I received an old computer compaq deskpro p550 from work that i am tinkering with. when i go to start up all i get is a COMPAQ.COM white screen and in the lower corner an hour glass that doesnt move, i tried putting in a start up disk but it will not read the a drive, any ideas? all wires are attached inside

Tim Mentone email at tim_mentone@yahoo.com, August 2005

It is very possible that "work" wiped out the HDD so as to make it impossible to recover any work related files. Security, you know? Being that it is a compaq, you might be able to reinstall Windoze. Go to the BIOS and ensure that the boot up sequence has the A:\ drive selected as the first drive. Insert your boot up diskette, format and reinstall.

Daddy0h, September 2005