I have an old compudyne notebook 386sl 20mhz 32-bit processor.My laptop will not boot from the A drive. It recognizes the A drive but will not boot from it. After POST fdd lite comes on then the hdd lite comes on. It gives three messages about Phoenix BIOS and then a blinking curser. No DOS promp. I have replaced CMOS battery. I know I have a virus (stealth_boot.c that loads to memory.)which I can not remove untill I can make a clean boot. Any help would be most appreciated and good pc carmma will come your way or you may have your reward in heaven or I hope both. It has flashable ROM does that mean I can replace it? If so, where would I be able to find an old copy like that.(phoenix bios lap386sl ver 1.01c (c) 1985-1991

When I had this weird problem on a Compudyne desktop, I found the setting to boot from A:C: or C:A: in the CMOS under SECURITY, of all places. I don't understand for sure if you're even able to access your BIOS, but if you can, I'll bet $5 that a setting to turn it to A:C: is there.

you should be able to get into CMOS setup by pressing the ALT, CTRL, and S keys simultaneously. In setup, you will find an option to select which device is bootable first. c,a or a,c the virus you mentioned will also cause problems booting up. get a clean bootable diskette from another pc to circumvent this problem. good luck, armando