Curse

Harvester of Sorrows · Oct 06, 2008, 03:20 AM // 03:20

Okay, my problem, I've got an old Compaq Presario 1275. I want to install Windows 2K Pro on it. When it boots up, it asks for RAID and SCSI or w/e they're called drivers, skip that, loads all the drivers, goes to "Setup is Starting Windows 2000" and hangs there. Potential issues could be that the BIOS (PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 for Compaq) doesn't support ACPI and needs to be updated to one that can. (PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.1) This leads me into another problem, risks of flashing a BIOS and trying to find the update for my laptop.

I'm sure anyone looking to help will want to know it's specs so:
Processor: AMD K6-2 233-550 MHz
Chipset: 82C701 FireStar Plus CPU to PCI Bridge
RAM: 64MB
HDD: 4GB
Video Chipset: NM2160 MagicGraph 128XD
It's got a 1.44 MB (3.5") Floppy and a CD Rom drive.

Any help is appreciated

Lord Sojar · Oct 06, 2008, 05:13 AM // 05:13

Flashing a BIOS is only dangerous if your laptop randomly is restarting or losing power constantly. Just backup your current BIOS. Compaq should have a simple guide on their site for your particular model. Each system is slightly different in the ways you do a BIOS Flash, and Compaq does tend to lock out BIOS specific commands. Standard methods may not work, so contact them regarding a flash.

In my experience though, if a Windows install is hanging, that is most typically a result of faulty RAM or HDD. Try the BIOS update first though before assuming the worst.

Also, that is a very very very old laptop now that I look. Will that even run Windows 2000 properly? I don't think it will. I haven't looked at the specs for Windows 2000/XP in quite a while.

EDIT: 2000 Professional requires a DEAD MINIMUM of 64MB of RAM. My best advice would be to not install 2000 and just leave 98 on it...

Harvester of Sorrows · Oct 06, 2008, 01:30 PM // 13:30

Yeah, adding up all those things, I figured, screw it. I'd just stick to 98 SE. Anyways, thanks for the response.