Sorry -- when I said this: "Now, assuming I get that brief flashing cursor again next time I try it, then, to either get into the BIOS settings or boot from disk, I need to enter F-something, as the case may be, and I don't know what: F2, F7, whatever, so please advise (I have the latest Ubuntu version, but the BIOS would be basically that installed by the Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD, which Michael Fletcher kindly sent me)," I was talking nonsense. The BIOS by definition is in the firmware. I looked in the Compal JHL-90 Manual and the routine is to press F2 on start-up; the boot menu which would allow booting from CD is a sub-menu of the main BIOS menu.
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