hello. a freind of mine has dropped their compaq armada laptop into me to fix for them and im kind of at a loss to know what they have done to it. Apparrently they had a virus problem and wished to not only format but to securely erase the drive before passing the machine on. they used a program called active killdisk version 3.1 to do this. I am actually familiar with killdisk and have used it myself several times with no problem. They were instructed to follow the prompts to securely erase drive c, They assure me this is what they did. However when i turn on their machine i get the standard. please insert system disk message, but when i try to enter the bios during boot all i get is a ram beep when i prees the del key (or any other key for that matter), it will not boot from a floppy or from a windows cd, i get the same no system disk message. I cannot enter the bios to check the boot sequence. This is a new one for me. it seems unlikely that a hardware or cabling problem just decided to manifest at the same time killdisk was run but Im open to suggestion. any help would be appreciated.

Just to clarify:

When you try to enter the BIOS Setup you get beeps?

& any attempt at booting gives the error: No System Disk?

Is that the exact & full error? Perhaps: Non System Disk? Invalid System Disk?

Also do you know the specific Armada #? Here is Compaq on troubleshooting:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...SubCatId=89335

hi, thanks for the reply. i get the compaq splash, then the message <initializing intel boot agent 2.6 (build 004)> then the message <Non-system disk or disk error replace disk and strike any key when ready> i can put in either a win98 boot disk or winXP boot disc but its still no go, i dont get any beeps when im trying to enter the bios, just nothing til the disk message, once at that screen its just a beep if i push any key.

sorry the logo on the monitor say armarda e500 and on the underside its says series pp2060

id like to try another hdd but unfortunately i dont have access to another laptop hdd, it seems like a cabling or drive problem to me but like i said im open to suggestion, im a bit cluey but not that savvy. Ill checkout that wesite now too... mmmm... sorry about the mulitple mesaages, i should try to be more concise, and thaks again

Here is the specific Compaq Armada e500 page:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...SeriesId=96231

Also a Google:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...ch&sa=N&tab=wg

From this thread I get the idea that you may need to Format the drive:

The HD may not be formatted, that would be why you
are getting a non-system disk error.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.s...96a53c174277b5

hi there yes i know that the hdd does need formatting, but the problem is that i cant enter the bios or get it to read from either a floppy or a cd to do so

Did you see this from the above thread:

try to remove battery pack, let only the AC adapter
Then , press FN + F11 and while those keys are pressed
push the power on button to reinitialize your bios
defaults.


Then try F10 to enter it at the next boot.

ok thanks

hey presto, all happening. u r a LEGEND, i will definitely be placing some favourable comments about this site out and about on my net travels, ty very very much.