Compaq Presario Laptop Qusetion

I am working on a Compaq Presario 2100 laptop that wont boot passed the splash screen. It would hang up and after a while you would get a black screen with the words No Operating System Found.

1) At first I was able to get into the BIOS and set to boot from the hard drive first and was able to get into the system. From there I noticed the clock was over 10 hours off. This system had a number of applications that was slowing down the system, so I proceeded to delete a number of application software then went into msconfig and deselected all .

2) Once I restrted the computer I cant even get passed the splash screen anymore. Somtimes it takes me a number of tries before I can get into the BIOS.

3) Once in the BIOS I tried to reset the BIOS to default and changed to boot from CD. I then tried the restore CD, but I cant even boot from the DVD ROM.

4) I also noticed the BIOS was showing the Internal Hard Disk as NONE. I tried changing to AUTO, but it wont let me.

5) I tried removing the memory sticks one at a time, but the issue still persisted.

6) I now have the laptop apart and am looking for the CMOS battery. Does the laptops have one? If so does anyone know where it would be on the motherboard?

7) Should I test the hard drive? If so how can I do it.

Please anyone HELP!!!!!

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Comments

dynamik

Does it still hang up without the hd connected? If there hd is bad, sometimes it will keep trying to access it for a bit until it just finally gives up. If it's an ide drive, you can use something like this to hook it up to another machine to test it out.

KGhaleon

^I used those all the time at my last job. They go bad pretty quickly, but are excellent for hooking up laptop drives. I suggest hooking it up to a desktop PC and running a check on the drive using software from the manufacturer. On the manufacturer's website you will normally find a tool that will tell you whether your drive is going bad.

...of course, that's if you can even see the drive.

dynamik

KGhaleon wrote:

^I used those all the time at my last job. They go bad pretty quickly, but are excellent for hooking up laptop drives. I suggest hooking it up to a desktop PC and running a check on the drive using software from the manufacturer. On the manufacturer's website you will normally find a tool that will tell you whether your drive is going bad.

...of course, that's if you can even see the drive.

That's what a lot of the reviews said. I've only used mine once to get data off a friend's dead laptop, and it worked great. I just don't get it though; what goes bad? It seems like such a simple device..

www.spinrite.info is also a great disk utility.

KGhaleon

They just seem to stop working. The pins are easy to bend if you're not careful, so maybe we just wore them out. We were constantly plugging them in and out.

Kasor

Get a new laptop..., but make sure you take the HD out.