Hi Gary, if I remember correctly, I experienced this very same thing on my
daughters old 486. following the suggestion of some one on this list, a new
CMOS battery was the cure. This may work for you as well. Made sense since
the battery was err, about 7 years old!
Brad Loomis
Los Angeles, CA

An old 486 system I have recently started leaving messages when booting
up.  It stated "HDD Controller Error, press F1 to resume".  Hitting F1
worked a few times and I was able to get into the system but eventually, it
well and truly died and I could not get access to the hard drive.

Any other suggestions you might offer?

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