Hope sombody can offer some sage advice on this one. I have a Compaq Presario 5280 running Windows 98 SE. The machine was running fine until the wife decided to move the machine to another room. She insists that she didn't drop the CPU but suddenly it won't boot up.

When I start the machine it goes to the Compaq screen (before the Windows screen comes up). It appears to try booting first to the floppy drive. The floppy LED lights up and remains lit and the machine just stops. CTRL+ALT+DELETE won't even get it to reboot. I tried disconnecting the cable and jumper to the floppy drive but that hasn't resolved the problem. I tried using the Startup disk in the floppy drive, but it doesn't change the situation.

Any ideas as to what's going on?

Thanks, in advance, for any input. :)

Mike

Just to eliminate doubt; how far does it get through the following:

A typical and successful startup sequence
1. Start of Boot Troubleshooting Walkthrough
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/index.htm
2. Yes: The system power supply is functioning
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/power1.htm
3. Yes: Something is being written to the screen during boot up [This may be only a flashing cursor]
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/video1.htm
4. The video BIOS message is displayed on the screen for a few seconds and then clears from the screen, or more messages display under it
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/vbios1.htm
5. Yes: The system BIOS startup screen is appearing
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/bios1.htm
6. The memory test completes successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/ram1.htm
7. The BIOS accesses the floppy drives and the boot continues
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seek1.htm
8. The system is able to autodetect IDE devices successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/auto1.htm
9. The system is not Plug and Play compatible, has no Plug and Play devices, or has PnP devices but identifies them properly
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/pnp1.htm
10. Boot sequence is A: before C: (floppy disk first)
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seqAC.htm
11. The floppy disk makes a noise and the light comes on
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1.htm
12. The floppy disk light goes off and the hard disk light comes on as it starts booting
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1hdd.htm
13. The hard disk boot process will continue here, if you want to follow it.
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1.htm
14. The system continues booting from the hard disk and the message "Starting MS-DOS" or "Starting Windows 95" is displayed
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1os.htm
15. Operating System Loaded From Hard Disk. The system has found a boot sector on the hard disk and is now starting the load of the operating system. The hard disk is working. You have successfully completed the hardware part of the boot process. Any problems encountered after this point should be diagnosed by looking for a more specific problem with a component, or under the section that contains run-time error messages.

It gets to step three. It displays the Compaq screen and stops. If memory serves the BIOS screen would normally come next. It seems like it's trying to read from the floppy drive (which I believe it always does before reading from the C: drive). The floppy LED remains lit and the computer comes to a standstill.

I'm stymied.

Try hitting "Esc" to see what's behind the Compaq screen.

Unfortunately, that has no effect either. Still have a steadily lit floppy LED, the Compaq intro screen and a blinking cursor in the top left corner of the monitor. The machine remains unresponsive.

This comment has the possibilty of getting *someone* in trouble, but I have no idea how many people live at your house. The only time I've ever seen a floppy drive stay lit is when the cable connecting it to the motherboard is flipped upside down, on the end connected to the drive. It's consistent with what you're describing too. The compaq screen is flashed into the bios, so it would show up before going through with the post.

I personally recommend flipping the cable on the back of your floppy drive. If its upside down you won't do any harm. The drive light will just stay on and you won't be able to boot. :p

What are you referring to when you mention the "jumper" for the floppy? I've only ever seen jumpers on hard drives. My floppy drives only have had a connector for the cable to the motherboard, and a connector for power.

Its possible something was jarred loose from normal moving of the computer, and it may have already been coming a little loose when it was sitting in its old place. The cable could have accidently gotten inverted on the drive, while all the other steps had remedied the original problem.

Hmmm. I'll open the case again and have a look see. There's six of us in the house, but I'm pretty sure my wife banged it or something. (She'd never admit it though.)

RE: "jumper." My bad terminology -- I checked the ribbon cable and the smaller (I presume) power connector with several small wires attached to a small, rectangular, opaque plastic connector.

Okay. I took a look in the case again. I even tried reversing/turning over the ribbon cable (which, based on the bend in it, could not have been the problem), but the computer continues to go to floppy, light the LED and lock up. I've tried getting to the BIOS by pressing ESC, DEL, F1, F2, F12 and have not been able to get past the lockup with the floppy. Then I took a floppy drive from an old machine and swapped it out. When I booted, the same lockup occured with the new floppy.

Any ideas?

Replace the mobo battery. If it was moved and the current battery is dead, that might explain it. Otherwise, unplug and replug all cables and connectors to see if any of them were jarred loose by the move. Also, in order to see if anything in the BIOS is working, unplug all drives and see if a Compaq error message comes up - should say something like "drive configuration changed".

Sonofagun. You know, I read some of the other threads here before you replied and considered the battery. I pulled it and checked the voltage (2.83 V). So I bought another, rebooted with no battery, shut it down, installed a new battery (3.5 V, according to my multimeter) and -- wouldn't you know it -- the computer booted right up and now works great.

Thanks for all your help! I truly appreciate it.

Mike

Why are mobo batteries dying a lot lately? Maybe these problems come in batches... Weird stuff...

Oh, yeah, in any case, congratulations! :D Glad it worked out!