bought used IBM thinkpad P2 366 w/no OS. i have new win2000 discs. starting machine with 2000 startup disc in cdrom, machine ignores this and boots to c:\ prompt. cannot get this computer to recognize 2000 install disc, even though i change to D:\setup and hit return. cannot get it to give me option to change bios setting by hitting any of the following keys while machine is booting up: F1, F2, F10, F12, Esc, Delete, Pause. i believe i need to change bios setting to boot from cdrom drive, but how if i cannot get to bios options? here is exactly what happens when i turn on machine: 1. screen show IBM and Thinkpad logos (for 10 seconds)upper right-hand corner reads: 163264 KB OK 2. windows 98 screen appears (for 5 seconds) 3. screen shows copyright info, device name, number of drives, etc. and 563808 bytes free memory 0 bytes expanded memory 13030 bytes CODE 2112 bytes static DATAs 12618 bytes dynamic DATA 28016 bytes used C:\> dos recognizes very few dos commands, simply giving "bad command or file name" response to most commands. my question: how do i get this damned thing to install win2000 from cdrom? thx.

hold key down when you power-on & it ought to throw you into setup. Also while in BIOS setup, 1) write down BIOS version, revision, and date. Because this was previously a w98 system you'll want to update the BIOS before installing win2k - if an update is available. 2) there ought to be an option to not show the IBM logo / splash screen during POST (Power On Self Test). Removing the stupid splash screen will allow you to view the POST dialog - a valuable thing if you want to, say, remember how to enter setup. Prior to building this system there are some smart steps to take that cannot be, or not easily, taken later. I recommend you contact IBM & discover if they formally support w2k on that laptop. Mobile devices usually have a Safe-to-Disk (STD) partition and IBMs often have another hidden partition that's chock full of handy system tools to be used for maintenance &/or disaster recovery. If IBM *does* support w2k installation on that laptop then they are going to have a different "restore" partition & possibly a different STD and tools to create them. Ask. Similarily, if w2k is *not* formally supported & there a hidden restore partition exists then it's safe the assume you can blow-away that partition to create freespace. Another prudence is to ID the hard drive & download diagnostics & tools off the maker's webpages. Use the utils to test drive & generate a report AND to overwrite the first-track or so-called bootsector - something the win2k installation and low-level formats will not fully do. - jonathan