While trying to get onto the network I keep receiving a "SIOCSIFFLAGS" error. I've read several times that the best way to fix this is to disable PNP in the BIOS, but my compaq 1700t's phoenix BIOS doesn't allow me to disable PNP or do much of anything. It was suggested earlier that I reflash the bios, so I had a compaq technician find me a download for an updated bios; it looks exactly the same, and I'm a bit suspicious. I don't get any new options with the update, so I can't disable PNP. After getting back on and talking to another technician, I was told that compaq's bios' are customized to already have PNP enabled and that there was nothing I could do short of finding someone in the area to install another version with some third party options.

Is there any other way to fix this problem? I can't help but feel very cheated by compaq.

DISCLAIMER I accept ZERO responsibility for any problems with your Compaq that you may encounter from doing what I am about to suggest.

Reformat, and reinstall.
When you reformat, you should (I dunno how recently this has been done - at least into 2002) see extra partitions on there, that you can't explain. Remove them. This is where Compaq puts their CMOS - on a hidden partition instead of a silicon chip.

You will lose BIOS funtionality, and it will be set to generic defaults (no PnP!)

Okay thanks.

What are the possible negative consequences to this though? Will the machine still boot first from the CD and recognize the correct time/date? That's really all that's in the BIOS right now. What else may be removed besides PNP?