I found an older computer and wanted to get it running for a side project. It is rather interesting because the monitor is built into the desktop along with the speakers. It is a presario 4402. My problem is that I cannot access the bios settings and the harddrive will not boot saying an error(i'll describe it down below) to correct this error I tried some things. I removed a jumper and now the computer comes up with an error saying that the time and date are not set. It gives me the option of hitting f1 to boot but then i'm back where I came from with the error stating non-system disk or disk error. I have also tried to put a boot disk in but I cannot access the C drive. I really need to gain access to the bios settings. Any ideas?

pressing f10 will give you access to the BIOS setup on a Compaq, on a Compaq Pentium 166 the BIOS setup program resides in a small non-dos partition of the hard drive. If the partition is deleted by fdisk or some other partitioning utility or if the hard drive is replaced then you will not have the BIOS setup program, but you can download it from Compaq's web site to a floppy disk and run it from the floppy. Being unable to access the C: drive after booting up from a floppy is a sign that something has messed up the partitioning on the hard drive or the hard drive is toast. Try starting up from your boot disk and go into fdisk and see if you can display the partition information (option 4)

Try holding down the "Insert" key during power up. That should let you access the BIOS. If that doesn't work, then try clearing the CMOS and then bootup from a win 95 or 98 starup diskette.

Just fired up a deskpro 2000/133mhz freebie. This time I left the compaq partion alone and had zero problems. Try compaq's website to get info on your system. I got more than I wanted to read on this dinosaur. Also, many sites out there to help you with this. I'm gonna use this for a dos/win3.11 machine just so I can run a box of old software. If you sift through these forums, you;ll find many discussions concerning compaq boot partitions.