VOGONS


First post, by Walter1956

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I just got an old Compaq LTE Lite 4/25C notbook from the early 90. it seems working so far as i can turn it on, it counts the Memory and then says that date and time are not set.
When i then press F10 to go to Bios-Settings he ask for a Password - that i dont know.
I looked all over the Internet, but could'nt find anything about it. And i can't find a Jumper to clear the Bios.
Maybe anyone in this commuinty can help me.
Thanks in advance
Walter

Reply 2 of 5, by Thermalwrong

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It should be cleared by pulling the CMOS battery, that requires pulling out the mainboard which is one big aluminium shell.

The CMOS battery is a CR2430 on the underside that's soldered in and probably needs replacing at this point. If you temporarily disconnect that, I think it would clear the CMOS password. Compaqs have a thing where if you remove the CMOS battery, standby battery and main battery then start up the laptop from the power supply, it'll clear the passwords - I had to do that on my later Compaq Armada 7350MT.

While you're in there, I recommend taking off the top shell of the mainboard and removing the standby battery, then clean up any corrosion. My Compaq LTE Lite 4/25E is perma-dead thanks to that thing.

Reply 3 of 5, by Walter1956

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Roman555 wrote on 2023-01-12, 14:44:

Thank you for your tip, but i read this post 2 days ago.

Reply 4 of 5, by Walter1956

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Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-01-12, 22:15:

It should be cleared by pulling the CMOS battery, that requires pulling out the mainboard which is one big aluminium shell.

The CMOS battery is a CR2430 on the underside that's soldered in and probably needs replacing at this point. If you temporarily disconnect that, I think it would clear the CMOS password. Compaqs have a thing where if you remove the CMOS battery, standby battery and main battery then start up the laptop from the power supply, it'll clear the passwords - I had to do that on my later Compaq Armada 7350MT.

While you're in there, I recommend taking off the top shell of the mainboard and removing the standby battery, then clean up any corrosion. My Compaq LTE Lite 4/25E is perma-dead thanks to that thing.

Thank you, i will try it this weekend.

Reply 5 of 5, by Thermalwrong

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Hmm, actually the CR2430 isn't soldered into place and it's got a little clip-in holder on the underside of the mainboard - you can get to it just by removing the aluminium mainboard 'box' from the plastic casing and it's accessible underneath.

To get to that you have to unclip the top case (starting with the modem/bay cover on the right), unscrew the keyboard and remove that. Then remove the hard drive and be very careful with the flex cable for the HD, those go brittle over time and from corrosion from the standby battery.
Watch some of this guy's videos to get an idea of what issues might crop up and how to disassemble it: https://www.youtube.com/@i80386sx/search?query=lte+lite

With the HD removed, then I think the floppy drive can be pulled out. The screen flex comes off by removing the screw and prying it gently, then you just need to remove the 4x screws for the hinges on the back.
Once those are removed, you can flip the board out to work on it.