Compaq Presario PC Floppy I\O error

[711782]

Few day ago I bought this Compaq home PC 5bw 160 W98se without the restore CD's, this Rig was a mess,
spyware,viruses, trojans and lot's of OS files missing, after a few hours of trying to fix things,
I decided to do a win 2000 clean install. (I've several unused boxed copy of W2k and Wxp)
I went to compaq web site (now HP) and easily downloaded the sound, video, and modern drivers for W98, W2k and Wxp,after reading everything about it, I thought this is a piece of cake ! Wrong.
First it wouldn't boot to the W2k CD, I got I\O ERROR,
of course I did the bios setting for first boot to CD
so I tried to do a Wxp the same thing,
OK now back to the bios and change back to first floppy,then CD. Now I try the 4 floppy for W2k I still get the I\O error report at the first diskette, (the floppy drive has been tested on a different Rig and it's working well)
and the same for the Wxp floppy's since I've already zeroed and fdisked the drive I found myself in a sort of jam so I decided to install (reluctantly) W98se "cause w98 boot floppy works" the installation went flawlessly, the sound and video was another nightmare, but at the end I was able to install them all.
This Rig is no longer a bloated Compaq thing now it's a fairly nice piece of usable 700 mhz 20 gb trash.
I've done this with lot's of HP, IBM, Toshiba's, and others 5 years old PC and laptops, I've never had a problem with w2k and PX floppy's reporting I\O ERROR and not booting from Boo CD's.
In the back of my mind I still would like to install a more dependable OS, the likes of W2k or PX. Do any of you understand or know of the why of this odd and real strange behavior! Beside the fact that it's a Compaq, with a HP MB and BIOS, and highly proprietary.....
__________________

 

[micker377]

Win 98 is recognized - higher grade OS's not recognized. Could you need a BIOS upgrade?

 

[711782]

I'm hep but where to get it hp don't seem to have any

 

[micker377]

Computer may just be too old for updates. What's the memory like? XP is very picky about amount/type of memory.

 

[711782]

The memory has nothing to do with the I\O error and I didn't say xp at all I was talking about w2k and there was no BIOS upgrade at all, ever!
mick I appreciate your effort to help, but it seem that you are fishing in the dark like me.
With respect I don't think you understand what we are talking about here.
don'[t kid your self this is a very difficult question to resolve,
unless you have particular knowledge about this type of PC and had have worked on, you won't be able to help.
If I want to I can install w2k or xp for that matter I know how to,
but the question is abut the floppy I\o error with wxp and w2k floppy's only !....

 

[micker377]

Of course I'm shooting in the dark - I don't have the computer in front of me! <grin> One thing, you know that there is a one byte offset on Win 98 bootdisks that XP doesn't have. I don't know how W2K views the bootdisks. Can you boot with a Win 98 boot disk and install W2K/XP from there?

 

[711782]

You forgot (or don't know) that Win xp and 2k will install "only" from they files system and will defiantly not install from w9x bootdisk but only from the 4 floppy for w2k, and 6 floppy for xp,of course both installation disks are bootable, but this option is denied to me, why! Hence my post.....

 

[micker377]

Full" version of XP will install with any boot disk (98 SE on up) that will recognize the CD drive. An "upgrade" version only installs from XP. Which versions of XP and W2K do you have?

 

[711782]

You're correct, what I've is the wxp home\upgrade and the w2k\full.
But we're getting a bit "sidetracked" here, my main question deals with: Why can't this hell machine boot to setup with Wxp 6 floppy's and the 4 for W2k,
I know how to install both from Windows etc.
At the risk of repeating myself there is a I\O error with the floppy's of xp and 2k only, all other version of win floppy will work fine for example killdisk, special bootdisk, and W9x will all boot.
the BIOS boot order have been set according to what I intend to do and that's no problem,
The full version of W2k should boot when the BIOS boot order is set to first device as cd,
now when I want to boot to a bootdisk I set the BIOS order to first device as floppy.
in case you're thinking about memory it has 394 MB of tested memory,
and the CD rom firmware have been upgraded as prescribed by Compaq...thaah!
This Rig is flying now like brand new lean machine, and all addendum applications is installed 825 mb in all, but to my regret with W98se,
it has now been partitioned and Ghosted incrementally....

 

[micker377]

Again (grasping at straws - this is a weird one), can you try a different floppy drive (temporary) to see if the default one may be slightly out of alignment?

 

[711782]

Of course it has been done ages ago no joy!

 

[micker377]

You didn't mention that (tried new floppy drive). You're right: I'm stumped! I've seen 98 not able to use an XP floppy, but a floppy drive is a floppy drive (except for defective head alignment). What I find curious, is that both the floppy and the CD give I/O errors. About the only common ground is either BIOS or memory. Another guess: boot with the 98 floppy and see what Fdisk shows.

 

[stuuked]

funny i had same problem this afternoon. pretty frustrating. I will figure out tomorrow and post for you. I doing it on an older compaq, which is now part of hp, so it very well might be the same main board, its either the bios chip (flash) or the ram. Did you add new or more ram before starting this whole thing. The ram could quite possibly be holding the dos theory. One more thing diconnect hd fd cd and turn the comp on, when it comes up non sys disk turn off plug all back in. try again. Stay away from the 98 disk, them old comps are like old people they get confused easily.

Peace

 

[711782]

I think it's a BIOS thing, I'm giving this problem up but I will try the floppy cable trick and that's it, after that I'm done with this Rig period !

 

[DanPenny]

If you can install 98 without problems, then you could do a very basic install. Then while running 98, put the Win2K CD in the drive. It should autorun and ask if you want to upgrade. Mine does this. It's Win2K Professional. I changed my P120 this way. I had it convert the c: drive to NTFS, and left the other four partitions across two HDD as FAT32.

It's a good day when you learn something

 

[711782]

Dan thx I already know about that "the w2k upgrade thing" but my intention where to do a clean install, and I'm still baffled by the floppy w2k disks IO error, I've posted here in hope of understanding more about this, although lot's of suggestions have been given none have explained it (the I\o error) so far...Thanx again tho....