Olivetti m300-10 & bios

Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8, alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?

On 8/29/2010 3:20 PM, T.K wrote:
Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8, alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?

The other standbys to try would be F1, F2 or F3, but I'm unfamiliar with
that era and manufacturer of PCs.

On 8/29/2010 4:20 PM, T.K wrote:
Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8, alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?




A wild guess based upon largely-futile Google searches:

"Pulsar sin soltar SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + DEL (en este orden)"
which probably means "press and hold shift ctrl alt del in that order",
again, thanks to Google.

"John McGaw" kirjoitti
...
On 8/29/2010 4:20 PM, T.K wrote:
Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8,
alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?




A wild guess based upon largely-futile Google searches:

"Pulsar sin soltar SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + DEL (en este orden)"
which probably means "press and hold shift ctrl alt del in that order",
again, thanks to Google.

Hi,

Thank you for quick replies, Grinder and John McGaw. I´ve already tried F1,
F2, F2 etc. I am also familiar with that Google search ("Pulsar sin soltar
SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + DEL (en este orden)" ) but I didnt know that it
propably means ...in that order. I´ll give it a try. If anyone else has any
good suggestions, please, I would really like to know.

T.K wrote:
Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8, alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?





I don't know about your computer, but a long time ago access to the
bios was done via a floppy disk. Could your computer be so old that it
too needs a boot disk to access the bios??

On 8/29/2010 5:53 PM, Ken wrote:
T.K wrote:
Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8,
alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?





I don't know about your computer, but a long time ago access to the bios
was done via a floppy disk. Could your computer be so old that it too
needs a boot disk to access the bios??

There are some scraps on the web that tend to support this scenario.

On 08/29/2010 05:53 PM, Ken wrote:
T.K wrote:
Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8,
alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?





I don't know about your computer, but a long time ago access to the bios
was done via a floppy disk. Could your computer be so old that it too
needs a boot disk to access the bios??


I am pretty sure you are right.

I've worked on a few antique machines (not Olevetti) that required such
a disk.

It's possible the machine may enter the bios if a hardware change is
made...such as pulling a card or changing the amount of ram

Just a guess though


One other bios entry key combination I did not see mentioned was


control-alt-escape


I had a machine one that used that combination
and even if booted to the OS would enter the bios if that combination of
keys was hit !

"philo" kirjoitti
...
On 08/29/2010 05:53 PM, Ken wrote:
T.K wrote:
Hi,

I have an old 386 pc, Olivetti m300-10. Could anyone tell or give an
educated guess, how to enter its bios? I have tried esc, del, f8,
alt+ctrl+
(several keys). What key, or combination of keys could it be?





I don't know about your computer, but a long time ago access to the bios
was done via a floppy disk. Could your computer be so old that it too
needs a boot disk to access the bios??


I am pretty sure you are right.

I've worked on a few antique machines (not Olevetti) that required such
a disk.

It's possible the machine may enter the bios if a hardware change is
made...such as pulling a card or changing the amount of ram

Just a guess though


One other bios entry key combination I did not see mentioned was


control-alt-escape


I had a machine one that used that combination
and even if booted to the OS would enter the bios if that combination of
keys was hit !

Hi again, and thank you for all the suggestions, especially philo. Making a
hardware change worked, I removed two RAM sticks, and it entered to bios. I
still need to figure out how to navigate in bios.
I think the size of the hd is entered incorrectly and thats why I cant fdisk
and format the hd. Machine has a Conner cp3044 hd, and a spec sheet, I have
found at www.computerhope.com/hdconner.htm says it has 40 MB´s. Fdisk shows
41 MB´s and also displays a message "total disk space is 116 Mbytes",
strange?

"T.K" wrote in message
...

"philo" kirjoitti
...
On 08/29/2010


snip

One other bios entry key combination I did not see mentioned was


control-alt-escape


I had a machine one that used that combination
and even if booted to the OS would enter the bios if that combination of
keys was hit !

Hi again, and thank you for all the suggestions, especially philo. Making
a
hardware change worked, I removed two RAM sticks, and it entered to bios.
I
still need to figure out how to navigate in bios.
I think the size of the hd is entered incorrectly and thats why I cant
fdisk
and format the hd. Machine has a Conner cp3044 hd, and a spec sheet, I
have
found at www.computerhope.com/hdconner.htm says it has 40 MB´s. Fdisk
shows
41 MB´s and also displays a message "total disk space is 116 Mbytes",
strange?



Does fdisk allow you to delete all
then start over?

If not...

Maybe you can put the drive in another machine of approx the same vintage
and fdisk and format it there

"philo" kirjoitti
viestissä

"T.K" wrote in message
...

"philo" kirjoitti
...
On 08/29/2010


snip

One other bios entry key combination I did not see mentioned was


control-alt-escape


I had a machine one that used that combination
and even if booted to the OS would enter the bios if that combination
of
keys was hit !

Hi again, and thank you for all the suggestions, especially philo.
Making
a
hardware change worked, I removed two RAM sticks, and it entered to
bios.
I
still need to figure out how to navigate in bios.
I think the size of the hd is entered incorrectly and thats why I cant
fdisk
and format the hd. Machine has a Conner cp3044 hd, and a spec sheet, I
have
found at www.computerhope.com/hdconner.htm says it has 40 MB´s. Fdisk
shows
41 MB´s and also displays a message "total disk space is 116 Mbytes",
strange?



Does fdisk allow you to delete all
then start over?

If not...

Maybe you can put the drive in another machine of approx the same vintage
and fdisk and format it there



Hi, I was able to delete primary dos partition, but when I tried to make
new, it just hung, so I did ctrl+alt+del. Yes, I guess it would be best to
put the drive in another machine, and install the OS. I could then continue
with those bios settings.