Need help with a Compaq Armada 7770 DMT laptop.......

[ZeldaExpert]

I got a message everytime I botted up the dang thing that said "incorrrect M-DOS version", so I read on a site on how to fix that. I clicked around on a buch of dos apps, just to see what they did. I turned off my laptop, then turned it back on after a while. It seemed mormal, the 37**** (*meaning what i can't remember) ok, then you know the little cursor that flashes at a bootup? It flashed like normal, then stopped, then caused an even bigger one flashed at the top right corner of the screen. Then the laptop switched screens (no win 95 boot screen like normal) that said "Starting MS-DOS........", then a screen, full color , yet pixelized like a dos program in color, that said compaq in the bottom left corner. This was supposedly for diagnostics. I selected the Exit this utility, which made the computer restart, yet the same thing happens. I've searched the web, but can't find anything about this. How do I get out of it and back to Windows?

 

[Toasty]

I'm just gonna throw this out there: I don't supposed you can get a new machine? Windows 95 has been unsupported for like seven years...

Barring that, I couldn't really understand much about your problem. If it was me, I would probably try using a Linux LiveCD to salvage my documents, if possible. (For a system that age you'd probably have to use a bootable floppy.) Then, if I could afford it, I'd get a new laptop.

If I couldn't afford it, I'd probably do a reformat and install either Windows 2000, Windows XP or a Linux distro, depending on your needs. (Windows 2000 would probably run decently on a machine that age, but will lose support in a year and a half. Windows XP will probably be sluggish, but will have extended support. Linux is a totally different OS, but if you're just using the thing for internet browsing or listening to music, many distros will run on older hardware fine, and remain up-to-date.)

 

[ZeldaExpert]

Got the diagnostics fixed, yes I have a cd drive for it and floppy, my uncle has the 64-bit version of xp, sadly won't run on notebook, when I boot it up, it says Error loding os, yet the diagnostics said windows was there.

 

[yegosimo]

Yeah, try to install Windows 2000 and see what happens. Also, your uncle's 64-bit Windows XP may not work with your system because your laptop probably uses a 32-bit processor. Anyway I guess Windows XP on an old laptop wouldn't be a good choice.

 

[ZeldaExpert]

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Anyways, I have it all fixed up with everything back on it (don't ask me how,) but I have a new problem. I have an old The Lost Treasures of Infocom cd that I play alot, but whenever I open up the games in DOS, at the top part of the windows there is a black bar that has the first couple words that should pop up, but the rest of the window is blue. The blue part it seems to skip all the text that pops up and starts at the first location of the game. I have to hold down enter for a couple of seconds to make the black bar go away, then restart the game. How do I fix this error?