Compaq Deskpro 386s manual (HDD configuration)

[DGroves]

you are correct it's not EISA but a 16bit ISA AT style bus..............try the next higher setup disk i posted sp0316

this might also be for your board

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/PS2_MOST/ACROREAD/TSSFACT/TFSPC/COMPAQ/2005009.PDF

last, do you get a popup in the upper right side of the display during booting? if so you do have a onboard config bios and you need to press the correct key to enter it when it pops up

[rockman1]

Your helping a lot just with your pic my batter is connected to the two post to the left while you're is the far end pen's. I am only running one cable to run the hard-drive and both floppy's. I had a Packard-bell 386sx back in the early 90's should have keep it but at the time it was fast becoming out dated. You're board look's a lot like  mine. I have tried the sp0308 last night and got disk i/o error. While doing system test after get it to except dos 1.25 ( I had to make a dos start up disk just to get A: drive to come up) I got a board 101 error. Still trying to find out what that is. In fact got a lot of errors,  printer, modem, disk drive, but seem to pass the memory and screen color & size test. I did not know of some the other connecting as well as the sp0542 software. I'll download that and try it.

[qwertz_]

I am not sure I understand your post correctly.

Are you sure you have the exact same motherboard? Mine has the number 000954-001 (written on the boards's silkscreen), but there are multiple revisions that look similar and were installed in similar cases, but they might have slights differences.

In my case, the battery was not working, and replacing it didn't work, so I ended-up replacing the RTC chip with a DS1287 (integrated battery).

The jumper configuration is printed on a sticker on top of the floppy drives rack. The first step is to make sure the jumper configuration is correct according to the installed HW.

Are you sure your floppy disks and your floppy drives are working properly? It is very common for them to go bad depending on their previous use and storage conditions.

I suggest you to connect only one floppy disk (A, at the twisted end of the cable), until you get everything working.

Is the error 101 displayed during the motherboard's POST, or is it what the setup program displays?

As I could not find any proper documentation, I still have no idea about the real meaning of Compaq error codes, but a quick Google search gives an "Option ROM Error", which can be checked by removing all your unused boards (network, modem, sound, SCSI) and check the jumpers.

See the POST error codes here: http://www.bioscentral.com/postcodes/compaqbios.htm

I think I posted all I know about this machine on my website:  https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmonorailc.at%2Fcms%2F%3Fd%3D2016...

[rockman1]

What I am saying is you're board look's like mine. My board is a Taurus II processor board, assy 001145-001 and dia no 001146-001. I haven't touched the jumper config yet. Pretty sure it is still factory set. when I try to load Dos 3.31 or any other dos I ether get  invalid dos or bad file name. The only thing I can get to work is basic but it don't let me do any thing. I try to get c:\ drive to come up but keep getting invalid drive. Still looking for that sp0542. I don't know what the disk i/o error is every time I try to load sp0308. When I get the A: drive up I load the sp0308 in. It goes to blue screen asking to create a diagnostic disk. I go thru the procedure until done. When I restart the computer with the newly created diagnostic that's when I get the "disk I/O error" . When I tried to start with dos it ask to insert a dos disk and press any key.