Compaq Presario 4716 Cant Get Past Logo

[SCHAVIS]

Hi I Am So Glad I Found This Board, First Let Me Say I Do Not Know Alot About Computers, But I Learn Quicklyand Follow Directions Well, I Have A Compaq Presario 4716 With Windows 95. The Computer Sat For Along Time Without Ever Being Started Up. My Friend Started It And Tried To Update The Win To 98. After Doing This It When You Turned It Off And Back On It Would Ask If You Wanted To Save Chgs Or Ignore, It Did Not Matter Which You Picked It Would Stay At The Compaq Logo Screen With The Prompt, I Used My Restore Disks To Restore And All Was Well. When I Turned It On Again, Guess What! We Are Back To The Compaq Screen, Only This Time When I Try To Restore I Get To Two Areas One Is With This Msg Setup Cannot Install Win, The 2nd Is Does Not Have A Hard Disk Or Hard Disk Not Functioning Correctly, Or Hard Disk Requires A Special Device Driver, Contact Computer Vendor For Asst. I Contacted Compaq Now I Guess Hp, They Told Me To Change My Bios, But I Cant Get To Bios, Then They Told Me To Dwnload A New Win Disk From A Blue Volcano Website, I Did, This Did Not Work Either,i Can Get To A C Prompt So They Told Me To Type In Window\options\cabs And Then Enter, Then Setup And Enter, None Of This Has Worked, I Have Once Gotten To The Win Start Up And Then When I Put The Win Disk In It Gives Me The Error Msg Above. I Think My Restore Disks Are Corrupt, When I First Purchased The Computer I Had To Get New Ones Because The Ones That Came With It Were Corrupt. Is It Possible To Get New Restore Disks For This Computer Or Do I Have A Major Problem. Any Help You Can Offer Would Be Most Appreciated And Please Remember I Am Computer Illeterate! Thank You And God Bless! Susan

[Catweazle]

Hiya Susan.

I suspect that the little battery in that PC is dead, and it can no longer retain the information about what the bits and pieces in it are!

I'd suggest you drop it into a PC store for their technicians to check it, replace the battery if necessary, and configure it for you. That should cost you no more than a standard service fee, and will determine for you if that very old PC is worth persevering with or not.

[SCHAVIS]

Thank You I Thought That Might Be What I Needed To Do. Will Be Back To Let You Know What They Said!
Susan

[Catweazle]

Moved to the appropriate forum section. Tech questions should be posted on the Tech related forum sections.

Please don't type with capitals for every word like that. It's FAR too hard to read.

[SCHAVIS]

Thank You and I am sorry I wont do it again!