My computer shut down windows to prevent damage from my computer

I've found it is highly unlikely to run an old DOS program in Win2000 so I have decided to setup an old computer with Win 3.1 and use it for my DOS software.

Here below follows the original driver download page from HP:

Compaq Armada e500 Notebook PC - Download drivers and software .

First, format the hard drive and make sure it is in FAT or FAT32 for Windows 98 install. Then do your partitioning etc and should work. If it doesn't, it is possibly a hardware fault.

Here is the site for the drivers for the laptop :

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=96717&prodSeriesId=96231&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093

Hope this helps in some way :)

Here's is the link just check it out

www.bio.ifi.lmu.de/~steiner/linux/131511-001.pdf

in this link see below u get all the details

www.eserviceinfo.com/index.php?what=search2&searchstring=Compaq+Armada+E500+and+Armada+V300

your product key may be on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop.

I think your boot record (Master Boot Record) is damaged and this can come from Windows just trashing itself as it is prone to do, or the hard drive has failed. That message is generated by the BIOS.
If you are running XP, this MS page will guide you:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
   

Try here & it's not a bad price either.
http://pchub.com/uph/laptop/38-4978-1511/Compaq-Armada-E500-HDD-Caddy-Cable-Adapter.html

Good luck & have a great day!

I JUST LET IT SET AND IT FINALLY SHUT DOWN ON ITS OWN AND WILL NOW POWER UP.

memory modules are under keyboard,you have to remove this first,1 hidden screw under(indicates a keyboard) and the 4 holds between the Fkeys(pull them down).Remove the keyboard and you''be able to see them....Chris/Greece

Simple things first: Assuming the CD drive is removable, remove it from the laptop then re-iinsert it making sure it's pushed home properly so that the connectors seat properly.

If, again, the drive is in a bay (i.e. it's removable) then it may be the connectors are worn/damaged. If it's the drive connector then it may be repairable or you might pick up another drive, perhaps on eBay. It may also be that the drive has simply given up the ghost - so back to eBay :) If the connectors on the laptop have got damaged then you're looking at dismantling the laptop to repair/replace them, if that's possible.

If it's an external drive then the advice is very similar - check out the connectors first. If they look OK then you probably have to suspect the drive itself.

For either type of drive, there is always the small chance that the IDE controller channel on the motherboard has died - I have seen this happen in rare cases. Your options then are a bit limited. IIRC, that PC has no USB2 and even if it did, it wouldn't boot from a USB CD. You can get a PCMCIA interface card (now called simply PC interface) for an external CD. Depending on the card-drive interface, you might be able to boot from that.

If you need to install software onto the machine & have another (desktop) PC to hand: remove the disc from the E500, get a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2" disc adapter & temporarily attach the drive to the desktop as a secondary (i.e. not boot) disc. You can then load software onto the drive although you can't do a Windows install that way. If the machine already has an old version of windows on it, you can copy for example, the XP install files onto the drive, put it back in the machine & run an upgrade. Not the most desirable result but may be OK.