[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] EMERGENCY! Friend uses CMOS___, manages to clobber system

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.US

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.
-- 
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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
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