Help with Old computer Please

I just found an old compaq vectra ls/12 from 1988.

http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=220

It has been in the basement for years, and I assume it has not been touched for over 5 years. It was my dads. When I plugged it in, it started and had errors. My dad has apparently known about this but he could not fix it. I will start it again and read what happens.

I turn it on. "error: bad configuration information found in cmos!"
It makes beeping/humming noises that repeat. like da daaaa da daaaa for a while, then it stops and starts again. It is juts paused right now. I do escape
"error: incorrect video configuration - please run SETUP!"
I do escape. The screen is lit but blank. The ac is plugged in, I think the battery is dead. I have no idea what operating system it has. I have a blank floppy disk here. It has a 3 inch floppy drive. I turned the power off.

Please help me to get it to work.

 

I guess the cmos battery is long dead... About the os it is probably running DOS... I can't beleive my Ti89 as a more powerful cpu and more space than it... Technology truly evolve fast ^^.

 

I think it is dos. It should have windows 1x or 2x but I guess not. I will go downstairs and try to find the "setup floppy"
any way I could get a universal boot disc?

edit:
PC-DOS 3.3 April 1987 for PS/2 series, 1.44 meg support, multiple DOS partition support, code page switching, improved foreign language support, some new function calls, support for the AT's CMOS clock
PC-DOS 4.0 August 1988 32mb disk limit officially broken, minor EMS support, more new function calls, enhanced network support for external commands. PCjr support dropped.

I'm going to try to find a dos 3.3 boot disk first

 

Try here or here

 

Thanks but I made a 3.5" floppy image of dos 3.3
I put the disk in, started the computer, and it sensed the disk, it just didn't do anything with it... I used to be able to get a screen like command prompt, ill try and find it again

 

rom bios hewlett-packard 1988
version a.00.02 ls/12

that's what it said after waiting a while. It also said like 1024mb ram whatever before that


edit: ok, the beeping / humming sounds stopped and the screen is darker
If I do Fn+F10, it turns the screen on and off

http://www.hpmuseum.net/document.php?hwfile=2105
If someone could help me with that php and find out how to get to bios/boot settings


edit: I did something and now the screen is too dark.. Also if I close the lid, it has 3 short beeps that repeat

OK Also, The contrast works the brightness doesnt - they both worked a minute ago - how do i "enable" the brightness

edit: Ok, I have the brightness back.

EDIT: I can get to some kind of command prompt if I wait and do not put a floppy in. It has options to do things like view memory and "?" is help

EDIT: On the command area, I did "test" and selected "1". This is a disk read test. It is still in progress. The beeping / humming is occuring during this time.

 

What does it say when you try to view memory?

 

I just restarted it, I'll try after the few minutes of beeping..
On a side note, I think this may be y2k related.. It's amazing about 10 years in a basement never used, it still works and is in cosmetically perfect condition

OKAY, id says to type e to examine memory
but it needs e <addr>
what do i put for the address
It has 1mb ram if that helps.

 

oh geez.. I did config and it brought up a little spec thing.. It says
"hard disk drive: -Not Present-"
I can change it to 50 different things literally, but do I need to and how?

Also, the time is always amount after turning it on, and the date is 01/01/1998

I set it to choice 1 for the hard drive, and when it starts its just a blank screen now

*phew* I changed it back to "not present"
Are there any places that have old parts like this and you can take it to them to fix it?

edit: also the top says " - mfm-200 command summary -"

 

I think the cmos battery and the hd is dead, do you hear the hd when you boot it?

 

I'll try to post a video later but my parents have my camera and they're not here right now but

HMM this changed.. It used to be different, but now it starts quickly and says
rom bios hewlett-packard 1988
version a.00.02 ls/12
+++disk error: drive not ready! +++

and it has a low pitch beep / hum followed by a high pitch beep / hum
and it repeats for a while, then it stops then repeats
After a while, it goes away


now when i start it, it brings up the bios message at the top, like the bios version, and it says "enter "?" for help." then i can do commands


edit: I did "test" and selected disk read test again, and it says device error under that...
edit: i did base memory test, and it says system and video memory test at the top
testing memory bank at 01000H
test cound = 1
IT beeps about 28-32 beeps once (cant tell) and it beeps twice in a row
now it's on 04000H

edit: oh geez.. I think it just tested video ram because the screen flashed blue a lot.. it says test count 2

 

I try to boot from the two options, f:w, and it says disk error: drive not ready

where can I find a laptop drive that fits this that's 40mb's...

 

Its a Vintage laptop so its gonna be hard to restore..

 

I know it will be. I need to know if it will work if I replace the hard drive.

 

The hard drive status is "not present" at startup. I have the option to select 1 of 50 hard drives as the correct one. I am trying to choose the right one, and hopefully it will boot. Each couple hours, the system's time, date, and hardware settings are reset.

 

Do you have a manual for the laptop or anyway to find one over the net? The beeping sounds should tell you what is wrong. In the old computers (and even in many recent ones) beeping through the pc-speaker is used to communicate in case of errors. So if you have a chance to get the service manual you should be able to figure out what it is complaining about. Like if theres a certain pattern in the beeps and a certain number of beeps it is the Cmos etc. I'm sure it can work out but don't know how you could find the service manual thing.

 

The HP computer museum site you linked in your original post has some documentation for this computer. On page 96 of the "Setting Up Vectra LS12" manual it says the hard drive type is typically 6 for a 20 meg HD and 44 for a 40 meg.

If the HD is not working, you might be able to get it going by smacking it flat against a hard surface. Of course, you might also destroy the drive but if it doesn't work anyways what do you have to lose. Back in the 80's I had to take out the HD on my mother's PC XT clone and smack it like this if it hadn't been used for a while. That always got it going.

 

if date and hour reset - cmos dead.
also this might be the hdd problem, it reseted the settings so it cannot be accessed. So don't try the smaking yet and find out if it is easy for you to replace the cmos battery. If you have the computer pluged and turned on selecting the good hdd option should make you see the hdd and access it until reboot but I'm not sure about that on an old computer.

 

Yes, I meant after trying to set the CMOS with the correct HD type, thank you for clarifying that.

Only smack it if the drive doesn't spin up. If the drive is spinning you don't have this problem.

Apparently I wasn't the only one smacking stuck HDs back then. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiction