Compaq BIOS (Re: [Madlug] Re: Problem with possibly crashed computer)

[John Heim]

At 02:31 PM 9/20/2004, Mark Tinberg you wrote:
There is a bit of interesting history behind the Compaq reference 
partition.  The configuration interface is a custom version of Windows 3.1 
from when Compaq was a Windows source code licencee and shipped their own 
proprietary version of Windows.

Ah, now it makes sense.  I thought it was just a cost saving thing. I take 
back some of the incredibly nasty things I said about Compaq while I was 
ditzing with that machine. Some but not all.

The machine I got at UW swap cost only $20. I never did get linux installed 
on it but I managed to sell, trade, or give away enough of the parts to 
feel that the money wasn't wasted. I even salvaged the diskette drive and 
when the diskette drive in my neighbor's Compaq started on fire, I was able 
to put a new one in immediately.

That was one of the strangest things I've ever seen. My neighbor put a 
diskette in the drive and it made a loud popping noise and a cloud of smoke 
that smelled like burning plastic puffed out of the machine.

I replaced the drive but let me tell you I kind of ducked down as I put a 
diskette in it for the first time.