I have Compaq too, but old model.

You should go to compaq web site, and download rescure disk and
restore default setting of bios and hard disk.

In my case, compaq have bios written not in memory, but on hidden disk
partition, so yours too?


tp

skyecade@comcast.net (Bob) wrote in message news:...
> Yesterday I decided to format my laptop (Compaq Armada 7800) and put
> both Win XP and Red Hat 9 on it. Red Hat installed the Grub
> bootloader. Everything worked great.
>
> HOWEVER, I then decided to get rid of Red Hat and put on Slackware 9.1
> because it is what I've been learning on. The installation went great.
> I chose the Lilo bootloader.
>
> Now here is the problem, and it may be a huge problem. After the
> install completed it said to take all the disks out and reboot the
> computer. When I reboot, all that comes up is the Compaq splash screen
> and the a prompt that says Grub. I can't type there though. This
> happens everytime I reboot.
>
> It gets better. I can't get into the bios. I can't boot from a cd or a
> floppy. It doesn't even show the memory count or processor
> information. It just goes right to Grub. Am I screwed? Has anyone ever
> seen this? I think it's as if Red Hat wrote to the MBR telling it to
> load Grub, but when I over installed Slackware and put Lilo on it I
> didn't write it to the MBR. Does this make any sense? HELP!!!
>
> Thanks
> Bob

Clear the MBR

Boot up to a utility disk (Windows 98 floppy or XP disk/tools section is
easiest) and issue the command

fdisk /mbr

THen reinstall Lilo

skyecade@comcast.net (Bob) wrote in message news:...

> It gets better. I can't get into the bios. I can't boot from a cd or a
> floppy. It doesn't even show the memory count or processor
> information. It just goes right to Grub. Am I screwed?

Assuming this is a case of a trashed BIOS partition, hold FN and F11
when starting up. This will (with luck) reset things enough to boot
normally; google around on "FN F11 Armada" for details.

After that you may want to hunt around on the compaq/hp website for
their system configuration and/or system-partition-restore floppy
images. Then again, maybe not; based on my experience with an Armada
1750 you probably don't actually *need* the BIOS partition.

Thanks alot guys. That did it. I'm good to go.

Bob

Thanks again