mholtz@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Mark A. Holtz) (04/04/91)
Boy, do I wish this was only an April Fool's joke.
I lent to a friend PC Magazine's "PC Power Tools" and the diskettes
with that book. This afternoon, I got one of those "URGENT: Call me
immediately, or else . . . " messages on my answering machine.
It turns out that he tried out some of the programs on the disk
without first consulting the book, and managed to rum CMOSPUT,
which clobbered his setup information. Now, when he boots up, he
gets "Wrong Version Number. Bad or Missing COMMAND.COM" (wording
not exact). No, he did not have backups.
How do I get my friend going again? His system is a AT-286 clone
with AMI Bios and 640K of memory. He uses a 40MB hard drive,
partitioned into 2 - 20MB portions. The Video Card is a Hercules
clone.
# # ####### # ###### ###
# # # # # # ###
# # # # # # ###
####### ##### # ###### #
# # # # #
# # # # # ###
# # ####### ####### # ###
--
Wish list of items: /\ UUCP: ames att!pacbell! \
* Unix Box with Hard Drive \/ pyramid sun!pacbell! -=> sactoh0!mholtz
* 9600 Baud V.32/V.42 Modem /\ ucbvax!csusac! /
* A much-needed vacation \/ INTERNET: mholtz@sactoh0.SAC.CA.USedm@hpfcmdd.hp.com (Ed Moore) (04/09/91)
This sounds like the same result he would get when the CMOS battery dies. That shouldn't be a fatal event. On the HP Vectras I work on I would just run the SETUP program that comes with the hardware to redefine all the CMOS parameters.
brim@cbmvax.commodore.com (Mike Brim - Product Assurance) (04/09/91)
In article <1991Apr4.053701.3946@sactoh0.sac.ca.us> mholtz@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Mark A. Holtz) writes: > Boy, do I wish this was only an April Fool's joke. > > I lent to a friend PC Magazine's "PC Power Tools" and the diskettes > with that book. This afternoon, I got one of those "URGENT: Call me > immediately, or else . . . " messages on my answering machine. > It turns out that he tried out some of the programs on the disk > without first consulting the book, and managed to rum CMOSPUT, > which clobbered his setup information. Now, when he boots up, he > gets "Wrong Version Number. Bad or Missing COMMAND.COM" (wording > not exact). No, he did not have backups. > > How do I get my friend going again? His system is a AT-286 clone > with AMI Bios and 640K of memory. He uses a 40MB hard drive, > partitioned into 2 - 20MB portions. The Video Card is a Hercules > clone. > Your friend simply has to get into SETUP and make the correct settings. I don't know how old his AMI BIOS is but the later 386 ones require (to the best of my knowledge) hitting the Delete key while the system is booting up. His may be different, consult the manual. The values that require changing are: drive type, memory configuration, display, floppy drive configurations. There may be others but that should get him up & running. Good luck. -- ******************************************************************************** Disclaimer: I don't speak for my company or myself. Mike Brim | Commodore Electronics Limited PC Analyst - System Evaluation Group | West Chester, PA 19380 Product Assurance | InterNet: brim@cbmvax.commodore.com ********************************************************************************
donrm@hpnmdla.hp.com (Don Montgomery) (04/12/91)
Tell your friend to download a program called CMOS_RAM from his favorite BBS. When run the first time, it stores your CMOS battery-backed up data to floppy. Then, if the CMOS battery craps out, or something blows up the CMOS backup data, you run the program and it automatically restores what was in CMOS memory. You first format a floppy disk with the /S option. This puts the system on the disk. Then copy CMOS_RAM.EXE to this floppy. Run the program from the floppy and answer the menu questions. Put the disk away with your hard disk backups (you DO backup your hard disk, don't you?) Then if the computer loses it's CMOS brains, you boot directly from the floppy by putting it in the drive and turning on the power. (Since the CMOS data is gone, the computer can't find the hard disk and therefore can't boot so you have to do it from the floppy.) CMOS_RAM was written by Thomas Mosteller. Last known address was 1872 Rampart Lane, Lansdale, PA 19466. His shareware fee is $5.00, well worth the hassle of looking up the HD parameters, etc to rebuild SETUP. Don Montgomery donrm@hpnmdla.HP.COM