what's broke?

[vicki lynne]

I had an older compaq computer brought to me the other day because "it quit getting video". When I got into it, it was caked with dirt all inside, so I cleaned it out as best I could and hooked everything back up. When I tried to get it to boot the monitor came on and showed a signal but it won't go any farther than to say compaq on the screen. No boot screen or bios or anything. Just compaq. Any idea what isn't working?

[Sylvander]

During startup hit "Esc" as soon as the splash screen shows [to close it] so as to display the POST information on screen.

Will the system boot from a bootable floppy or CD?

How far does startup get in 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
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You should hear a single short beep at about this point indicating the successful running/completion of the POST. Some PC’s beep much later, possibly as late as just before step 12.
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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.

[vicki lynne]

thanks, I'll get started on all this stuff and let you know when I see how far it gets me.

[vicki lynne]

I got all the way to step 3 in the boot up troubleshooter walk-through. If I hit escape as soon as I turn the computer on it tells me 246 mg ok in the upper left hand corner of the screen and a blinky cursor in the upper right hand corner of the screen and compaq below that. No bios, no error message, and no beep code. What's next?

[saphalline]

If this is an older system and it was caked with dirt, something tells me it hasn't been opened in a loooong time. ;) Try buying a new mobo battery at this point. Check it to make sure which type it is. Compaq went through a period of using a non-standard battery (squat little AA type normally used in film cameras).

After that, try reseating the RAM and expansion cards and all the cables a few times. Could just be a bad connection somewhere, especially if it was really dirty.

[vicki lynne]

woo-hoo!!!!!!!! I love it when a plan comes together!! O.k. this is what I finally had to do to make this thing work. After several mis-starts and almost starts, I finally decided to start again. I took the mobo out and cleaned it again with a little more attention to detail, a paint brush, and a chemical cleaner. Then I put in a new cmos battery, ( fortunately a regular one) and started re-attaching things one at a time, checking for connectivity and power as I went. It had been a very long time since it had been decased. When I finally hit bios it had a system rom date of june 2000. Anyway once I hit bios, I made a few minor changes, and it went ahead and booted to the hard drive just like a new one. What did I learn? To SLOW down, spend a little more time on the details the first time, and always to things one at a time. I wasted more time unhooking things to redo it than I would have spent doing it right the first time. Anyway, thanks folks for all your help, ideas, and patience. I very much appreciate all of you. Oh yeah I didn't get the bios beep code until external speakers and a sound card were attached.

[saphalline]

Hey cool! Congrats on getting it to work! There's no telling which step got it working, but I sometimes find it (or rather suspect it) to be a combination of things. And you're right, slowing down does indeed help tremendously. I bet you learned some valuable lessons today!

Now don't tell anyone or you'll get even more people banging on your door late at night wanting their computers fixed! :eek: