Thanks guys for the helpful responces. I did go again to the compaq site, got the setup info as instructed and it did indeed appear to do the job. Allowed me into setup, twice actually and looked good until I restarted a second time after each try. It again reverted to the old way of not allowing me in setup on f10, the time and date I set were lost on each restart. As I am running this a third time the thought occurred to me the battery might be dead and not allowing the comp to store this info. Does that sound reasonable? I am continueing to work on it, Thanks again for all help...Stop here..Apology in order..Servicegenie,you were right on,after the second startup, I double checked the jumpers. I had taken it off 1 & 2, put on 2 & 3, but had failed to return it to the 1 & 2 pins. It is now working good. Thanks, You guys are great, Sorry bout my stupidity. Doylejerry