I have in my possession an old Olivetti EchoS P133S laptop. This dates back to around 1997. So it’s old. I thought I might try to see if it still works. It kind of does (and somewhere, I have a Windows 2000 install CD to use with it - though it’s not beyond my wits to make a bootable Linux CD).

However, it’s not well. It starts up, gets to a BIOS screen and then does nothing else other than blink a cursor at me. The screen says:

PhoenixBIOS Version 4.04 1.32.1
Copyright 1985-1995 Phoenix Technologies Ltd., All Rights Reserved.
_

And nothing else (the _ above represents a flashing cursor). No option to press f2 to bring up the BIOS menu. I remember it used to beep at tis point, but it hasn’t done that this time. I know this means that something is borked. If it’s possible to un-bork it, then great. I’ve left it blinking for quite some time, thinking it was looking for a CD/Floppy disk and would continue. So far, no such luck.

IIRC, I did try to install something on it and that didn’t go well (Windows 98/ME that someone lent me *coff*). I do remember it running Windows 2000 happily, so that will go on to check that it’s OK. I remember when it was a work machine, we put Windows 2000 on it because ME was so sluggish and painful.

So, is there a way round this? Is there a keyboard “reset everything” combination I can hold down at start up? I have tried pressing the function keys at power up, but with no luck. Like many laptops from this time, the CD drive and floppy drive occupy the same slot - so I can’t have both in at the same time. I am fortunate enough to have some MS DOS disks with the Risc PC, so I should be able to boot from that (but seemingly not right this moment) and format the internal HD if necessary.

This is me not liking broken computers. I’ve fixed my old Archimedes with the help of a friend, and the RiscPC despite there being no reason to do so other than to have them working again. Oddly, I feel the same about this machine. If I can mend it, then that’s something I’ll have a go at. If not, it can go down the dump (if this was an Acorn machine, the latter option would not be thought about).

I read the whole thing and I really wanted to help. But this:



has me thinking exactly what you were...

The fact that you've got a screen message means that big chunks of the circuitry are working. That the BIOS can't get to the boot state IME indicates a hardware issue.

Things I'd be checking:

• CMOS battery
• Power connectors
• RAM, CPU, HDD and I/O connection/seating
• Battery voltage
• Dried out capacitors

If those don't work, you might well be into checking the circuit boards

Had someone have a look at it yesterday. More of a passing check than an in depth investigation. I don’t think it’s worth doing much more to. It will have a burial at sea.

Lucky fish.