Compaq Presario Laptop Wont Boot

telecomops101

I have this Compaq Presario 2100 laptop that I cannot get passed the splash screen. I originally was able to get into the BIOS and change the boot sequence to boot from the hard drive first and was able to boot normally. From there I noticed the clock was over 8 hours off. (right away I was thinking the cmos battery was bad) After deleting a number of programs to alleviate the slow boot up, I restarted the machine and was never able to get passed the spalsh screen. I cant even get into the BIOS anymore, after a while I just get the message NO Operating System Found. I cant even boot the maching with the recovery CD, another XP cd or even the CD i use to boot a dead machine. Any suggestion, I am at a loss on this one. Thanks in advance for your help.

Lee H

Hi

Several things to try, just to rule them out as it could be a number of things


Try formatting the MBR of the hard disk, this is not done when u do the normal format u need to use the following switch

fdisk /mbr

Try putting in a known working laptop hard disk see if that boots up

I would rule out the hard disk before you look elsewhere, not sure how accesible the CMOS battery is but if hard disk is fine then i would replace it

Swap out memory with some thats known to work, process of elimaination with this sort of issue

Let me know if that helps or if you fixed it what was the problem


Lee H

telecomops101

How can I get to the dos prompt to execute the command? I am unable to get passed the spash screen. I cant even get the recovery, or another XP cd to boot??

Lee H

Hi

Use a windows 98 boot disk to get to the dos promt, this will give you fdisk too

This link will open the exe direct

http://files.frashii.com/~bootdisk/newjersey/boot98se.exe


Lee H

telecomops101

System dosen't have a floppy drive. Can I connect an external HP drive that I have?

Lee H

Sure give it a go, although you might need to change the boot order

telecomops101

I cannot get passed the splash screen to get into the BIOS. Any suggestions on alternative ways to get into the BIOS?

Lee H

You may need to flash the BIOS

In a PC you put a jumper in a certain position, or use a screwdriver to connect them, whatever and this reset the BIOS to factory default

Try taking out the memory and turn it on, thats another thought, you should get the beeps that mean missing memory

Same way take out the hard disk too and see what happens

Lee H