|older model (1998) computer...the Compaq partition has been lost.
| West_Ninja
|
It sounds like you have 2 problems.


|When I try to enter the BIOS setup, I get a blank screen.
|
Yup.  You already said you borked the Compaq partition.
You seem to have *some* grasp of what you're up against.
This is a pretty good description of what you have:
Usenet-Archive--BIOS-vs-bootloader

Once (if) you can boot to a floppy, you can reload the Compaq partition.


|The BIOS will not load Dos nor will it read CD's.
|
This is your real problem.
If you can't get it to boot to ANY disk, the fault is in hardware.
Probably on the motherboard.
Definately somewhere between your bootloader ROM and your disks.

This assumes that
1) the floppy/CD that you're putting into the drive(s) are bootable.
2) the drives don't make any noise like they're trying to spin up
and no lights go on on the drives.

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