I was given a Presario to fix; it had been dropped on the edge and the power supply jack was damaged. I got a new jack, took out the old one and soldered in a new one.

Now, I've put the unit back together and when it gets past the HP screen, it will go to a blank, black screen and/or just shut down after a few minutes. Note that getting the motherboard to a point where I get at the power jack was a real 'pleasure'. I had a very difficult time of it and would still be trying to get everything apart except for a PDF I found for HP technicians.

When I was testing the machine after I had replaced the jack, I had the machine in a jerry rigged condition (meaning parts were hanging out and no screws had tightened components down) but everything worked correctly; the OS booted (XP), the screen was fine, I could access files and the mouse pad responded properly. The only problem was the sound didn't work and I found out from the owner that had been an issue beforehand. The speaker jack worked and I could use external speakers.

So, I put everything back together this morning. I then rebooted the system. I got the HP splash screen, a black screen with nothing on it and then nothing. I loaded an XP disk in and it booted successfully, but after a while it again shut down without warning.

I've checked the HP site and the best thing that seems to come up is memory reseating. I've done this and even tried memory from another Compaq. The same thing; black screen and/or shutting down.

I took the unit apart again to check for everything. I booted the machine with the cover off and I can see the fans working. To the touch the copper piping gets rather hot, but not what I can gauge as excessively hot.

So? Any hints or suggestions?

If it makes it past POST and doesn't make it to/past the windows splash screen, you might have a problem with your HDD (something may have happened, you never know). Try opening it back up to where it worked before and see if it still works fine that way, then reassemble it and kind of try and test it as you go (if you can, I'm not a big laptop guy so good luck!)

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