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Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

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bclapper

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Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

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Mar 15th, 2008

My laptop won't boot, doesn't POST and am trying to see if it's terminal or prohibitively repairable. When powering up, it whirs, the fan starts and a few seconds later ( between 3 & 10) it shuts down never reaching the onscreen COMPAQ logo. Happened after a restart when I couldn't get a USB stick recognised and it never breathed life again

It beeped on one occasion at the beginning of 'the troubles' but I didn't note what the sequence was and it hasn't squeeked at me since

Have tried a new battery, no battery with AC only.
Have tried swapping RAM, no RAM, 1 Stick of RAM
Have tried a new hard drive, freshly formatted
Even tried booting from an XP disc - nothing works

I get nothing on the display so have no messages to report. All seemed fine until the last re-start. Am guessing it could be a failed CPU or motherboard which wouldn't make for an economic repair. Any suggestions?

Compaq Presario 2178EA (AMD)
Windows XP SP2
1 Gb RAM (2 * 512 Crucial)
20 Gb HDD

Thanks in advance

bc

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Re: Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

Mar 15th, 2008

yup, it could be a bad mobo, if that's the case then it's beyond economical repair..but anyway you can still have your RAM, HDD, and your processor.. but try to reseat your processor..make sure that the fan is properly seated.. check if it works..

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Re: Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

Mar 15th, 2008

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Originally Posted by bclapper

My laptop won't boot, doesn't POST and am trying to see if it's terminal or prohibitively repairable. When powering up, it whirs, the fan starts and a few seconds later ( between 3 & 10) it shuts down never reaching the onscreen COMPAQ logo. Happened after a restart when I couldn't get a USB stick recognised and it never breathed life again

It beeped on one occasion at the beginning of 'the troubles' but I didn't note what the sequence was and it hasn't squeeked at me since

Have tried a new battery, no battery with AC only.
Have tried swapping RAM, no RAM, 1 Stick of RAM
Have tried a new hard drive, freshly formatted
Even tried booting from an XP disc - nothing works

I get nothing on the display so have no messages to report. All seemed fine until the last re-start. Am guessing it could be a failed CPU or motherboard which wouldn't make for an economic repair. Any suggestions?

Compaq Presario 2178EA (AMD)
Windows XP SP2
1 Gb RAM (2 * 512 Crucial)
20 Gb HDD

Thanks in advance

bc

Try clearing the BIOS, remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then replace the battery and try again.

Also it could well be a thermal problem. I had a Compaq EVO N1015v brougt in to me for repair, it kept on shutting down at the Compaq screen. After probing around for with it for an hour or so I decided the CPU was getting rather warm (it was a mobile AMD 1700+) so cleaned the fans,vents and fins out, re-applied thermal paste and it booted fine.
AMD Athlon processors are power guzzlers and churn out a gut load of heat, they need to be kept as cool as possible. I regularly clean out my Athlon laptop just to keep the damn thing stable and the CPU running as cool as possible.

Hope that solves the issue for you mate.

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mattyprice4004 mattyprice4004 is offline

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Re: Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

Mar 15th, 2008

I know it sounds stupid, but my NC6000 did this the other day.

I tried everything to no avail- then turned it upside down and gave it a "good few hard knocks" to it's base (very hard lol!)

And it works well now, booted straight away. Good as a last resort, worked for me.

Good ol' HP!

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Re: Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

Mar 15th, 2008

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Originally Posted by techno t

Try clearing the BIOS, remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then replace the battery and try again.*

Is that a relatively easy step? I don't have an issue opening the chassis up, I just may be a bit limited on tools - 1 set of old precision screwdrivers

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techno t

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Re: Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

Mar 15th, 2008

on the n1015v it was by the modem, which was behind one of the back panels on the bottom of the case.

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Re: Compaq Presario - Won't Boot, No BIOS

Mar 15th, 2008

Been looking at the HP Service Manual and it requires a near full strip-out to get to the CMOS battery. Not sure I have that much confidence in not effin' something up if I go that deep.

Have also noticed that when AC is plugged in there is nothing from the 3 status lights at the front of the unit - Power Status, Hard Disk Activity or Battery Status. Caps, Num lock, trackpad and mute all light up with the power button itself for those few seconds of 'life'. Hmm!

The AC lead was tested for current and seems ok. As not even the charging light comes on could this be power related?

Last edited by bclapper; Mar 15th, 2008 at 11:07 am. Reason: spelling