How to upgrade compaq presario 1700 BIOS?
First check all your CMOS settings to make sure its showing the right information for your hard drive and everything. If thats fine and you can access DOS, then do a format and partition the hard drive to get it ready to have the OS installed. And if you have to re-program the ROM either get it from the manufacturer of the ROM chip online, or get it from Compaq website for that preticular model. If you are still having problems with the cd drive then it might be the connection or a problem with the motherboard. At this point take it to a computer technician/repair man/specialist so they can dig deeper and tell you exactly whats wrong.
A bios update usually isn’t needed and is unlikely to be the problem, you said the old cd drive had a problem, was the removed drive tested? it could be an issue with the laptop itself and not the cd drive. It is also possible that the new cd drive could be faulty. The install disk might be defective, test it on another system. Put the old hard drive back, boot the os and see if you can burn a cd with the new cd-rw drive. The thrid option is to remove the the hard drive and leave only the cd drive in the system, if the disk boots then its a bios setting problem.
