Quickrestore problem

So I've got this shitty old Compaq that I'm trying to do a quick restore on, but I can't get it to read the cd. The instructions clearly state to turn the computer on, then immediately insert the cd into the drive, then the quickrestore menu is supposed to come up. But alas...it just loads good old windows 98. I have tried having the cd in the drive, then restarting, also having it in the drive and shutting down, but nothing has worked. The cd drive does indeed work with other cds. What the hell am I doing wrong?

 

Go to the bios and change the boot sequence to boot from your CD instead of your c drive.

 

the long version:

when the computer boots, it says someting like "press del for setup" or some other key. hit it before it starts loading windows. this gets you to the bios.

from there, you'll be able to navigate with the keyboard to find the device boot order. you'll want to put your cd drive before your hard drive in the list. i dunno if you'll want to leave it that way permanently, but to get it boot from the cd you'll have to do this for the moment.

you'll save and exit bios and reboot with the cd in the machine and that should do it.

 

Thanks for the long version. After I posted the short version, I went to bed and thought about expanding my answer this morning but you beat me to it.

 

Thanks folks, I shall try it and report back!

 

Alright, reporting back. I changed the bios settings and it now gives me the quickrestore menu, but the keyboard doesn't work once I get there.

Now obviously the keyboard is functioning part of the time, because it let me go into bios which cannot be done with the mouse. What's the deal here?

 

so lemme get this straight. you get the CD to boot and it gives you a menu, but the keyboard isn't working.... hit the caps lock key a few times and see if the caps lock light on the keyboard responds -- that's a good way to see if the keyboard is actually initialized.

 

Is the keyboard as old as the computer? And does it come up sometime as error 310? Maybe you should try another keyboard. Always make sure that you turn the computer off before you plug or unplug the keyboard or ps2 mouse as you may blow your motherboard.

 

since she isn't on right now, i'll update. snut, you have it figured right.

as far as the keyboard. it is the keyboard i am typing on currently. came with my compaq that we use now, which is about 3 years old now. keyboard works fine all the time. from what i understand, it worked fine on her computer, up until when she tried to use it on the quickrestore screen. worked in other areas of her old pc directly after that too.

 

The caps lock light comes on when the computer first boots up, while it's doing the memory check and all that, but as soon as the cd menu comes up the light goes off. I don't get it.