Compaq Armada 1700 6300/T/5000/D/0/1 and Hitachi-LG CDRW/DVD DRIVE GCC-4080N?

I have a Compaq Armada 1700 6300/T/5000/D/0/1, which has worked well, apart
from the original 5GB hard disk drive which failed, so I replaced it with a
Fujitsu 10GB 2.5 inch HDD and jumpered it as Cable Select like the original,
and it worked fine in conjunction with the original UJDA150 CDROM drive. I
have now replaced the CDROM with a Hitachi-LG CDRW/DVD DRIVE GCC-4080N
(originally from a Sony Vaio laptop), using the original Compaq rear
attachment, however the Armada will not boot successfully with GCC-4080N
*attached*, but it boots successfully with it detached. I have set the HDD
jumpers to Master, Slave, then back to CS unsuccessfully.
I am unable to access the BIOS to auto-detect or save changes, because
although I previously created a BIOS partition on the Armada, and downloaded
BIOS Rompaq files from HP-Compaq, the F10 key only accesses diagnostic
utilities, not a proper BIOS setup.
Will you please tell me:
1 How to enable the 4080N to work with the Armada?
2 Tell me how to obtain the correct BIOS/Rompaq files so I can enter the
proper BIOS Setup?

Thank you.

David

--
David Robert Gibson

"David R Gibson" wrote in message
...
I have a Compaq Armada 1700 6300/T/5000/D/0/1, which has worked
well, apart
from the original 5GB hard disk drive which failed, so I replaced
it with a
Fujitsu 10GB 2.5 inch HDD and jumpered it as Cable Select like the
original,
and it worked fine in conjunction with the original UJDA150 CDROM
drive. I
have now replaced the CDROM with a Hitachi-LG CDRW/DVD DRIVE
GCC-4080N
(originally from a Sony Vaio laptop), using the original Compaq
rear
attachment, however the Armada will not boot successfully with
GCC-4080N
*attached*, but it boots successfully with it detached. I have set
the HDD
jumpers to Master, Slave, then back to CS unsuccessfully.
I am unable to access the BIOS to auto-detect or save changes,
because
although I previously created a BIOS partition on the Armada, and
downloaded
BIOS Rompaq files from HP-Compaq, the F10 key only accesses
diagnostic
utilities, not a proper BIOS setup.
Will you please tell me:
1 How to enable the 4080N to work with the Armada?
2 Tell me how to obtain the correct BIOS/Rompaq files so I can
enter the
proper BIOS Setup?

Thank you.

David

--
David Robert Gibson



Both the hard drive and the optical drive must be jumpered the same
way. You may have to remove a covering from the optical drive to
set the jumpers. An optical drive is an optical drive and requires
no BIOS access after installation. The latest Diagnostic Disk
ROMPaq does not include the BIOS Setup routine. There is a link on
the Diagnostic ROMPaq download page for getting an earlier
Diagnostic Disk ROMPaq which contains the BIOS Setup files.
Although you can get the combine files on one disk, the full
installation of the Diagnostic partition require that you insert a
separate BIOS Setup disk to copy the files to the hidden partition.
If you have already installed your operating system on the drive,
you may as well look for the BIOS Setup ROMPaq which can put the
BIOS Setup files on a floppy disk. The drive must be blank with no
DOS partitions to create the Diagnostic partition. I am not sure if
the Diagnostic partition setup makes that partition large enough to
add the BIOS Setup files later. You can try the Upgrade Partition
option to see whether you have to start from scratch.

I was in a similar situation a few days ago. I dabbled with
installing Xandros Linux on my Armada 3500. I made the mistake of
using the automatic configuration of the hard drive. I had just
prior to that installed a CD burner to replace a reader so I had an
image backup of my Windows Millennium Edition partition if I wanted
to revert. Much of my hardware would not work with Linux so I
decided to go back to Windows Millennium Edition. The bootable CD
would not boot because the firmware in the Compaq would not
recognize a 2.88 MB floppy format, which is what my NTI Drive
Backup software created on each CD. I used my Windows XP desktop to
create a bootable CD. I was able to boot with that CD but the boot
program started loading a bare bone Windows XP on the hard drive.
The restore proceeded until the Windows XP files were overwritten by
the restored files and the restore hung up. I finally created two
1.44 MB boot disk on my desktop which allowed me to complete the
restore. Alas, my Diagnostic partition was lost because the
automatic Linux installation used that hidden partition as the
beginning of its boot partition which remained behind even after I
had used FDISK to remove all the non-DOS partitions before restoring
Windows Millenium. So I removed all the partitions again and used
the Diagnostic and Setup disks to repopulate the hidden partition.
The restore proceeded this time without any problems since I knew
about the bootable CD issue and started from bootable floppy disks
created on the Armada 3500.


--
Earl F. Parrish

Dear Earl et al,

I am *very* sorry for this late reply. I had intended to reply back in
April!! but I lost your message until today. I am flooded with work but I
will send a fuller reply as soon as I can.

Good wishes,

David


--
David Robert Gibson

"Earl F. Parrish" wrote in message
news:6p79e.20306$ox3.1660@trnddc03...

"David R Gibson" wrote in message
...
I have a Compaq Armada 1700 6300/T/5000/D/0/1, which has worked
well, apart
from the original 5GB hard disk drive which failed, so I replaced
it with a
Fujitsu 10GB 2.5 inch HDD and jumpered it as Cable Select like the
original,
and it worked fine in conjunction with the original UJDA150 CDROM
drive. I
have now replaced the CDROM with a Hitachi-LG CDRW/DVD DRIVE
GCC-4080N
(originally from a Sony Vaio laptop), using the original Compaq
rear
attachment, however the Armada will not boot successfully with
GCC-4080N
*attached*, but it boots successfully with it detached. I have set
the HDD
jumpers to Master, Slave, then back to CS unsuccessfully.
I am unable to access the BIOS to auto-detect or save changes,
because
although I previously created a BIOS partition on the Armada, and
downloaded
BIOS Rompaq files from HP-Compaq, the F10 key only accesses
diagnostic
utilities, not a proper BIOS setup.
Will you please tell me:
1 How to enable the 4080N to work with the Armada?
2 Tell me how to obtain the correct BIOS/Rompaq files so I can
enter the
proper BIOS Setup?

Thank you.

David

--
David Robert Gibson



Both the hard drive and the optical drive must be jumpered the same
way. You may have to remove a covering from the optical drive to
set the jumpers. An optical drive is an optical drive and requires
no BIOS access after installation. The latest Diagnostic Disk
ROMPaq does not include the BIOS Setup routine. There is a link on
the Diagnostic ROMPaq download page for getting an earlier
Diagnostic Disk ROMPaq which contains the BIOS Setup files.
Although you can get the combine files on one disk, the full
installation of the Diagnostic partition require that you insert a
separate BIOS Setup disk to copy the files to the hidden partition.
If you have already installed your operating system on the drive,
you may as well look for the BIOS Setup ROMPaq which can put the
BIOS Setup files on a floppy disk. The drive must be blank with no
DOS partitions to create the Diagnostic partition. I am not sure if
the Diagnostic partition setup makes that partition large enough to
add the BIOS Setup files later. You can try the Upgrade Partition
option to see whether you have to start from scratch.

I was in a similar situation a few days ago. I dabbled with
installing Xandros Linux on my Armada 3500. I made the mistake of
using the automatic configuration of the hard drive. I had just
prior to that installed a CD burner to replace a reader so I had an
image backup of my Windows Millennium Edition partition if I wanted
to revert. Much of my hardware would not work with Linux so I
decided to go back to Windows Millennium Edition. The bootable CD
would not boot because the firmware in the Compaq would not
recognize a 2.88 MB floppy format, which is what my NTI Drive
Backup software created on each CD. I used my Windows XP desktop to
create a bootable CD. I was able to boot with that CD but the boot
program started loading a bare bone Windows XP on the hard drive.
The restore proceeded until the Windows XP files were overwritten by
the restored files and the restore hung up. I finally created two
1.44 MB boot disk on my desktop which allowed me to complete the
restore. Alas, my Diagnostic partition was lost because the
automatic Linux installation used that hidden partition as the
beginning of its boot partition which remained behind even after I
had used FDISK to remove all the non-DOS partitions before restoring
Windows Millenium. So I removed all the partitions again and used
the Diagnostic and Setup disks to repopulate the hidden partition.
The restore proceeded this time without any problems since I knew
about the bootable CD issue and started from bootable floppy disks
created on the Armada 3500.


--
Earl F. Parrish