Compaq Presario Quick Restore FAQ

Recovery Process Crashes

Compaq 4100 series. The Recovery Disks will either not run at all, or crash at around 16%+.

If you've got a Windows 95 startup disk, then boot to an A: prompt, else put the Recovery Floppy Disk in, and press F8 when it says "Starting Windows 95" and choose "Save Mode Command Prompt Only".

Run Fdisk and examine the partition information. You will find 2 NON DOS partitions. Delete the larger of the two and recreate a Primary Dos partition.

Then format the drive, using the command FORMAT C: /U /V /S

When it has finished, switch the machine off and back on, and run the Recovery Disks again.

Creating New Recovery Floppy Disk / Wrong MSDOS Version

If you get an error message during re-installation saying "WRONG MSDOS VERSION", or any other problems with the boot disk, then on the Recovery CD there is a file called "qrst5.exe" in the "bootdisk" directory. If you run it, it creates a new boot disk on a blank floppy disk.

QuickRestore Utility Cannot Use Valid Serial Numbers On Blank Hard Drives

QuickRestore kits with the 242569-001 or 242569-002 boot diskettes will not accept valid CPU serial numbers. This is most commonly seen when a serial number is required to QuickRestore a new hard drive.

Solution is to write the BOM ID to the UIA area of the hard drive:

• Insert the original QuickRestore boot diskette and CD-ROM into the appropriate drive, then restart the computer.
• Exit the QuickRestore utility from the initial screen (Program Language Selection screen).
• At the A:\ prompt type uiabomwr xxx (the xxx represents the BOM ID, see below), then press the Enter key.
  • 8714 - 051
  • 4118 - 028
  • 4122 - 028
  • 4704 - 028
  • 4712 - 028
  • 4110 - 027
  • 4108 - 026

When the computer reboots you should be able to restore the machine as normal.

Not Accepting Serial Number Presario 1200

After having a Hard Drive replaced, the Quick Restore would not accept the serial number entered. The solution is to enter the serial number as 1111(then the middle four letters)1111, so if the serial number is abcdefghijlm then the number you would enter would be 1111efgh1111.

Presario 1060 QuickRestore Lockup

If when running the QuickRestore software on a Presario 1060, when you enter the Product Identification Number and presses Enter (or the Next button), the system locks up with the following error:

"XMS Cache Problem. Registry services maybe inoperative this session. Not enough extended memory to run Windows. Quit one or more applications to increase available memory or restart your computer. Press any key..."

The problem is caused by an incorrect line in the CONFIG.SYS file: "DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS I=E800-EFFF" This update replaces the incorrect line with the following line: "DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS"

You can download the following patch which corrects the problem - SP4273.

Manually Extracting Files From Recovery CD

To install individual files from the Compaq 4000/4400/4500/4700 Series Recovery CD, carry out the following steps,

• Get hold of a copy of WinZip from http://www.winzip.com in order to view the archive contents without decompressing first.
• Insert the Quick Recovery CD and look for a folder containing 10 zip files (normally called na02).
• Double clicking on a Zip file will open that file and show a list of the contents. Hunt around until you find the file(s) you're looking for.
• Highlight the file(s) you want and click on the Extract icon.
• It should scan the zip file for the files and then ask you to enter a password. Enter (without quotes) "PREDATOR ###", where the ### is the last three numbers in the zip file name (the name that appears on the WinZip window title bar). Ie, for the file Win010.zip, the password would be PREDATOR010. For the file Compaq26.zip, the password would be PREDATOR026.

N.B. For the Compaq 4540 & 4882 (and probably most of the new Compaqs), the password is SMDCONSUMER (in capitals).

Selective QuickRestore

Some of the new range of Compaq Presarios have a new version of the QuickRestore CD which allows the end user to re-install selected drivers and applications without having to do a full format and restore.

The instructions that come with the system do not describe the Custom Restore procedure correctly. The correct instructions are as below:

After you have selected the item you want to restore the system will restart and boot off the QuickRestore CD. The menu that then appears has 5 options:

• QuickRestore with Quick Format.
• QuickRestore with Full Format.
• Diagnostics.
• Virus Scan.
• Exit.

Option 1 is the correct option to choose, even though it says Quick Format. The hard drive will NOT be formatted.

After choosing option 1, the system will then eject the QuickRestore CD and wait for you to press a key before booting into Windows 98 and continuing the installation process.

The unit will restart once more after the selected driver/application has been installed. After this final restart, the system is then ready to be used again.

5130 - 16 Colours After Quick Restore

After running the Quick Restore, the display will not go higher than 16 Colours, depite the right graphics card being setup, and no problems in Device Manager.

The solution,

• Go into Device Manager and into Display Adapters.
• Change to Standard VGA and restart machine.
• Back into Device Manager and change Display Adapter to 3D Rage lt Pro English (Directx).
• Restart again.
• An error will come up saying there is a problem with display settings, just cancel.
• Set to more than 16 colours and restart.

2100 Series Quick Restore Update

This update allows the Quick Restore process on the Presario 2100 series to recognise 16x CD-ROM drives. The patch number is SP7924.

After restoring my Compaq 5032, some of the original software is missing

The Hard disk drive needs to be re-armed. to do this :-

• Insert recovery CD1 and reboot
• On the first Compaq logo screen that flashes up, make sure Caps & Numlock keys are on and their lights are illuminated.
• When it loads into recovery, a Compaq quick restore screen will be flashing, when it stops flashing press Numlock so it goes off
• At the 'Welcome to Compaq quick restore' screen press Ctrl and Q together.
• Proceed with rest of quick restore as usual. All the original software will now be restored.

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