start up problems

[stuck_in_stockton]

I was handed down a very old PC. It's great for the young ones. I turned on the main power and got a "KB/interface error". I checked and found a switch under the keyboard. I changed the switch and the message changed to "HDD/connection error". I pressed F1 and then it prompted me to inset a boot up diskette. I have this PC a long time. I never got a boot diskette. The PC is and old 80386, BIOS date: 7-7-91. I tried setting the BIOS to original settings, but that didn't help. I checked all connections, they're good. Where do I go with it now?

[Paleo Pete]

For the kayboard error I would try a different keyboard, a standard AT keyboard should work. That's the modern 101-104 key type. The switch lets you change it to a XT interface, which is a different critter, and won't work on anything but an XT.

The hard drive error I think would be either a bad cable or a bad drive. Try a cable, and if you don't have success, you might be able to get it working again with a disk utility like Disk Manager, I've done a few, but more often they refuse to work again at all. Disk Manager can be downloaded from the drive manufacturer's website usually.

Bootdisk (http://www.bootdisk.com) might be a good place to look to solve the boot disk problem, but you have to know the version of the OS to get the correct disk. If it's DOS, usually a DOS 6.22 boot disk will boot about any version of DOS, but some of the utilities might not work, all you can do is try...

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