Can't change boot order in a Compaq Notebook NX 9010

[Benny]

This unit was a nephews' university notebook from around 2004. It shows a piece of masking tape with some technician's note from COMP USA; so, I suspect it was taken there for a diagnostic (which, apparently, shows a memory problem - without identifying if it's RAM or HDD).

About a year ago I brought with me an Ubuntu cd as well as other linux based cds to try to figure out what was happening with it. The Ubuntu system permitted me to find out that the hdd was failing. In reponse to that event I took a backup of some files, reformatted the disk (all from Ubuntu, because the original XP cd was nowhere to be found) & tried to repartition the disk to see if certain portions of it were still usable but had no luck.

About a month ago my sister told me to take the notebook with me or it was going that same day to become trash. I gave it a try with a home made Puppy Linux live cd &, after several trials it worked & got connected to the inet.

The problems are as follows:
1) after that event it started to be more dificult to boot from the cd (the battery is beyond any hope, so I've to use it solely with the AC cord attached to it {this isn't a very big problem};
2) from the beginning, in order to boot from the cd I had to enter the Boot order menu & select the cd option, after several instances I decided to enter the BIOS in order to select the cd option as the default but I found that there was a pwd to be used (the pwd is something that nobody remember having selected - maybe that technician mentioned above, who knows);
3) I tried all the possibilities mentioned by my sister & now, even though I see & select as before the cd option, the unit refuses to bootup.

More data:
A- BIOS = Phoenix 4.0 Release 6.0 - Build time = 08/29/03
B- HP Notebook PC - BIOS version = KH.F.13
C- CPU Intel SpeedStep Technology 2.80 GHz
D- 639K System RAM >> Passed
E- 446M Extended RAM >> Passed
F- 512K Cache SRAM >> Passed
G- System BIOS shadowed
H- Video BIOS shadowed

The machine doesn't show more info of itself.

What can I do in order to use it for the expected lifespan it might still have?

Advanced thanks!

[mjc]

It's expected lifespan expired about 4 yrs ago...

That said, I bet half or more of your problem is a failing CMOS battery (yep, laptops have 'em too). They are usually located right under the keyboard, but unlike a desktop, they tend to be specific to the laptop and not a universal coin cell. More often than not, it's an array of a couple of coin cells shrinkwrapped together in some brightly colored plastic, with some wire attached.

It has a very odd amount for RAM...so you may have a bad stick in there (even accounting for standard onboard video amounts). (446 + 64 comes out to 510...that SHOULD be 512 MB...and even counting the cache and such, it still pulls up short). And 64 MB for laptop video from a machine of that vintage puts it in the 'better than run of the mill' class.

[Sylvander]

1. "The Ubuntu system permitted me to find out that the hdd was failing. In reponse to that event I took a backup of some files, reformatted the disk (all from Ubuntu, because the original XP cd was nowhere to be found) & tried to repartition the disk to see if certain portions of it were still usable but had no luck."
(a) I take this to be "that event" to which you later refer in relation to difficulty in booting from the Puppy CD.
(b) Did you succeed in reformatting? The existing partition, or newly made partition?
(c) If so, which file system did you choose?

2. "I gave it a try with a home made Puppy Linux live cd &, after several trials it worked & got connected to the inet."
(a) Were you using the Puppy live CD with NO PUPSAVE FILE MADE?
(b) Or did you make a pupsave on the partition you [re?]formatted on the internal HDD?
(c) Which Puppy version?

3"after that event it started to be more dificult to boot from the cd "
(a) It needs to be made clear whether a pupsave was in use or not, because...
Difficulties with the pupsave file can cause a Puppy to fail to boot. [Faulty HDD, or host partition?]
Or indeed, if you copy a mismatched SFS file to sit beside the pupsave file. :(
A Puppy is most likely to boot successfully when it's using only the files loaded from the live optical disk.
(b) To tell the Puppy to boot without using the pupsave file [or any SFS file sitting beside it]:
At startup, during the 5-second pause, where the prompt is displayed at bottom left...
Type the letter p, then take as long as you like to complete the command:
puppy pfix=ram
...And hit <Enter>.
(c) If it still doesn't boot, when it has normally done so in the past...
That would tend to suggest a hardware/BIOS problem, not OS/software problem.

4. "even though I see & select as before the cd option, the unit refuses to bootup"
Could/might be a problem with the pupsave file...
Use method 3(b) above.

[Sylvander]

1.
"G- System BIOS shadowed
H- Video BIOS shadowed"
(a) If you suspect the RAM of being less than fully functional...
Then configure the BIOS Setup [if you can] to TURN OFF SHADOWING...
It shadows to the (possibly?) faulty RAM, which means everything shadowed may fail to function, which is particularly bad with the BIOS, and bad with the video.

[Benny]

First of all, thanks to both of you: mjc & Sylvander!

The reference to its lifespan expectancy is in relation to what I've read about really old equipment brought to life again by using some linux OS & not from the point of view of the manufacturer nor industry/market.

Now to Sylvander [first post]:
1) I really don't remember what was the outcome of it or the specifics, but I'm sure it refused to boot then.

2) I think I used PL 3.31 or 3.21 live cd & there's no extra info on that cd, so there was no pupsave file involved.

3 & 4) If there was no info in the hdd after repartitioning it Puppy should have had booted up automatically as your indications or I should have given that command, then; this I know because I got connected via wireless at the time. And yes, I'm inclined to think there's a problem with memory (both the hdd & the RAM): need to test it further.

Sylvander [second post]: I think my main problem is with the BIOS configuration. I forgot to say that after some trials, even though selecting cd booting, the machine goes trying to boot from LAN network. I've never used such an option in a computer & don't have the faintest idea of how to implement it.

In case booting from LAN could be implemented that would do, for the moment. If I get a good hdd that might be a more permanent solution.

Any ideas as how to proceed? Thanks!

[Sylvander]

1. "the machine goes trying to boot from LAN network"
(a) Sounds like the BIOS is unable to see any bootable disk/device, so it falls back to attempting to boot from a network device [that's all beyond my ken].

(b) I can understand why it isn't seeing a bootable internal HDD [no formatted partition holding an operating system?], but...

(c) It's strange that it isn't seeing a bootable CD [live Linux Puppy or Ubuntu CD].
Is the optical drive faulty?

(d) Are the CD's reliably bootable?
Is there one in the closed drawer of the optical drive [at the point in time] when the POST is looking for bootable drives?

(e) Is there a FDD built into the laptop? If so you can use a bootable floppy to initiate the boot of a Puppy that's installed on a USB-connected Flash Drive.
I downloaded the manual (http://www.retrevo.com/search/v2/jsp/mytrevo/myTrevo.jsp?page=man), and can see that some models include a FDD, and all include 2 USB sockets.

(f) I wonder if [as MJC said], the CMOS battery is failing, and [in addition to other problems] that is why the BIOS is unable to see-and-attempt-to-boot any bootable drives.
If you can reset the BIOS to default config's, that would [if I remember right] stop it asking for a user password.

[mjc]

There should be 3 or 4 of the screws on the bottom marked with K or something similar. They are the ones holding the keyboard in. Remove those screws. Pop out the keyboard. Under the keyboard is the spot for the CMOS battery...probably a little yellow or green shrink wrapped package of batteries. Disconnect it, pull the actual battery from the laptop, disconnect from the power adapter...with the batteries disconnected, hit the power button a couple of times.

Now the tricky part is going to be finding the replacement for the CMOS battery...

[Paul Komski]

I forgot to say that after some trials, even though selecting cd booting, the machine goes trying to boot from LAN network. I've never used such an option in a computer & don't have the faintest idea of how to implement it.

You can forget about LAN booting. It is only giving you that option because it cannot, for whatever reason, boot to any other device.

How many boot CDs have you tried? Perhaps the Puppy disk has gone bad or else perhaps the optical drive has gone AWOL in some way or other.

Suggest you burn a Windows Memory Diagnostic CD (http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp) (a) to test your RAM and (b) to see if the PC will boot to it.

When you get around to changing the CMOS battery - leave it unattaced for say 15 minutes to allow residual charge to drain from the chip. This may then make the BIOS accessible again.

[Benny]

Before getting inside the unit I dicided to look for more info on the specific BIOS version & stumbled upon a series of 'backdoor' pwds. & tried all of them as well as all imaginable ones for the specific case without any luck.

The next thing I'm going to do is getting the batt. out & see what I can get with. I'll take the RAM out & put it back, in case there's a contact problem there, too. Whatever happens I'll post it here.

Thanks!