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I have a compaq presario with a Turion 64 chip and 1+GB ram in a 1024 stick and a 256 stick.

The laptop is only about 5 months old and I've never had any problems until now.

I recently got a blue screen (which I didn't read the error code as I used to see these all time on my old computer and thought it no biggie) and had to reboot....

But it won't reboot. at all... Once it gets past the initial Compaq screen it just hangs at a black screen. I have to press the power button to shut down. I can hear the power supply fan but nothing else. The hard drive light flashes briefly at the beginning but never again.

I can get to bios.. I can get to the selection screen to attempt safe mode.. but in all cases it hangs at the next black screen. Safe mode gets through 3 commands before it freezes.

I tried repairing windows and it booted off the CD, loaded a bunch of drivers into memory, and said 'starting windows' and froze up.....

I took it to circuit city to get the data off it and they were able to slave it just fine. He said he could access all the data. The dude said he thought it was a Mobo issue, but was guessing. In any case he thought the hard drive appeared to be fine...

Sorry for the long post. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Ken

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by alc6379

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Short, practical diagnostic path that builds on ’s warranty advice and the original symptom set from . If the machine is still under warranty, contact Compaq/HP first — opening the chassis or swapping parts can void coverage (keep notes of what you try). If you need to proceed yourself, start with noninvasive checks to separate OS/software problems from hardware failure.

Try these in order:

  • Power-reset: unplug AC, remove main battery (if removable), hold power 30 seconds, reconnect and try booting. In BIOS, choose Load Defaults and disable any fast-boot options.
  • Try booting from an external OS (Live USB/CD). If a Linux live image runs reliably, the problem is likely Windows/driver-related; if it also hangs, hardware is more likely. A current desktop ISO is here: Ubuntu Desktop.

Memory and drive checks (high-yield tests):

  • Test RAM one stick at a time and in each slot; bad RAM or a bad slot is a common cause of freezes. Run a full pass of MemTest86 from bootable media and leave it for several passes: Memtest86.
  • While the drive is slaved to another PC, run the manufacturer’s diagnostics or SMART tests. Use the drive maker’s tool (SeaTools for Seagate, WD Data Lifeguard for WD) or smartmontools. Example smartctl commands (on Linux) to view SMART and run a long test:
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdb
sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sdb

When tests are clean, the likely culprits narrow to motherboard/CPU/graphics or a corrupted BIOS. Don’t rush to flash the BIOS—only update it using the vendor’s exact instructions. If self-tests point to hardware or you’re uncomfortable opening the laptop, provide the test results to Compaq/HP support or a trusted repair shop for warranty service or confirmed replacement.

Member Avatar for alc6379

First of all, I'd be looking at some kind of warranty exchange thing going on. I presume you have a warranty, right?

it could be the motherboard. Without voidng the warranty, I'd remove as much from the system as you could, like the optical drive, the hard drive, RAM, wireless cards, etc. Be sure to remove any peripherals, too. Boot the machine up, and see if it gets you any further. If it does, put parts back in until it fails-- the last one you installed was probably the culprit. If it does the same thing with all those parts removed, then the tech was right-- it's probably a bad motherboard.

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