diskette in a drive to create the diskette. 4. After the diskette has been created, you may delete the SoftPaq file downloaded in step 2. 5. To install, insert the created diskette in drive A: and reboot

yeah tried that dosent work It will only boot up in that res if i go higher all i get is a white screen I then have to manual reset it then when it boots back up it it brings up the display settings resetting itself back to 640x480 it then needs to restart and im back in. It tells me it is the wrong driver for the graphics card but its not I got it from compaq