After an apparent failed attempt to lobby the federal government for support, the Harvard Management Company (HMC) has written down to zero its multi-million dollar investment in a New York-based high technology firm that went out of business this week.

The demise of Hampshire Instruments Inc., which supplied equipment to semiconductor manufacturers, has prompted HMC to devalue its stake in the firm from about $5 million at the start of this fiscal year to nothing, according to several sources knowledgeable about the investment.

But Harvard's total loss from the investment over the last three years has been far greater, the sources said.

In 1991, when the management company's high-risk Aeneas portfolio suffered writedowns of more than $200 million, HMC devalued its nearly $24 million investment in Hampshire to $8 million.

A series of additional investments or loan guarantees since then might push Harvard's total loss into the $40 million range, one source said.

According to the source, the Hampshire writedown marks the largest loss sustained on any single venture capital investment in Aeneas' 18-year history.

But the $40 million estimate was disputed by Aeneas Managing Partner Scott M. Sperling yesterday.

"It was never valued at...[anything] close to that," said Sperling, who also serves as a member of Hampshire's board of directors. "It's less than one percent of assets, so it's not [a significant loss]."

Sperling would not say how much Hampshire had been valued at its peak.

He said the writedown was not important in the larger picture of Aeneas' investments and would not have much of an effect on the portfolio's performance in fiscal 1993.

"You don't like to lose at all, but the nature of the business is you will have losses," Sperling said. "It won't have a significant impact."

Gore Was Lobbled, Source Says

But one source said Sperling--who recently took time off from HMC to work for President Bill Clinton's election campaign--lobbied Vice President Al Gore '69 heavily to save Hampshire.

Sperling yesterday would not confirm any lobbying effort. "We just don't talk about those sorts of things," he said.

A spokesperson for Gore's office was unable to confirm the report last night.

The Hampshire loss comes at a tough time for HMC's private placements.