Compaq Presario wont turn on

I was surfing the web and listening to a cd. My compaq froze up I tried to hit control alt delete but it wouldnt shut down. I tried to shut it down by the tower but it still wouldnt shut down. I had to unplug the computer. Now it wont start back up at all. What would be some of the reasons a computer wont turn on? How can I fix this? Thanks Jules

Hello,
Does the computer Actually Power on? (Fans running lights blinking) If Not check your power plug, if its plugged in your Power supply maybe bad. If it does turn on does it lock up when booting Windows ME? If so try booting in to Safe Mode using the F8 key right before the splash screen appears during your boot. If you get your machine to start this way, run Scandisk, and other diagnostic utilities on your hard disk to rule out bad hard disk. Also if you have any Anti-Virus Software make sure you run this (and that its up to date) to make sure you dont have a virus corrupting any of your system files. Once youve done this try booting your system normally if it comes up great if not then you may have to try a restore if you have restore disks also if you find a bad component and your still under warranty call support and get this part replaced. I hope this quick troubleshooting helps if so please dont forget the points And I wish you the best of Luck

Thanks for the quick reply. Unfort for me. No lights or whistles it wont do anything when I turn the power on absolutely nothing. I am not under warranty anymore either. Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks, Jule

Have you checked the fuse in your plug top. If you take the mains lead off the back of your PC and put it onto your monitor does it then turn the monitor on/off. Alternatively if you know someone with a mains voltmeter get them to check the supply value at the plug in mains lead where it connects to your PC. Is the socket itself working or has its fuse blown. Have you tried plugging the pc into a different socket

Two possible solutions of which I am aware: 1) if the power supply has a 120 / 240 volt switch unplug the power supply, switch the voltage input to 240V for a moment then switch it back to 120V and plug it in; or 2) (this just happened to me a few days ago - my heart stopped for a moment) the button inside the machine that is activated by the external power button pushed out of its holder - therefore the external power button had no effect...the "button-holder-dealie" can be either replaced or glued. Further, as the others have said check the power supply and cord. Inside, check the switch function and ensure that the switch lead is still inserted into the motherboard

Not sure what your mains voltage is but if its 240v OK to do as suggested but if its 120v be very careful because there could be a problem if the Presario uses an auto transformer to produce the internal voltage before rectification. Is there a fuse inside the PC itself which has blown, possibly glass cased type rated at 500mA or 1A. On a Presario I once used you had to switch the switch at the back of the tower off and back on again to reset the PC after it went into "Sleep" mode

Hello again just a quick note I would like to add that if the power supply went bad that you should be able to still get a replacement from Compaq *HP* even though your out of warrenty this may or may not be a cheap fix. Once again I wish you the best of luck

I recently was asked to help my nephew with his Compaq Presario 1200. The 1200 wont power on. The ac adapter shows a green light and the light on the 1200 that indicates external power is on but there is no activity, i.e. no fan, disk spin up, video, etc. I have removed the battery and held the power switch down for 15+ secs which didnt help. The battery charge indicator on the battery shows no charge. I plugged the 1200 ac adapter in and used a multimeter to test the internal connetors for the battery and they have voltage on them. Unfortunately I have no documentation so I can only research online. A question, will the 1200 power on with no battery or with a completely dead battery? Its my guess it should. I can find no fuse, internal or external. I have disassembled the 1200 to the point I am comfortable, but cant get to the very back where I am guessing the power supply is. The power switch looks to be operating properly. The 1200 had no pcmcia cards or additional memory to get loose. Everything else seems to be tightly in place.

Any ideas appreciated

Joel:

Try removing the battery and powering on with just the AC adapter.

Roge

Joel

We have the same model in the shop with the same initial problem; wouldnt turn on. Removing the battery allowed it to boot and it is running without *any* battery in it.

...bwelki

I am having the same problem as Joel, it seems. When I turn on my laptop (complete with new power cord and battery, because I thought that might be the problem), the floppy drive makes a noise, but nothing else happens. The caps lock and num lock have no effect (i.e. no lights come on). If I put the startup disk in the computer, the floppy stops making the noise, but still nothing else happens. Any thoughts

Im haviong the same problem with my Compaq presario 1200 laptop. The green light that indicates external power is on, as is the green light on the AC adapter. Nothing comes on when I press the power button, no fans, disk spin up, etc

Lissa and Kathryn:

Have you both tried removing the battery and re-testing?

Roge

I have a Presario 1277 and it is doing this also. It doesnt work with or without the battery. The battery is showing decent voltage with a multimeter. I had jsut fully charged the battery in the system before powering off. Now it wont power on at all.
Sounds like a common Presarion 1200 issue??
Any help from the experts?
What do we do next?

Thanks,
Ric

System: Presario 1200XL-111
Im having the EXACT same issue...No post, just redundant floppy noise. It keeps checking the A: drive, but will not respond to inserted diskette.

Ive tried removing the battery and all sorts of power-cycle options to no avail.

Im not even getting a cursor on the screen, its completely blank...

Please advise

i also have the same problem with a presario 12xl laptop but even when i connect the mains i get nothing at all lighting up but when i connect the mains to the laptop it arcs across for a momen

I, too, have the problem others have listed here, with a Compaq Presario 1200...
turn it on, and it hits the diskette drive, but no POST, no screen activity..and a boot diskette in the drive doesnt really get accessed..the system goes quiet after that...

I, too, would like to know from an HP person about this...

Hi everyone:

The only complete model number I was able to extract from this thread was 1200XL-111. The maintenance manual for that product implies that POST does not run by default? Here is a procedure to run POST. Everyone with this problem should try this to see if it may amplify our limited knowledge base.
"To run POST, complete these steps:
Turn off the notebook, then turn it on again. As soon as the Compaq logo appears press the
ESC key to clear the logo and display the POST messages as they occur.
If the notebook does not beep, POST has successfully completed its test and detected no
errors. POST then re-boots from the hard drive, or from a bootable diskette if one is
installed in the diskette drive."

Thanks!

Roge

Sorry everybody:

I just realized that no one can run POST because you never get the Compaq logo, right?

I have one question; does the fan run in these systems? Its in the center at the rear.

Thank you!

Roge

Hello again everyone:

Here is a procedure which I believe holds a lot of hope for solving your problems. It documents a method to remove the RTC battery for 30 seconds and re-inserting it. I suggest amending the procedure by installing a new battery in lieu of re-inserting the original battery. You should be able to find one in most camera/computer stores. Its a CR2032 battery.

"Clearing the Power-On Password
(Removing/Replacing the RTC Battery)
Note: Clearing the Power-on password also removes all notebook Setup attributes that are programmed in the CMOS.
If you do not know the password, clear it by performing the following steps:
1. Turn off the Notebook.
2. Disconnect the power cord.
3. Remove the battery pack.
4. Remove the Palmrest cover with the TouchPad.
5. Remove the Heatspreader.
6. Remove the keyboard.
7. To clear the password, remove the RTC battery 1 for 30 seconds and replace it.
8. Reassemble the notebook.
9. Turn on the notebook to verify that the power-on password has been cleared. If it has not been cleared, repeat Steps 1 through 9."

This procedure is documented with a drawing in ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/supportinformation/consumerdocs/MaintServcGd/1200XL101-127.pdf

HTH!

Roge

hi roger
in answer to your first reply no the fan does not spin and the model number of my laptop is 12XL203

and to your second reply i have done this already and also replaced battery with a new one and it still does not work

any other ideas myself i think it may be a power problem on the laptop itsel

Perhaps one of you could volunteer to test the procedure in my last post (preferably someone with a Presario 1200 with the floppy drive noise symptom). Id prefer to not have dozens of people angry with me if it turns out not to work. =:^)

Thanks!

Roge

Mark:

I guess our messages crossed. Do you have the floppy drive makes noise symptom or is it just dead. I suspect there may be 2 different manifestations. If youre not getting the floppy noise (and perhaps even if you do), the Voltage Converter 3C Board, P/N 352891-001 may be a good candidate for replacement. Unfortunately, if its not that, its likely the System Board or CPU!!

BTW, the procedure I entered in a previous post has an additional step for your system. Immediately after re-inserting the battery, it says: "Simultaneously make contact with the two pads located at R37 on the system boarding, using a conductive piece of material such as a piece of wire or tool."

Hope something here helps.

Roge

Well, it seems that a great many of us are having exactly the same problem with Compaq Presario 1200.

Heres what Ive done (all with no results):

I have removed battery and power cord (in fact, replaced both). I have opened the thing up and replaced the little internal battery (sorry I dont know the more technical name). I have disconnected everything except the keyboard and screen, to see if it was a problem with the drives. None of this has helped. The computer is still doing nothing. The power comes on, the battery will charge, the floppy drive still makes its floppy-drive-noise, but the screen stays blank. I also tried plugging in an external monitor and an external keyboard, and had no response there either. All I can think of at this point is to replace the motherboard, and Im not sure it would be worth the trouble. I might go to the trouble if I can find a very inexpensive motherboard. Im not an expert at these things, so I dont want to go spending a lot of money just to fiddle with something that might not ultimately work anyway. Of course, if someone else having similar problems does finally solve the problem, Id love to hear about it. I did discover that when the problem first occurred the computer was plugged in to a wall outlet and not via a surge protector. Im wondering if a power surge of some kind could have caused the problem

To Roger:

In the process of doing everything I have done, I am sure I have followed the procedure you described. No results

Lissa:

Thanks for the great input. I havent brought it up here but Ive been wondering since around the second day if these machines had environmental damage. Thats one of the reasons I lean towards the Voltage Converter Board.

If any of you lives near Gainesville, FL, Id love to get my hands on one of these.

Keep us posted!

Roge

Hi all,
Ive read all of the suggestions and have tried them all. I have a Presaio 1277. The power light comes on the power supply and on the laptop but, no luck when hitting the power button. If any one has a suggestion (other than a new motherboard , which I figure is the problem anyways) Id surly appreciate it.
Thanks
Aaro

Roger,
I also have the exact same problem, and have tried all the suggested fixes. I have a Presario 1200xl-104. Floppy sits and spins, fans come on,no video, hdd accessed but no read sound, no beeps all. I am shocked to see how many other compaq users have this problem. The only thing good about that is hopefully compaq/hp will find an answer. Thanks for your help

I turned my presario 1200us notebook computer off and took the battery out. Everything had been running smoothly and I had shut down properly. I put it back in, hit the power button and...nothing. The only sign of life in the computer is that the one green light lights up when you plug the power in the back. I havent taken the back off the thing yet. I just got this computer as a gift 3 days ago. The disk drive doesnt even spin - that lonely green light is the only sign of life

Travis:

Have you tried pressing and holding the power button for 5 seconds or more?

Roge

Have Presario 1200-XL118 which developed the identical startup problem approx. a month ago.

Owners manual troubleshooting section refers to a "keyboard controller" issue; to remedy such symptoms one must... disconnect the A/C power supply, remove the battery and wait 10 minutes. Afterwards, re-energize and the unit should boot properly.

Have successfuly employed this technique several times... until today. Now the unit fails to respond to this remedy

My Compaq Presario desktop purchased in June 2001 is having the same problem -- it will not power up out of sleep mode. The green light on the tower comes on but thats it -- no other sign of life. Just wanted to throw this into the mix in case it helps isolate the problem since it is something affecting both Presario laptops and desktops. Any suggestions for fixing this

Roger,
If you want to try one of the boards I have just let me know. BTW: Still no luck getting the 1277 to fire up.
Aaro

Aaron:

Do you mean the Voltage Converter boards? Did you replace it and that didnt fix the problem?

Roge

Roger,
No I didnt replace the voltage converter board. But, I did get another motherboard (simular style). This one at least I can hear the hard drive spin but, still not booting. Where as the previous motherboard I had didnt even power anything.
If theres any recommondations on how to fix this Id be more than happy to listen.
Aaro

I have a Compaq Presario 1200 XL 103 notebook doing the same thing.

When plug in AC power, the power light is on. The notebook willnt boot. No cooling fan, hard disk or floppy disk drive activities. Tried all the trick messioned in the ealier messages, but no fix.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Ba

I also have the same problem with a 1200 xl118. The only exception was while I was trying to test the voltage of the battery while the power supply was plugged in the battery charge light came on and I was able to boot, Just that once. Now it is back to the same old green light no power

Smells like a bad motherboard, you should call the problem into HP for a swap.

Ji

Hi everyone,
I too have the same problem. My computer will not turn on at all. In the past I was able to take out the battery and put it back in and it did start. Now not a thing, except the lonley green button showing it is plugged in. I NEED the info in the comuter desperatley. I have another presario 1200 which I am on. I tried that battery and still would not start up. What can we all do about this? It is obvious that this is a defect.Can we all do something together to get this rectified

You might have a dead power supply, but the motherboard could be OK. You need to get a new power supply installed.

Ji

Hi Everyone

I just finished a testing and what to share with you.

I have a Compaq Presario 1200 XL 103 notebook.

When plugin and switch on the power supply, the AC power light (green) is on and notebook will not boot.

The test I have done.

Take the battery out and unplug the power supply. Leave like that for 4 days. Still left the BATTERY OUT, plug in the power supply. The AC power light (green) is on, switch on the notebook, the power light (the first green light on the left) is on. The notebook make some noise (maybe floppy drive, but there is no display on the LCD screen.

When I plug in the battery, the battery light is on, but the notebook is not booting, only make some noise.

AFTER plug in the battery, when you switch OFF and ON the AC power, the notebook went back to the old state that is switch on the power supply, the AC power light (green) is on and notebook will not boot.


It seems that the problem is related to the battery, power supply or suggested by previous post the power management problem.


Regards

Ba

As described previously, have a Presario 1200-XL118 (running WIN 98 SE) with the same "failure-to-start" problem.

The "de-energize" method described in the owners manual (remove battery and disconnect converter/charger) worked initially but subsequently became ineffective. The battery and converter/charger are functional.

Multiple attempts to start following de-energized periods of various times greater than 10 minutes were unsuccessful.

Finally, after a 4 day period with no power, the converter/charger (without battery) was reconnected; the unit booted successfully on the first start attempt. Compaqs onboard system diagnostics revealed no faults nor were any located during a comprehensive search using Norton Systemworks 2002.

The power management setup was then entered and the hibernate and suspend features were disabled. The system was then successfully powered down and restarted numerous times. The unit has operated flawlessly since these features were disabled.

Perhaps someone else can confirm the efficacy of this technique

Hi Jamie,
Ill try it and see what happens. Ill let you know.
Thanks for a possible solution.
Aaro

Jamie -- thanks for the note. But many of us cant even get THAT far in order to change the mentioned features....

Has anyone, with this problem, tried changing the power converter board and gotten positive results

Well, it quit working again. Quess eliminating the hibernate/suspend feature wasnt the answer.

Is replacing the keyboard controller a do-it-yourself job

Hi Everyone,

My computerfinally started up this morning. I was elated!!! I was writing a letter and it froze up. I had no choice except to unplug the computer as escape. ctrl/Alt?del did not work. Back to the same problem again...just the lonley green button. Has anyone suggestions?
Thank-yo

I tried replacing 352891 to no avail

With this huge post ongoing, Im coming to the conclusion that there is a quality problem with the Presario 1200 XL 103. I think the HP staff should rally up with this issue. I think realibilty should always be the most important factor with laptops. And customers perceiving otherwise will ruin HP reputation over the long run.

If the lights green, but it never turns on, can we say there is a motherboard problem? Bad power might have blown these boards too, so surge protection is becoming more and more important.

Also on a shutdown, holding the on-off button in for 10 seconds can shutdown a unit, but this might not be the case here.

Ji

RED ALERT! What are the chances that Doug Howards solution might fix more/all of these machines. Anyone game to try? Or test with a multimeter for voltage drop across the connection he re-soldered?

According to Travis, you could be saving someones life. (BTW Travis, 99% of the people volunteering to help you in these forums are NOT HP employees. If they are, there will be a little HP logo near their names)

Roge

Roger -- Ill give it a try tomorrow. But its unclear if my symptoms match Doug Howards....

Doug -- did you get any diskette drive activity, lights, etc. ?

Or was the system simply dead until you tested the soldering

I took apart my daughters Presario 1200 XL111 to replace a broken external power jack on the main board and after assembling the computer it wouldn???t power up. I poked around with a voltmeter and discovered that the solder connection at the power on switch located on the main board was bad. During manufacturing there was not enough heat applied to flow solder into the through hole mounting connection. I re-soldered the connection and now it works perfectly

I know nobody here works for Compaq - youre all trying to figure this out like I am... Im going to send my computer to a service center and have it fixed - I plan to call around to them next week

Hi
I also have the same power on issues. Presario 1200XL101. Initally the problem occured occasionally. Eventaully I had to remove the battery to be able to turn it on. This worked fine for a few weeks. Now even with the battery out I just get green power light and no fan or any other activity.
But if I didconnect all power and wait for anything between 10 minutes and 2 days it will then power up.
I have dismantled to looked at the power switch but it looks to me as if it is a sofware control switch in which case you would expect to have as many problems powering down as turning on. This is not the case. It always powers down straight away.
I also considered whether the switch that monitors whether the screen was open or closed could cause the problem?? any thoughts?
I guess while I can still get some life out of it its time to back everything up.
Has anyone heard anything useful from HP?
Thanks

Stev

I have just found a ROM update which says that it fixes an occassional problem when it takes more than one button press to start the laptop - could this be a related issue? (I can hear you saying that you have pressed more that a couple of times!)
I am pretty sure that I already have this updated but it might help some people - thats assuming you can turn it on some how.....
Look at:

http://www29.compaq.com/falco/sp_detail.asp?Model=1479&Div=4&Os=0&SoftwareVer=14877

Stev

Roger

I took my presario 1220XL101 apart to look at the soldererd main switch. All looked OK and the idea of me attemting to resolder would definately destroy the motherboard!!

However I put it back together think that I may try Compaq/HP to get it fixed...

Now it seems to work fine. I have turned it off and on many times.

The only thing that I can think of is a poor connection on somewhere.

Ill let you know how it goes.

I thought that the small circuit that the battery terminal pushed onto was a particulary poor design - maybe it was this

Not just the 1200 series, a 14xl250 Im working on just went too.

I was configuring windows xp when the keyboard and mouse pad froze. The power button didnt work to shut the unit off anymore. I unplugged power and pulled the battery. Low and behold, the unit will not power on anymore. But the green plug light will light up when AC/DC power is plugged into the notebook.

I am about to try the battery out (Li-ion rechargeable) for a period of time solution. Hopefully this does it

This seems to be a common issue now...any new advice from anyone?..I have a Presario 12XL400 that just never powered back up after a normal shutdown...now when the power button is clicked, theIt acts as if it wants to power up for about 2 seconds...the floppy makes a quick whirrr...and then just back to the green flashing charge light and the AC connected light...nothing...Can someone advise further?

Thanks...

I to have this Problem, Same as above Presario1200 XL106

I have dismanteld and put it back together, I have decharged everything, removed upgraded RAM and still the problem. Green light indicates that it is plugged in however thre is no response from the power button.

PS

This began to happen in its last month of warranty I took it to the store where i bought it and the rep said "its a normal thing just push the buttin harder, becuase if I send it to the manufacturer and they manage to turn it on the first time, they will box it up and ship it back with out looking into it further." of course it got worse as soon as the warranty fully expired.

Brate

same problem here, we 8 presario 1200 - model 1215 in the last 3 weeks 5 off them have all started dieing with the same problem. green power light, no activity, no display. just waiting for the other 3 to go. all hp/compaq can tell me is send it in, probally the motherboard. $700.00 repair on a laptop 5 months out of warranty. not worth it when you can get a new one for a couple 100 more. Is this hps tatic to get everyone to upgrade to the new ones just after your warranty expires

one other quick note, describe problem in more detail. Green power light, green ac light, fan is running, no diskette/hard drive activity, no display, hard drive is spinning up. tried external monitor and keyboard, no change. hel

hum... I have a Compaq Pesario 9456. It will not turn on. Nothing no lights fan dosnt spin tried everyting nothing works i dont know what to do

Same Green Light problem with my Presario 12XL500, nothing happening, will try removing batteries but am not optimistic.

This looks like a defect from Compaq that they will deny. But have ever noticed that HP stuff usually breaks after 2 years anyway

I removed the battery pack and rebooted up, now it works, the question now is whether the battery pack should be replaced or is that just a waste of money

Hi all the unlucky ones

This post gives you not solutions to our problem. They are just some test results I got.

I tried taking out the battery for a week and it did not help.

I take the notebook apart, virtually every thing except the motherboard. I then clean the contact of the cables and put back floppy, hard drive, cd-rom, keyboard, LCD display and palmrest. I did not put back modem, voltage convert board and offcourse the battery.

Now when I try to switch on the notebook by press the power button, the power cord light on and the power light on. The floppy driver makes some noise, the hard disk spin up and CD-ROM received the power. But there is not display and CPU fan is not on.

So it seems confirmed that it is the power, or BIOS problem. It also looks like a design or manufacture problem to me.

Regards


Bai Zho

Hi Everyone

Following the about post, I carried out the following testing. After take everything apart, I basically put everything back, except the battery pack.

When I push the power button, the power cord light on and the power light on.
There are floppy disk, hard disk activities, but there is no display and keyboard activity. When I put battery back and power on, the power cord light on, battery charging light and the power light are all on. CPU cool fan will start, but there still not display and keyboard activity.

It seems that there is not enough power for the notebook to start. From the power cord light on only to all three light on and all these activities, the cause maybe because I clean the all the connectors and reduce some of the resistance. Some components have enough power, but there is still not enough power for the LCD monitor and keyboard.


There maybe some substandard parts around the power supply unit cause this problem. Most of these notebooks are out of warranty. I am worried that Compaq will not do anything. We are luck if they want to fix the problem with a reduced fee.

Bai Zho

Has anyone had any success with fixing the power-on problem.... Has HP/Compaq made any statement

From what I hear, its a new power control module. My problem is with a 14xl series board and those things are built onto the system board. And a system board is a $700 CAD with swapout from HP/Compaq.

If the 12xl series are similar, then it may be the motherboard.

However, if youre lucky enough that the 12xl has a separated power control module (a board for where the DC supply plugs into system and then joins up via a wire with the system board), then it may be an under $100 piece to replace.

Im looking and waiting around for somewhere to take in a dead 14xl system or simply find the board somewhere surplus.

Best of luck

No Luck
The Compaq Presario 1200 XL 103 I got, everything are built-in on the board. Look like I have to put it in the bin.

Bai Zho

Look online. A system boad ought to be in the $400USD range.

Its amazing. A used laptop can go for around $700.

A new screen would be $1000 and a motherboard around that range too

I had that problem with my Compaq Presario 1200. It seems there is a problem with that model. due to heat the CPU comes loose. Try exposing the CPU and pressing it in. It works in my case. However, once this starts to happen the frequency of having to do it increases. I have yet to find a permanent fix. It seems this is a design problem

I have been in contact with Compaq.

They think that the problem is one of 2 things:

Either the Voltage converter and at Australian$115 it would be worth it ??? if it worked. But Travis, earlier on the thread, said that he had tried this and has no effect.

Secondly the system board ??? at Au$1200 I cannot imagine why anyone would pay this sort of money for and older board. May as well get a new laptop for a bit more. I can only think that there are going to be a lot of boards piled up on the parts shelves

I agree Steve...I think I will replace the Power Board on my 12XL....and see if that helps..

i also am suffering from the same presario problem as listed above...
patient:compaq presario 1200 laptop
Symptoms:Battery at full charge, power to the machine, Bat. and Power LEDs light up, Fans turn on, and drives kick over

But NO POST, NO VID, NO BOOT

steps taken: Reseated CPU, Cleared CMOS via Battery removal, attempted boot on external monitor and keyboard, attempted boot w/ battery removed, attempted boot with both power and full battery, attempted boot with battery only, replaced RAM/power supply/battery

If anyone has any other suggestions they would be greatly appreciated-this is a friends computer that started manifesting these conditions during a visit to my hous

just ran through the tech documents linked at the begining of this thread .... just a thought?? has anyone thought that the DIP switches may have been jostled during disassemle/reassemble? would this cause the no post that were looking at

I have the same problem with my Presario 1200XL125.

Problem start 2 days ago...right before i got a chance to send my email, the screen froze. I have to disconnect the power cord and battery to power the labtop down (my labtop and workstation connected to the same power backup unit). After I connect everything again, nothing happen. All I have is the green LCD indicate that power supply is inserted.

I dont know if this will help...but when the machine froze, I have 4 LED on....from left to right...Power on LED, Battery indicator, Power cord indicator, and the last one...i dont know what it called...a Lock with an arrow down inside it.

Regards

I have a Presario 1200 that never powered back up after a normal shutdown...now when the power button is clicked, it acts as if it wants to power up for about 2 seconds...the floppy makes a quick whirrr...and then just back to the green flashing charge light and the AC connected light...nothing...Can someone please help

Thanks in advanc

could this be the answer were looking for?

http://bizforums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x9800595fae8bd711abdc0090277a778c,00.html

My 12XL500 is now running fine but without the battery pack, with the battery pack inserted I get just the green light despite being plugged in

Jonathan:

Thatsounds like a bad battery. Check the metal charging contacts. If theyre dirty or oxidized, try cleaning them (rubber eraser usually works fairly well). Do the contacts on both the battery and the laptop, then insert the battery and let it charge overnight and see if it will power the computer before you replace it.

HTH!

Roge

Hi Everyone

I take the board out and inspect the power jack attachment to the board. The solder joint looks OK to me. I resolder them anyway, but the notebook still refuse to boot with a lonely power cord light on. It seems that there maybe more than one problems on the mainboard or the power supply.

Bai Zho

Hi everyone,
its half a year Im trying to fix this same problem (I can see only the plugged supply led lit, no whir, no noise, no activiy at all...).
Ive posted many questions in the Compaq Customer Community and receveid kind answers, but without luck.
Now Ive read the post at http://bizforums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x9800595fae8bd711abdc0090277a778c,00.html and thats the only thing it remains to try for me: resolder the power jack onto the mobo...
Ive tried to remove the RTC battery and clear the CMOS, Ive tested the voltage onto the main plug and onto the battery charger pins: all seems to be OK... And someone wrote it could be simply a malfunctioning power switch: surely that isnt. Ive also tried to reset the system by pressing the switch for 30+ seconds or tapping onto the F5 button while switching on

Hi Everyone

I get my notebook boot up last night. After the job I have done before, please check the early post, I remove the CMOS battery for a week. Installed the battery, clean all the cable connector and reconnect all the cable. Reseat the CPU, MAKE SURE CPU IS PUSHED INTO ITS POSITION (Which I failed to do so last time). The notebook is boot up OK. I downgrade the firmware with SP13167. The notebook boot up OK again this morning. Re sold the power socket maybe the key to the solution.


Regards

Bai Zho

I am also experiencing this problem with my Compaq Presario 1200 (12XL125). When plugged into AC power the AC light is green but no other activity. I had it unplugged with the battery out for 1 week while I was waiting for a new battery to arrive and when I plugged in the new battery it did boot up and work for 2 days and then the same thing happened with the new battery. I believe there is a user on here named Roger that wanted to know if anyone was in the Gainesville, FL area. I live in Gainesville, FL. and would love to figure this out, even though I plan to buy a new laptop tonight

I also have the same problem with my Compaq Presario(12XL125). When the problem first occurred (AC LED only and wont turn on), I brought it to a licensed Compaq repair shop where they called me an hour later and said it was working fine. Of course, after I picked it up and started running it, it locked up and I could only shut it down by removing the battery and unplugging the AC cord. It was back to the same symptoms (AC led on and wont turn on). I then smacked it around a little out of anger, and the piece of crap started working again. It sure seems like a loose solder joint somewhere. Ive noticed whenever I do get it to turn back on, the cooling fan will stop before it hangs up and goes back into its failure state. As a matter of fact, if I power it on with the AC adapter plugged in and I remove either the AC adapter plug or the battery, the cooling fan will stop turning. If I dont shut it down, it will go back into the AC led on and wont turn on state after hanging due to overheating.

Has anybody had any luck replacing the power module? I havent opened it myself to check the solder joints because Im afraid Ill break the plastic clips on the LCD monitor. Are there instructions online on how to open the notebook without causing damage

Hi!!!

I searched the web for a solution to the problem and came across a site which showed some guy having the same problems and his procedures to dismantle the presario and solder the power connector :
http://dc_pchelp.tripod.com/1675.html

Compaq also has a website on describing how to disassemble the Presario :
http://www5.compaq.com/athome/support/msgs/1270-1675/

I havent had a chance to try this yet and I hope to have helped some of you.
Be mindful of your warranty before proceeding.

Good Luck to you .......and me!!

Hi Everyone

After all the things I have done before, the laptop has worked for a week and everything went back to nomal. It refuse to boot only with a green power cord light on.

Regards


Bai Zho

Presario 1200-XL 118
hi everyone. i seem to have the same problem as everyone else here. The adapter light + power indicator light comes on, no fan, no floppy noise, no HD activity, nothing. As suggested above, i did remove the main battery + adapter for 4 days then plugged in the adapter. The fan came on + the 2 green power indicator lights came on, but that was it. Removing the adapter + replugging it in resulted in the 2 green lights + nothing else, again. Nothing suggested above seems to be working so Ill keep an eye on this forum + i hope a positive solution is on the horizon for all of us

Hello,
I have the same problem on my 1200.
I not have solution, but I find this news:
http://groups.google.fr/groups?hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=max1632&sa=N&tab=wg&meta

I have make the same observation than Jess.
The /SHND line of MAX1632 is logic low.
Why ? Its the problem.....

In the past Compaq and HP was reliable.
I hope they can give us the solution.
Regards,
Jean-Christoph

Hey, My compaq is dead too! WOO HOO! 1277 is in 232108954098237 pieces on my living room table

I have a Presario 1200-xl126 that has had the same problem - wont boot up - just a couple green lights and thats all. Ive followed various ideas in this forum and opened things up disconnected the keyboard, the CD drive, etc. (By the way my CMOS battery was under the modem card not by the keyboard and mouse connector as suggested in the online maintenance pdf file. But I have had success getting the machine to boot and it requires no entry inside the machine but rather has to do with using the AC power supply and the main battery in a certain order. Ive been able to duplicate it a few times so at least Im on the right track for my machine.

I am able to reproduce the "no boot" situation by disconnecting from AC power supply and removing the main battery. So when it has been working - it stops booting up when I remove both power sources. Thats when I consistently end up with the problem.

The solution for me has been to plug in the AC power supply (the far right green indicator light comes on). Then I insert the main battery (and the second green indicator light blinks 4 times remaining lit the fourth time.) Then I disconnect the AC power supply (both green lights go out). Then I remove the main battery. And then... I wait. Sometimes as little as 30 seconds - sometimes a couple of hours. Then I plug in the AC power supply but NOT the main battery (I leave that out). Then when I press the power on button - the machine boots up!

I have then inserted the battery while the machine is running - and from that point on I have been able to boot from AC or from the battery as long as the battery has a good charge and at least the AC or the battery are plugged into the machine at any time. As I said the machine ceases to boot when I remove both the AC and the battery.

I hope this might work for someone else

I have been working with a local company to correct this problem (at my own expense). This week, we will be trying something different. We will be replacing the CMOS battery - will this work? Who knows. But we will try.

There are two possible fixes that seem to make sense. CMOS battery replacement and re-soldering of the power button.

For example, my 1200xl118 did not work at my house, with the air conditioning on (yes this sounds odd) - the laptop had been stored in a cold section of the house. However, when I put it in my trunk to bring to the local shop (in 90 degree weather, mind you) - by the time I reached the shop, the laptop was very warm (literally). Brought it in and it started right up for them.

This leads me to believe that either a) the CMOS battery had heated up just enough to provide a little more juice OR b) the power supply solder had heated up enough (expanded) to make a proper connection. In contrast, when I brought it home again, in the cool 68 degree AC, it would not start. Which means either the CMOS battery lost its juice OR the solder contracted and came loose.

I will let you know the outcome

I got a 1200XL118 the power is not coming on, just ac adapter light, i just hate cpq and hp, they arent doing anything. im A+ certified and the only conclusion i can make is that this unit has something to do with the ACPI settings, like its stuck in hibernation or something. The power button isnt sending a signal to a contact somewhere on the board, if i can find this contact i will jump it with the power to see if it will power u

Im having a similar issue with a 7940 presario desktop. I know you are all discussing laptops, but theres a lot of brainpower here, and Im at my wits end. The unit is a 7940 with an Athlon k-7 600mhz. I have replaced the battery. Once the cmos is cleared, either by using the password jumper or by removing the battery, the unit boots normally. once the unit is shut down, it will not reboot, it will not even attempt to post-no splash screen, no drive activity. This holds true even when the motherboard has been stripped bare, unit will only boot after cmos is cleared. Damndest thing, ive seen fried cmoss before, but in every case once they have burned thats the end. Is there a chance the video card is responsible? I have seen video cards interfering with post/boot, but always consistently. Have any of you seen this before

Hello all, I have been working on a Compaq Armada 1750. I too have had this problem rear its ugly head.

Here are my symptoms:

1)The laptop turns on with no display or error beeps.
2) The only indication being The following status lights coming on. HD Activity light, Num Lock Light, Caps lock Light, Scroll lock Light and Power On Light.
3) If the battery is removed with the AC cable plugged in. the system will turn on after a few seconds with no button presses. This continues even after powering down the system with the Power and Standby buttons being pressed together.
4) When the battery is inserted. The system will only start when either the Power or the standby button is pressed.
5) The system does not ever move past the #2 state (above)

I have disassembled the entire laptop and nothing changes. Except when removing both the CD and the HD. The HD Activity light goes out.

In taking everything apart. I discovered a burned IC located on the CPU Board at Loc. Q1.
The chip has burst from heat and you can see burn marks around the chip and on the large heatsink.

This IC is an 8pin chip and the number is unreadable now. I tested the chip while power was applied and the only voltage was 18.5V DC!!.

Question: Does anyone know the value of this chip at Q1?

With out a schematic I can only guess that +18 volts is not supposed to reach this chip.

In testing other components I have discovered the AC power supply is outputting 18.5V DC at the mainboard connection.

At the DC/DC Converter I measure 0 volts across the resistor R14.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot the DC Converter? There are Test pads located on the board nubered T1-T8. What are the parameters for testing this board?

I am not going to replace the CPU without first finding the culprit.

My part numbers are:
DC Converter=316264
CPU Assy:724726-401
Mainboard=388747-001

Thanks To All for posting here. I was getting frustrated until I found this thread. I will keep you upto date on what I discover.

Thanks MG911Guy Mark..

Hi Gary

Not realy. My notebook is still boot up ONLY when it feel like it. Most of the time when you press power switch, nothing happens. I have tried all the tricks posted here. Nothing realy worked.

Regards

Ba

I had the same problem with a Compaq Presario 1215US. I tried many of the troubleshooting steps and tricks. I never opened the laptop. In the end, I brought it to Best Buy (a Compaq Service Center) and had them back up the data to CD-Rs. Discovered it was still under warranty, sent it in for 2-week repair. Best Buy sent it back in about one week. Its the original laptop, all of the original data is still there. It turns on now. So theres a fix, just dont know what it is. Compaq can fix it though, and without data loss. Hope this help

Hi folks,
i have the same problem with my Compaq Presario 715EA (Athlon 1200, 1.5 years old). The first time, it crashed on monitor close, but i removed the baterry and after an hour it worked again.
Two days ago it crashed again (also on monitor close) and this time its impossible to make it boot :(

Today i have opened it to make some test.I have removed the button bar and the keyboard but i have been unable to remove the aluminium piece that is under the keyboard (i was afraid of breaking some of the things below it and i was opening the notebook without any technical manual so i didnt know whether i was doing it the rigth way). How have you done it??

But i have been able to see the power conector. It had a white ticket (sorry, dont know how to say it in english) saying these words: "Replace with compaq spare".I havnt manage to test the voltage because the aluminium cover.

The most important is that when i have reasembled it, it has booted!!! but only for 20 seconds or so. I was seeing my linux booting up and became so happy that i was jumping when it has crashed again and i have lost the exact moment at linux bootup when it has crashed (it could be a good clue).

I havnt done anything inside it. Just remove the keyboard and move some conectors. Why has it booted then? it seems like a bad conection elsewhere. Has anyone tried the power conector soldering trick and no success???? it could be that...

Someone from HP/Compaq there??

I have just recently gotten the same problem mentioned throughout this thread just starting last night, although Ive noticed other existing quirks precending the powering up problem. I had just recently gotten a compaq presario 1235 from a friend who had abandoned it about a year ago for an Ibook. The original problem was that it needed a new power cord. A prospective Buyer had attempted to buy a new ac adapter(not compaq, from radioshack) because the battery didnt work, but when the laptop powered up, some of the keys were dead. the laptop was never purchased and remained in storage for about a year. When I discovered it, out of curiousity and not wanting to spend close to $100 on a new AC adapter for a messed up computer, I was able to get it atarted with a ac adapter made for a printer,(the output was greater than the laptops specified imput)
I got an error when starting up that a dll program (program.exe I think) but other than that it seemed to be running pretty well. I did notice how the keys were messed up, not so much the presence of dead keys, but random changing of caps when typing, and seemingly uselessness of the shift and caps lock keys. I began to think a virus might be to blame and warned my friend to take advantage of the units newly found life while he had a chance.
My friend was able to open and salvage some documents he had thought were gonners, then I attempted to boot from an antivirus scan diskette.
The machine rebooted without a problem and the antivirus scan was run(although afterward said the signature should be updated) but when I tried to boot from the C drive I noticed the C Key was dead. shutting it off and turning it back on only left me at the same A drive options and after much more than several failed attempts at getting to another menu in order to get to windows, everything went dead, no light no anything. I was actually kindve scared I had comptelely burnt out the mother moard by using an incorrect adapter, but when unpluging the adapter I was able to get some light flickers when attempting to run off of the battery.

From everything I know, which isnt much, Im thinking the whole dead key problem started when non-compaq adapters started being used to run it. And to go along with the theme of the thread, the power death was due to an extremely overloaded weak power source soder.
Im curious to see if anyone else noticed quirky behavior preceding the degradation that caused the ultimate uselessness of the compaq, in that it might shed light on a greater problem of possible uneven distribution of power to different bios in the system (ie. degradation starting in my machine as deficient power to keyboard bios, ending as no power)
if that doesnt even make sense, then is there any suggestions as to what could have caused the erratic keyboard behavior? If the problem is unrelated Ill attempt the sodering technique described above, but if its unrelated and relevantl unfixable, I wont waste my time.

Thanks to all, everyones imput has been a ton of help
Selwi

Hi again!
My Presario now works!! yesterday i dissasembled to the point the CMOS battery was accessible for me. Well, i think that was the CMOS battery, i didnt see any other battery inside.

In the Compaq Presario 715, is is located near the power conector and the monitor switch, under the optical device. I did the 30+ seconds CMOS battery removal trick. Just quit it, waited a minute (tested the battery voltage that was ok, 3V) and then put it again (the same battery).

The two times i have experimented this problem, it was at monitor closing, so i had a look to the monitor switch too. It seemed weakly joined to the board for me, but the sold was ok i think. I touched it with a screwdriver and it moved quite. I also had a look to the power conector that seemed ok for me (i didnt test voltages here).

I reassembled it and...wow it works!!! (for now). My sympthoms were the following:
- When conecting AC power, green ligth
- When battery charging, orange ligth
- When power on button pressed, then powered on green ligth lit up, a litle 1 second noise (i think it was the hdd) and nothing else: no fans, no POST, no disk spin. It seemed like the power only arrived to the led.

However, i dont think that the CMOS reset has solved the problem because as you see in my last post, i had already dissassembled the notebook, did nothing with the CMOS battery, and it was able to live for 20 seconds.

There is something bad around the power conector....perhaps the monitor switch in my case.

And thats all, hope it helps. I think it will happen again, so ill write again here, sure

I guess you can add another name to the list. My 1200 XL 106 is having the same problems as all those listed here. I only just did send an email to HP Support. Lets see if I get an answer. Ive downloaded the service manual and will replace the CMOS battery, although I doubt this will solve my problem. Will let you know

Just finished replacing the MB on the Presario 14xl250.

The CPU socket isnt fastened by a lever. Not 100% sure what the 1200 looks like but if its the same, youll need to use alot of force to get it to lock in place. Enough to make you think youre damaging things and even put a dent or take a chip out of the CPUs edge.

Otherwise, when powering on, HDD will spin up but nothing will appear on the LCD.

Its a damn shame that its so expensive to replace a motherboard and that Compaq designed these things so theyre no longer modular.

Good luck to all

Hi to all of you,

Following the many signs of frustration expressed on this forum on the same subject, Ive alerted Compaq 2 times and finally received, one month ago, a positive answer that they would pass the baby to the "appropriate service-team".

Seems however that nothing was done actually.

Therefore invite you to bombing the Compaq commercial branch with repeated complains until youve got a reasonable offer from their side.

Good luck, personally, Ive moved to building my new computer out of my own hands.

Alain

I have a 1400xl240 that does the same thing.. I have 3 motherboards 1 new... same thing... plug in power, turn on cdrom spins, hd lights up then it just stays on.... no lcd no beeps nothing. I havent tried the ac plug thing yet..... thank

Elliot Lee,

Could you tell us what is written on your service report, eg. what has been done etc.

May be we can explore more clues from here.

Thanks.

Pa

Well my problem has been solved. Thanks goes to Bill who personally contacted me. Well it turns out that it was my processor not being fully locked into its socket.... I have a 14xl240 and if you take the processor out and move the thing that locks the processor (it moves toward the right) it has to go ALL the way over.... it even makes a snapping sound and locks in. FOr me that was my visual cue for how far to go... well when you have the processor in there you have to GORILLA the thing over... Once i did the laptop started right up, no problems since. I bought 3 motherboards to solve this problem and could not believe that I wasnt setting the processor up right.. I guess it needs to be snug for vibration? I also for caution replaced the internal battery.. Oh yea, another thing.. once I got the processor in and saw it working I decided to put the laptop together in its entirety... well I tired to boot it up except this time it gave me 2 beeps (I just replaced the battery - Normal) but nothing on the screen... well I took off the cover for the power button and low and behold the lcd closed lid button was being pushed down by not seating the cover properly.. well to avoid more crap I removed the little plastic peice that was holding down from underneath the power button cover.... once again I started it up and boom.. everything is great..... I had checked the power adapter that was soldered to the board and it was fine so make sure there are no fried components on the board then go for the processor.. also another thing that could be a problem for guys who wont have this answer fix their problem.... onboard memory going bad could also stop the laptop from booting too.... Ive had one do that in a 1245.
Take care

Hi Awaorhol,

First of all, thank you for the reply.

The only sign noticeable is the green LED that indicates power is there when the AC adapter is plug-in. Nothing other than that.

I read many similar postings on this forum and came to the following findings :
1. There are 2 groups of Compaq laptop with these symptoms.
2. First group that shows sign that the NB is trying to turn on when the power button is pressed, for example : the FDD, Fans etc will make some noise or movement.
3. The 2nd group - no activity at all when the power button is pressed. My unit falls into this group.

Some users suggested (some tried and it works) that re-soldering the power jack will resolve the problem. To a great extend, I tends to agree to this - if you unit falls in group one. There may be some kind of dry joint on the power jack resulting in the symptom after some usage.

As to group 2, there may be failure in one or more components on the motherboard.

I am still trying to explore, and I welcome all contribution or suggestions.

You may find my original posting here : http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/PostAnswer/0,,0x385c299fcb80194985e6d05916ad6bbd,00.html

Thank you.

Pa

Honestly, I was in denial for a good week thinking that the processor could not take that much pressure to snap in right. Well for a $150.00 ebay special I had nohing to lose if it didnt work. I think all of these problems are the processor not being fully inserted and or the internal battery

Good news I found out how to fix the 1200 XL
lap top power on issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First you will need to replace your CPU fan.

Second, If you want to just try this it works to get power back to you lap top. recomend not letting lap top over heat "replace fan."

Directions: 1.Unplug all power source.
2.Hold the FN key down.
3. While holding FN key Down plug the AC back in and tap the F11 key do not tap F11 key to fast. Waa lah you have power and boot. Dont risk over heat of motherboard could cause other problems "replace fan."

the over heat problem is just a theory of mine I have not replaced the fan in my lap top so I do not know if it is just the fan,but I do know that this is some type of tempature related problem, quite possibly a tempature sensor that may need to be replaced.When I was working on my lap top it seemed to get really hot thats when it locked up.

THX Da

Answer to Compaq 1200 XL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes < I do beleive this theory to be correct. This is an over heat problem. after doing the above to restore power. Make sure that you have a new fan installed (you can also get two fans install on 1200 XL 106)try EBAY. When installing heat spreader (silver thing that goes on top of the CPU)make sure that you have extrem presure on the CPU or heat will not expell correctly. Try to boot your system and use it this should work.Let it run for awhile to see these results.

THX Da

Go here to learn which way the fan goes in.

Yes there is a way the fan must face.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/athome/support/msgs/1270-1675/513.html

Hello to all,

This forum on the problem of Presario Laptop not able to start up (wont turn on) seems to quiet down...

Was it that your problem is rectified and laptop back to working state ?

Or was it that all had given up ... ?

Rgds,

Pa

Ive had the same sort of problem where the lights come on and the floppy/hdd are whirring but no bootup screen.

I followed the 30secs instructions from above. Turn off laptop, remove battery and power lead. Hold power button for 30secs. Plug power lead and battery back into laptop. Booted up then

Tried it this morning and it wont come on :

I have the same problem with my 1200 xl118. I only get the power light when plugged in. Computor dosent show any sign when trying to turn on. This all started when i noticed my battery started loseing charge (almost dead after just a few days of being off). I purchased a new battery and finaly got the thing to boot up. Then after a couple days it done the same thing with the new battery. And now it wont boot again. I think ill use it to fill the pothole behind my house

I have similar Problem with Compaq Presario 1825 which is not booting up after pressing the Power button.

Though the green light is ON.

Im sure its because of the loose connection of Power Pin to the motherboard. We probably have to "soulder" it.

But im skeptical that it may damage the motherboard if the "soulder" is not done by somebody who is familiar with such things..

Can anyone help ?

It looks like this thread and this problem has been going on for over a year!!wow. I am some sort of a computer tech. I have sucessfully repaired many laptops. Compaqs being the most diffucult. I have even seen the system bios on a partition of the hard drive.(not smart). O.k. back to the problem. It looks like two problems here. one is a power issue of the laptop not comming on and some have had sucess resoldering the power plug. the other is a problem of booting and never getting thru post(power on system test). this is the problem i have which appears to me to be a corrupted system bios,in which the system will never get thru post and boot up.the symptoms are lights on possibly fan and drives noise.(the lights are on but nobody home)soultion is to urchase new bios firmware that is not programmed to self corrupt after warrenty period???????????good luck to everyone adn dont buy compaq.........or is it hp now?????

I have a similar problem with my Compaq Presario 1200-XL103.
I started having some problems turning on the computer. Yesterday I was using it and heard 5 beeps and it stopped running. I tried to turn it on again with no luck.
Now, I insert the power cable, it turns on the power light and nothing more. I press the start button but get no response from the computer.
Anyone knows if there is anything I can do to make it work? What does it mean the fact that I have the power light but cant start the computer? "Burned" processor? Motherboard?

Thanks in advance for your help

hello,

have seen an presario 1400 (14XL250) with the same power on problem,
green led, no beep, no screen, after ten seconds goes off.
the accu and the power supply are working.
with a little measurement i have seen the 5V(olt), 3.3V, 2.5V
and 1.5V cpu-power on the board, no information of power quality.
i have tested the cpu, its working.
in the notebook after ten seconds it stays cold, with power on!!!
i would think there is a reset-signal or power good isnt there,
so that nothing works.
will see if i can test that, when i can ...

hope that helps somebody
good luc

I have checked the Power connector to the motherboard,that looks good.

The power also flows through the entire laptop (Compaq Presario 1825 ) but its NOT becoming ON , may be the amount of power that is flowing is not okay. how can we check that ?

is it that the dc convertor board is faulty ?

pl advis

I have swap all parts between a good & faulty (having the same power up problem) Presario 1200XL-101.

In my testing, i came to a conclusion that the problem is on the main system board. Nothing to do with the DC convertor board. Ive also checked all fuses (~3 fuses on the main board), they are ok.

Hope this info help.

Pa

So the possibility of soldering the DC connector pin to mother board is gone because that connector looks okay and you are saying that changing fuse and other parts wont make a difference.

Only option left (apart from trashing motherboard ) is that as mentioned by somebody few days back is "fixing corrupted system bios" and "Changing Bios battery"....

how to do that ? Changing Bios battery may not be a big deal ...

But how to fix a "corrupted system bios"

Like a few of you my 1200-XL103 has the green power light but does nothing else. I have traced it as far as the Max1632 power supply chip. It is supposed to generate a permanent 5 volts but isnt, however that doesnt neccesarily mean the chip is dead. Pin23 is always low and that is the shutdown (active low) pin. I havent yet traced the full power up sequence, being a multilayer board makes it very difficult.

Does anyone out there have access to the actual circuit? At least of the powersupply and powerup sequence.

Cheers, Dav

Hi all,

today Ive tried to boot up my Presario 1200XL-122 again... just to give a try.
Well, It started! Better to say, its coming to produce some whirl...

As I posted here before, once my Presario didnt boot up at all: it had just the green led lit, indicating power supply is connected... nothing else. Simply dead for a long time.

Before today, my Presario from time to time started correctly and completely: I could work with it until the day it wouldnt have been starting again. Now I know this strange behaviour!

Anyway, today for the first time, my Presario just does a whirl, a little noise (seems to be the HD and the CD tray opens up) and can recharge battery, but no POST, no screen at all... Could I have done something wrong the last time I remounted and closed it?
That time I substituted a low CMOS battery, but soon after that it still seemed dead (???)

I think this problem, affecting several Presario models, is becoming a kind of magic: some models dont turn on but they do a whirl, some others dont boot up at all, mine is in a mid-way between these and just sometimes it started up and now just try to.

Is there anyone who could guess anything from thi shit

I came into this Forum as per your request though i was writing to both of them ..

I have a compaq presario 1825 with the same problem ... only green light , rest is dead..

so how far you have drilled down ?

Thank

A lot of us are having this problem with Compaq presario models. With my model 1200-XL110, the light comes on when you plug it into AC but it does nothing when you try to boot it up

I too posted in the other forum.

I have a Presario 1200-XL111

Lights.. buzzes ..whirrs... no compaq logo
no boot.. Ive done everything listed in
the two forums.. all of the way down to
total diassembly.. bios battery removal.

Nothing works..

Hi,

Firstly to share with all the great effort by Gothant, who took the initiative to channel discussions of this particular issue to the same thread. Pls show your support by posting here in future

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=36917

Great job Gothant. Thanks.

I do not have time to "play" with my two Presario XL-101 lately. Regret that I do not have anything to share at moment.

However, I am very pleased to see that the no. of responses is returning to â??normalâ?... it is something unpleasant to all Presario owners, though

Just want to share the good news ...

My "Compaq Presario 1825" was just showing the green light,and no start,just dead.

I was struggling for the last 2 months with no laptop.

This guy( my neighbour) has micro-soldered my Compaq Presario 1825 and its running perfectly fine.

I paid him $160 and it seems to be "not bad" depending on the effort he has put in front of me to take out the mother board completely and micro-solder it from the backside of the mobo.

At least , i didnt have to trash my laptop or the buy a Mobo for 450 dollars....

or the harrassment of CompUsa( Compaq/HP referred shop) to Pay $140 just for having a f****** look at it !!!

Thanks ,
Dipta

I have posted in another forum under windows 95/98 regarding my 1200 xl-118 and same identical problems as previous people have been saying for the past year. However, my brother fixed mine tonight.......go to the listing 1200 xl-118 same problem fixed. I thought I was posting that message in this room when I listed it

Ok folks,

instead of providing with the address where the Andrews post about a possible fix is in, I just paste here his full post.

Thank you Andrew, it seems to be an effective fix for Presario laptops.

Heres his post:

subject: 1200 xl-118 Same problem finally solved
author: Andrew Hawks

Dec 13, 2003 05:32:16 GMT
I started reading all of these messages in here last night and saw that everyone had the same problem as me until tonight. For almost a year now I have been stumped by the "green power light only, batter charge light only, cd spins, hard drive spins, but no post and no video syndrom. Up until tonight.......this is what I did: I purchased another motherboard on ebay for $149 from a place called "laptop parts team" about 5 months ago.....and same exact problem. I replaced the CPU 2 times....thinking I had bad ones both times. So today I called laptop parts team and they informed me that 99.9% of the problems they see with these computers is our exact problem but can be solved by one thing.....making sure the CPU is set properly. That means taking a screwdriver, twisting it until you literaly think your going to rip the socket out of the board. You will then either hear a click....or as my brother did this he just saw movement. Bingo.....now get video and post and works perfect. My brother is a computer tech and says he has never seen anything like it....as in how he had to set the cpu. He thinks that over time the socket vibrates loose and therefore not seating the CPU correctly. I hope this works for others because Ive felt your frustrations and pain for months. By the way.......other problems Ive ran across listening to others...seems like some motherboards are prone to the on board power jack to crack at the solder joint. Other than that.......try seating the CPU correctly

I have been saying this for most of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!! Reseat your cpu with lots of force!!!!!!!! It will most certainly click in place!!!! I had all of the same problems in my 1400xl - green light, hd churns, cdrom lights up when a cd is put in there...... I bought 3 other MBs on ebay until I just pushed the cpu in until it clicked... I havent had any problem with the laptop yet... they make it that hard to snap into place because they dont want it to vibrate out of place... hmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the info all...and to Brian, I have tried to snap the cpu in place on my 1600 (which has the exact problem as others), but still the same problem. Is there a special way to put it in place

Heres another Presario horror story.
Model 12XL125 wont boot up. Green light for external power is only thing that comes on. Have checked battery and ac power cord for proper voltage.

Wont boot up with ac power alone. Wont boot up with batter alone. Wont boot up with both ac power and battery installed.

Have removed and reseated all componants. Checked all fuses on motherboard and voltage converter board.

The system did work for a short period of time after having been shelved for months and then quit again.

Is there any troubleshooting tips to determine if the problem is in the voltage converter board?

I checked the motherboard power recepticle solder joints.

Any tips

Wow this is quite a club!! Is there a UK branch? My Presario 1200XL-103 has had power up problems intermitantly for some time (fixed by removing and reinserting battery)and now has finally reached the one green light and nothing else scenario. I have just read all the posts but cant decide if there is a recommended solution? Is the heavy relocation of the CPU the favorite? Can I do it myself or should I take it to the repair shop and ask them to ensure the CPU is correctly located?
Or should I be checking the power in jack

Hello to all,

Like to add (repeat, rather) a little of my observation of the laptop (mostly Presario)having such behaviour.

It appeared there are 2 groups of problemed laptops with the power up symptoms. However, there are slight differences if you would to analyse carefully.

1st group : Green power LED, some noises (sign of movements) either by the FDD, CD, speaker ...

2nd group : Green power LED ONLY. No other sign of life when the power button is pushed.

To a certain extend, i tends to agree to those who tried and got it worked... provided your laptop is behaving like what described in group 1.

So if your laptop belongs to this group, go for it. It may help, and I wish you luck.

As to group 2, there seems no workable resolution so far.

Both my 1200 on hand happens to behave like group 2. Ive tried swapping and reseating the CPU in many attemps, but nothing gettings better. I think I require a lot of good luck wishing, desperately ... :-)

And lastly, to share something which I was told by someone who used to service Cpq m/c.

Manufacturer is putting very little effort in resloving known problems. Instead they are pushing for lots of new model to replace and phrase out the older.

There are 2 possible approach when a laptop is returned within the warranty period - you either get faulty part replaced or get an exchange (FOC) by a later model. This in a way is like a "recall" exercise, but in a silent manner.

If your laptop is out of warranty - you can choose to absorb it quietly or enter into a forum like all of us here.

Thats about all so far.

Merry Xmas.


Pa

I am part of group 2 with the completely dead laptop and green AC light. I own a 1200 xl118. I have disassembled it and reassembled it many times and have gotten it to boot. Just recently it ran for two days and hasnt run since. Tonight I am going to try reseating the CPU and inspecting/possibly resoldering the power receptical. Keep those ideas flying, I intend to have this thing working as it should one of these days

Brian Roberts said:
"I have been saying this for most of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!! Reseat your cpu with lots of force!!!!!!!! It will most certainly click in place!!!! I had all of the same problems in my 1400xl - green light, hd churns, cdrom lights up when a cd is put in there......"

Im sorry Brian, I missed your tip but I always thought to belong to the Patricks 2nd group, the "Green power LED ONLY" group: the cpu reseating operation doesnt apply to this group.

Then things changed in my 1200XL laptop scenario, so today I was trying to reseat the CPU. I was hoping it could work but it dont.

Now I can just add some new inspections: when I switch the button on, the only "moving" parts are the HD and the CD-Rom. The fan doesnt do a move; the display seems to be without power adn anyway it stays blank.

The heatspreader is of course removed and the cpu heats a little after 10 minutes on. As I said, I tried to press it in place as strong as I can avoiding to break the mobo and I discovered that I can simply remove it even if it should be locked up!!!!

At this point I just dont even know to which group of problems my case belongs :

Gothant:

If youve operated your system without the heatspreader installed for 10 minutes, your problem may be a fried processor.
If you can remove the processor when its supposed to be locked, thats a bug. You need to fix that or have someone fix it.

Happy Holidays

Roge

Gothant,

I do not think you can put the CPU in locking position just by bare hand.

Use a flat screew driver or a testpen to help.

When a CPU is in running state, the temperature of the processor will be hot enough to cause serious burn to your hand. I think your CPU is not securly seated yet.

Pa

Roger and Pat, I thank you for your answers.

Ive just come again to my opened Presario and Ive seen that simply I didnt locked up the CPU properly.

I always used to follow the removal sequence I found here:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/athome/support/msgs/1200XL101-127/Ch7Removal.pdf
and this time also Ive used a screw driver instead of bare hands to seat the processor... Simply I didnt force enough the cpu pressing it down while locking: I hardly pushed it along its sliding guide and it wasnt the way to do.

Now the cpu become very hot after 10 seconds and its impossible to remove it before unlocking it...

Well, it was my fault but my Presario doesnt do anything new. Again the hard disk and the cd-rom drives run but nothing else happens.

I think the CPU has no damage but I cant guess what about the EPROM: how long this memory is supposed to "live" without any power source?

I remind you that my Presario didnt boot at all for a long time and that for almost a year I didnt checked the CMOS battery which I found completely down 2 or 3 months ago.

I replaced the battery but after that my laptop still didnt show anything but the green light.

Could please anyone solve my EPROM dilemma?

TN

Well Ive decided Im definitely a Group 2 TOGLOB (The One Green Light Only Brigade) member. 1200xl-103 is out of warranty so I dont want to speculate a lot of cash on an old piece of hardware that still might not work -I know the battery is u/s and needs replacing.

Maybe if I can find a screwdriver that will open up the box I can jump up and down on the CPU anyway it might work

Tony,

Ive a Presario 1200XL-122 and it should be very similar to your 103.

At least for these series its not mandatory to use a Torx screwdriver: just take a look and youll see you can use a flat screw driver to open your laptop ;)

Then, let us know.

Good luc

Well, I completely disassembled my laptop and here are the results. I was part of group 2. I could not see anything visibly wrong aftet careful inspection of everything. AC jack looked to be ok, but I resoldered everything on it. I also resoldered the power switch terminals. Reassembled and it was still dead with just the green AC light. I tried unplugging it a few times, and one time without hittingthe power button, upon plugging it in, it just started, however it did not boot. fans/hd came on, but blank screen no beep and no activity. I got it to do this one more time without depressing the power button. After that I could only get the green light with the rest of the sytem being dead. Still dont know what the story is, I might just sell it for parts and buy a good used dell. For what I do with it, I dont need anything real powerful

Gothant
Thanks for screwdriver info. Ive now disassembled down to CPU, relocated it and locked it in. I reassembled it all and plugged the PSU back in and .......... nothing .......just one green light :( Im off to write some Xmas cards if my pen still work

Hi Friends and Bai Zhou,

Let me say what i did till now to make it up and running :-

1. I have reset the CMOS by pulling the jumper towards the front and holding it for 30 secs.

2. I have also seen that the AC connector that goes to the motherboard seems to be okay .. THOUGH ITS NOT ACTUALLY OKAY ...

3. This neighbour of mine is saying that
he opened it up and did MICROSOLDERING from the back side of the motherboard using special GLASSES !!

that much i could extract from him till now, he is probably making some parttime money from this repair so im sure he wont tell me any more details.

Thanks ,
Dipta

Hi all, some good news :D

My Presario starts again and boots up completely and properly.

Today, after my first unsuccesful attempt to reseat the CPU, I wondered why the CPU was turning hot just sometimes and other times not.

So I placed it again, the last time very very strongly: its not to be taken for granted how much to force the processor on its seat!

I put a flat screwdriver (6mm) to lever on the socket and pushing against the cpu itself thus pressing it *completely* up to the end of run. I was thinking to almost doing some damage, but finally I heard that famous "click"! My presario finally started up!

I switched the system on, let it boot up and shut down for many times and there was no problem.

So, Group 1: PUSH THE CPU VERY STRONGLY!
(thank to Brian Roberts)

Anyway, fans dont spin! Well, Ive got only one fan on my Presario but I tried to plug it into two different jumper slots... At this point I hope the fan itself is damaged, but I honestly suppose something on the mobo has blown during this long period of "tests".

I still have to find an answer on how it was possible in my case to step towards the Group 1 level, which now Id call The CPU Reseating Group (do the acron by yourself ;^)...

As a remind, months ago:
- I dismounted the notebook and tested the power on different parts of the mobo (checking if power was there or not... never known about voltages);
- I replaced the CMOS battery with a new one: it showed a very low power;
- I checked (DISMOUNTING! Damn!) the CPU;
- closed everything.

Then the notebook didnt do any thing! Absolutely nothing but the green light...

Some weeks ago I tried - as usual - to boot up the system (presario always closed) but that time my laptop started to do some whirls and hd/cd-rom noise...

...until today!

Sure, something must to be happened in the middle... but when and why???

Well, Ill stay tuned on this forum both because I still have a problem with the fan and because I became a FAN ;^

Gothant,

the fan will only spin when the laptop gets heated up.

dont change it too fast. wait a longer while to see.

Pa

Pat,

thanx for your tip.
Now, Im waiting for the cpu to become a grill ;-)

Actually I remember that when my presario used to work fine the fan didnt spin for long until the keybord became quite hot...
I always considered this a stupid feature: burning cpu for the sake of silence?

--

By the way, I set inactive all the hybernate properties and the sleeptimer: I read somewhere that these features may hang up the system and if it doesnt restart it is possible the CMOS could stop waiting for a reset (?) ...dont know exactly what Im telling :-

I had all of the same issues everyone else was having and couldnt figure it out. Thought it was a power supply/battery issue but a multimeter quickly dismissed that train of thought. Tried all the turning on and off, waiting for celestial allignments, and a good old dose of VooDoo, ceremonies with no succeess. Even tried puting the whole thing in the freezer(yes, that was actually suggested because it causes everything to shrink ever-so-slightly and any loose solder joints would have a better chance of connecting) but again, no joy.
So, take that puppy apart, take the CPU out, put it back in, and push that thing in untill you think you have broken it. Im not kidding! If you think you have damaged the CPU and socket give it a little more umph and you probably have it. Now if youre not going to upgrade the CPU get some superglue and glue the locking mechanism closed. That little brown plactic piece doesnt work. I guess heat sink compound is pretty expensive for Compaq so go buy a 25 cent tube of heat sink compound and make sure that you get a good mate on the surfaces. Good luck

Hello Everyone,

I have been following this forum for several months now, and share the frustration experienced by most of you.
Unfortunately I was given a Compaq Presario 1200 a while back to see if it was fixable. When I received the laptop it would power on occasionally and run from anywhere between 2 minutes and 2 days. Within a week of having it the laptop stopped working completely.

As many have discovered and discussed, there are two major problems here, Group 1 and Group 2. This laptop is in the second group of crappy laptops.

For Group 1 reseating the CPU (lucky for you guys) will usually fix those problems experienced, many laptops suffer from simple nuisance problems like that as do desktop computers.

As for Group 2 it would appear our motherboards have been manufactured with inferior components. A bad batch with something failing after 12 to 24 months.

Now to what I have found after spending way, way too much time on Compaqs obvious design defect:
While I was testing a few components for voltage with a multi-meter (Im not sure what I was going to do with them when I found them, but anyway), I touched a particular component and nearly burnt a hole through my finger it was so hot. I dont think it should get that hot?

The component has written on it LP2951 CS0004 ALPHA (Google returns LP2951 Adjustable Micro Power Voltage Regulator, no surprises there), and is in position U506 on the bottom side of the motherboard.

OK so I dont know for sure, (I dont think any of us will until Compaq comes cleans about the whole issue), but I can only guess it has something to do with this component and probably several connected to it.

Motherboard Part Number 169607-001, Serial Number SOA1430598 (it would be interesting to know if serial numbers have any pattern from others with same motherboard and problem?)

Why we find out and post the SN/or Part No of the notebook and the mainboard and conpare it, to see if they are all from one batch?

Regards

Bai Zho

Just to make things clear for all, here are all of my laptops details,

Compaq Presario 1200
Model Number: 1200-XL118
Serial Number: 1V02DCHCH4JZ

Motherboard
Part Number: 169607-001
Serial Number: SOA1430598

Suspect Component: LP2951 CS0004 ALPHA
(Position U506 on motherboard

Hello All,
Im new to this forum but not to the above problems. I have a 1200XL111 with the problem described in the "second group", green light no power. Ive been racking my brain for the last 3 months trying to figure out what the heck is going on with my laptop. After reading all the messages I was somewhat encouraged thinking that one of the fixes described above would be my cure. However no such luck! Below is a list of what Ive done:
1)replaced the battery about 3 months ago
2)replaced AC adapter
3)disassembled and resoldered the power jack and the power switch
4)and finally reseated the CPU
I was a little skeptical about resoldering the power jack and power switch because I did not pick up any voltage drop across the connections, but I went ahead and resoldered anyway just to rule out that possibility.
Anyway I am at my wits end. I am not in any situation to go out and buy a new laptop so if anyone has any new additional insight or knowledge that might help lead me to fixing this Id greatly appreciate it! Thanks

yup
what I do is keep restarting till the bugger goes.can take ten restarts
is worst in winter for some reason, the problem dissappears over summe

Update: after sitting for approximately a week, I plugged in the power source and it booted-up. It ran for about an hour before locking up. I powered down to reboot and it was right back to the same old problem. Does this sound like a faulty processor

My compaq presario notebook 700 is having the same exact problem here. Green light goes on - floppy and CD drives sound up - fan starts up ...then, sputters out.

Is there anyone else with the Presario 700 (model 725us) having this same problem too?

Also, can someone please provide me with additional information regarding the infamous "CPU"? What is it? Where is it? How do I access it?

Thank you!

i too became a member of the green lights on but nothing happening club.my laptop 1200 froze & could only be shut down by removing ac power & battery. when all replaced the laptop came up with all the symptons you are all seem to be suffering from.after many hours of messing & trawling through this forum i tried everthing apart from stripping the laptop down too much. i managed to solve the problem by chance just before i was ready to bin it.it appeared the battery was powering the laptop but it wasnt fully powering the laptop through all its battery terminals.i proceeded to clean the 4 or so terminals & their battery receptical housings by probing & scraping them. then gently pushed the battery back into its compartment till it was just coming into contact & jiggled it around a bit with the power button on or held & the laptop fired up.seems we have all had this battery out while encountering this problem & therefore poor conductivity from only some of the battery pick up pins is not feeding power to certain parts of the laptop causing the symptoms of green lights all on as norm,then a 2 second whirr from drive then nothing.
Good luck.
Steve (uk)

Hi,

Just read the posting by Steve.

Like to share something which I found in common, that causes the problem (seems to be, group 2)...

The laptop got lock up (hung)and all normal ways of restarting failed. The only thing left possible is to unplug the AC & battery. That is why the problem is being introduced, I believed.

Hope this could triggle some clues to a resolution.

Rgds,

Patrick Chi

Greetings to Comcrap casualties

After months of searching, I found this forum. That rekindles my hopes of getting my laptop back.

I have a dead Presario 2700US (1G P-III), which exhibits the classic Case 1 - green light, sounds, then nothing. Heres its story:
First, some keys stopped working. Putting the laptop on my lap (literally) would sometimes make those keys work. Then one day, BSOD came, and it would not boot anymore. The power-on scenarios:
1. Green light, Comcrap logo, HDD sound, then silence - leaving the logo on screen, with a cursor on top right of the screen.
2. Green light, no logo, no video, the DVD drive kept making sounds, the Caps/Num lock lights blinked again and again - this happened endlessly.

I opened up the baby, down to mother board. Replaced the CMOS battery (CR2032). Cleaned the keyboard and touchpad ribbon connectors, and put it back together. Powered it up, and it booted !!! At 2am, I was too happy to do anything else but fall on the bed. At 10am, it was back to the green light, no video, Caps/Num lock light blinking, DVD sounds. I could have binned it then, but for the precious data on this thing.

Now Im going to open it up again, check the solder - I dont have a solder gun, but if it helps, I can run to Radioshack, and Ill reseat the CPU.

Wish me luck,
Mayu

To Cyndi and anyone else who wants to get their data back...yes you can get the data off your hard drive...it is probably not damaged. Either take the drive to a tech shop and have them copy to another drive or if you want do it yourself, its not that difficult. Somewhere up the line in this thread is a link to a site that contains the service manual for your laptop. Use the manual as your reference to remove your hard drive. Buy a 2 1/2 inch external hard drive enclosure at either your local PC store or on eBay (about $20). Be sure to get one that has USB connection. Now you can simply connect this device containing your laptop hard drive to another PC and all your data is accessible. Note that you cannot run applications from this drive, but you can get back valuable data.

The reason I provided this is because by the looks of the posts above, some of you may never get your laptop running with any confidence. Hope this helps and good luck to all

I have a presario 1200us that I have been dealing with for the last few months. I have had the same issues as others. froze one day. powered off. powered back on lights but no screen. I have been following this forum for the past few months. I recently ordered a new processor for this laptop replaced it and it worked. In my case the processor was cheap from a online auction. Celeron 800.
I really dont have a question but I was wondering has anybody else tried this?
derri

I have a 1200-XL111 (see above). I just replaced the cpu with a new cpu. No luck ... the problem is still there, green light-no power

Well after pulling out what little hair I had left I finally fixed my friends problem. It was actually quite simple and I accomplished it in five simple steps......
1. Remove the hard drive from the HeaP
2. Give the entire tower/chassis the ole heave ho
3. Unpackaged a brand new tower that was 3-4 times faster and at least that much more reliable. ($199.00)
4. Installed HD from HeaP into new tower as a slave drive.
5. Turned on new system and was greeted with a cavalcade of lights, bells and sounds of a fully operational system. At our leisure we recovered all the data that was wanted, formatted the slave drive and now only have a vague memory of some worthless Heap.
All is well on the western front once again.
Cheers and good luck to all you fellow HeaP owner

My presario 1200 is working fine & a/ok again & has been for the last month when i was afflicted with a bout of green lights on & nothing happening. my fault was cured by fiddling about with the battery till it fired up! obviously it dawned on me the battery wasnt making full contact on all terminals to feed all the systems of the laptop to get it to boot. it was only powering the green lights!
Hope this helps someone to a possible fix

Granted the battery is critical in the operational aspects of computer systems but not in the manner you think. FYI - go the link below and you will find the article quite informative. It is short and written so a dummy like me would understand. Cheers

http://www.pcmech.com/show/motherboards/80/

When were posting to these forums, it would be a good idea to define terms. The article linked in the previous post refers to the "CMOS battery". Some laptops have three or more batteries. Since most of the posts to this particular thread have to do with a primary power problem, there are probably more references to the main battery (that powers the laptop in the absence of AC power) than to the CMOS battery.
Maybe we should all agree that ALL references to battery shall mean the main battery, unless specifically indicated otherwise.

Just a thougght!

Roge

You are absolutely correct. It was my fault to assume it was the CMOS battery on the mother board and not the external power source used by a laptop. When I originally jumped into this foray I was dealing with a Desktop and that has been my train of thought all along. A laptop power source issue is a whole heck of a lot different.
cheer

Hi. Im Wilson from Brazil. Okay Heres the thing !!

Reset the cpu, ok done, now it heats normaly. AC led ok, power led ok, hd spins, cd open/close normaly. LCD blank. Removed CMOS battery for 2 days nothing. When i first had the problem i tried everything. None worked, then i left it inside a drawer for 6 months (no main bat plugged, only cmos bat) now i decided to turn it on, it worked !! Cmos was cleared. But only 32mb of 64mb was accessible, pluged 128mb sodimm card, but not accessible. When i removed 128 sodimm card the pc didnt work again, showing the same problem we all have.

I think its not on cpu, not on power supply, why ? Because, when i short pads behind memory expansion slot, to enable boot block. The pc beeps, like no vga installed nor memory. And the floppy gets its led on, it starts looking for a disk. When i put any OS boot disk it stops reading but led stays on and disk spinning.
Tried compaqs flash disk to flash the bios but same thing. Maybe it is on bios ? Dont know cause as far as i know boot block is intact... also tried another sodimm card and external monitor. Does anyone know any way to force a cmos clearing other than removing the bat ? I think if i let it for 1 week or more inside the drawer again maybe itll work...

I have had other computers where you would remove the jumpers on the motherboard then basically cause a short between two specific pins thereby flushing the cmos, bios etc. You would then reflash it and it was back to a virgin syste

I was (until yesterday) in the same boat as everyone in this forum. My Compaq Presario 1277 would not boot. Some days it would light up a few of the leds, some days it would not; some days the fans and a drive would make a little noise, and some days the thing would decide to boot up.

The problems all began about the time my lithium-ion battery began to fail. The first indicator was that the machine would not run as long as it used to on battery power only. In the end, the battery would still discharge when running with the AC adaptor connected.

I purchased a new battery, but I now feel that this was the root cause of my "no boot" problems. The machine was not getting the right power. Other power related factors began to creep in on this aging machine:

I relaced the cooling fans with a decent used pair. Must say I highly recommend doing this on at least a semi-annual basis. My fan bearings were in terrible shape from all the dust drawn into them, which likely contributed to heat build-up in the machine.

- The fans at this stage of the game were likely drawing more power than they should have, while also not providing as much cooling as they used to.

- I checked the power plug to circuit board connection. Like others on this forum, it had never been properly soldered into place from the factory. In fact, evidence of arcing at the motherboard connections was visible when I looked at this connection through a magnifying glass. This likely had the effect of not allowing for full current to be provided for battery charging and computer operation. My failing battery also likely overloaded this poor connection.

I have tried every other cure offered in this forum, from pushing certain Function keys, to heat sinking a component on the under side of the board near the battery charger. I would occassionally have some success. The Presario 1277 would boot, only to have the screen washout to a bright white, and have the computer freeze up after it ran for a while. After it did that, it almost certainly lay dead again - some times for a short time, and more recently, for a whole month.

I tried reseating the CPU. That worked the first time I did it, but not every time.
I made sure the CPU was completely seated and locked fully into place each time.

I then relaced the AMD 433 processor with a new AMD 450 processor of the same voltage. This involved making changes to the DIP switch settings for motherboard multiplier, and changing the bus speed setting to 100 mhz. As I used the same ADK series of the AMD processor, I did not have to make any voltage changes on the DIP switches. The heat output between the 433 and 450 are similar.

This had no difference on the outcome. The machine would boot occassionally and lock up, or lie there dead for extended periods of time.

Thinking that it may be an overheating problem, I measured the clearance between the top of the CPU to where it contacted the heat sink. I found the heat sink not to be even with the top of the CPU (possibly heat warped?). I attribute this to Compaq using 3 screws to secure the heat sink over the CPU on the Presario 1277, where a pattern of 4 screws would have made a more even and tighter connection for heat transfer. This may explain why some people were having success in just reseating their CPU. Mine was likely heating unevenly in the socket.

Since my machine is long off any warranty, I tried something here to improve the thermal transfer from the CPU. I removed the thermal material that Compaq used (only removed it from the top of the CPU / heat sink), and replaced it with a piece of copper that was only minimally thicker (being a piece fashioned from "one pound" copper sheeting). I then used Arctic Silver thermal compound on the metal surfaces, and screwed the heat sink back on. The noticeable difference now is that the keyboard gets toasty warm after the CPU has a hard work out.

After all this, still no reliable boot-up.

This got me thinking that the problem could possibly be a system ROM that got corrupted when the machine was having power problems. What really got me on this track is that the machine would never boot from a charged battery, but only from the AC adaptor; that the machine would occasionally boot properly, but when stored with the battery in place would go back to its old ways; and that the new battery would never charge properly.

Sometimes during charging, after running well, the machine would repeat the same symptoms - dead, some lights, some noise, or nothing at all.

It never made it all the way through the Windows Compaq Diagnostics; usually freezing up about the 80% point in the tests.

I had nothing to loose, so the next time it finally decided to boot up, I made changes in the BIOS SETUP (F10 on boot) to have the machine ON continuously, and also selected the same setting in Power Management when Windows came up. I then powered off.

I placed a floppy boot disk, made using the Softpaq download for "Compaq Personal Computer Diagnostics Test & Inspect Version 10.40A" in Drive A, and powered on. The machine (luckily) powered up, and booted smoothly to the DOS program on the disk.

I ran the diagnostics several times with no problems, and then left the machine on in this mode for an extended period of time to see if it would freeze up. It ran great!

I then decided to push the envelope, and shut down the Presario 1277. Feeling that the ROM may have been corrupted from the various power issues it experienced, I decided to flash it. I used the SoftPaq SP15611.EXE download to make another bootable floppy disk for the latest Compaq Presario 1277 ROM Update that I could find.

I know that my machine already had this ROM update installed before the problems arose.

This ROM update comes with a strict warning NOT to shut the machine down while the update is running.

I started up on AC power only - and pushed the battery in only after the machine booted to the disk.

Guess what happens - my machine decides to boot with no problem to the floppy disk; gets most of the way thru the ROM update process, and then suddenly shuts itself off!

The bad news now: The floppy drive seems to have self-destructed. It now reports size and format errors, and will not read or write properly. (Hopefully a simple drive replacement will cure this).

The good news: The computer now boots up each and every time, whether from AC or battery power. It has now rebooted several times and run almost 24 hours continuously with no problems. The battery reaches 100% charge, and quits charging as it should. The fans run continously with the power settings I made in SETUP and in Windows Power Management. I ran every test in the Windows Compaq diagnostics, and the computer never froze up. There does not seem to be any signs of overheating occurring, and my warm keyboard feels especially good on cold mornings....

I am still leary of this computer going back to its old ways of "no boot", but this is the best that things have looked since the problem first arose.

The no-boot problem on this forum seems to be occuring as these computers age. Is this because of less cooling from slower fans? Warped CPU heat sinks causing a break down or overheating of electronic components? Voltage and current fluctuations from the faulty power connector solder joint(s) and/or the aging battery? Is it from corrupted ROM, or the CPU working loose in its socket from poor cooling or uneven heating and/or inadequate restraint?

In my case, I feel that it has been a combination of all these factors.

First check the AC adapter solder connections (on the back underside of the motherboard), fans, CPU seating, and battery condition before you spend any time or money on other options.

If you can get your machine to come on again (using AC power only), try to have the bootable Diagnostic Disk ready in the floppy drive when it starts up. See if the machine will reboot after you run only DOS with this SoftPaq Diagnostic disk. At least you should not harm anything this way.

As for the system ROM update, there is some risk involved

Well, I knew it was too good to be true. After booting and running flawlessly, I decided to shut down and let the Compaq Presario 1277 sit half a day with the AC adaptor unplugged, and a fully charged battery in the machine.

Back to the same old "no boot" symptoms. I have a feeling the thing will come back to life in a day or two after the battery has been removed.

Anyone familiar with the charging system, or have any ideas what could be affected by leaving the battery in place when the machine has been shut down properly? This same symptom has happened before to me.

I am still leaning towards a problem with the system ROM

Well, Im new to the "club". My GFs laptop is the case 2 problem. All I get is an AC power light when plugged into the wall.

I have done a bit of research on this laptop and had it completely apart various times. Im becoming very familiar with it.

Every time I take it apart, it will start and run for a day or so. Then it goes back to the same problem.

Heres what Ive done so far:
Re-soldered various connections on the main board.
Replaced the DC charger board
Refit all connections posible.
Pulled mainboard battery(CMOS)

Heres a question for all of you with the case 2 problem. If you fully charge your battery, then let the laptop sit for a week or so unplugged and unused, does the battery go dead? Ive got two batteries, one is brand new and one is original. Both will go completely dead while sitting inside the laptop for a week. There has to be a current draw somewhere or a diode not doing its job. This is why I replaced the charger board. My other thought is that a ribbon may be shorting out, especially the one that goes from the main board to the touch-pad. I checked, rechecked, insulated ect, but that did nothing as well. Something has to be loose. If it were bad, the computer would not work at all, but this one does from time to time, like others do.

I hope this gives some more info to work with. Im about ready to put a new board in it. I found one for $280 including processor. I dunno??

I found the same thing which thomas found that
"Every time I take it apart, it will start and run for a day or so. Then it goes back to the same problem. "

For my laptop, you have to take the mainboard out and leave it one or two days, then it will work for a day or two after you put it back together. I cant figure out what changed after take the mainboard out?

Hope someone can find out why.

Regards

Bai Zho

I have the same problem in my presario 1200XL. I only get the AC power led on and nothing else. I took my computer to a technical assistance here in Brazil(not Compaq) and I was told that I had a problem in the power source circuit. I should replace the motherboard, which would cost R$ 1,400.00 (about US$ 483.00) or I could have it fixed (seems like in Brazil there are some people who can fix this problem) and it would cost R$ 980.00 (about US$ 338.00). It would be nice if a used-properly working unit of this model didnt cost between US$ 450.00 / 500.00.

I decided not to have mine fixed and look for information on how can I fix it myself (as it can be fixed).

I was also told that this is a very common problem in this model and it happens the sooner as more the computer is used. Mine took 4 years to get into this situation, although it passed through the fases that it would only turn on if i took the battery of and connected it again. The same failure is supposed to happen again some time later if I change the motherboard.

This may be a good starting point for you to keep looking, as I will.

Gustav

I have a working 1200-XL118. I have also come across this problem a couple of days ago. (I dont remember if I was group 1 or 2) but what I did to fix my problem was reseat the cpu. I am gonna try to get the problem again by not seating the cpu properly and see what happens. I will post it after I am done. Hope that this will give a little insite to what the problem maybe also If there are anyother suggestions on things I can try I would gladly try them to help u guys out

I figured out the best way to go about this problem... I just sold mine on ebay.com for $200

I told the buyer that there was something wrong with it... and I still got a great price!

This is last resort though...

P.S. if you take out your battery and unplug your laptop for 2 days... just plug the AC back... it SHOULD start up right away, but will not run forever... just until whatever happens happens again =

I unproperly seated my cpu and got the group 1 problem. HD/cd/light reseated my cpu properly and booted up just fine. I have also overclocked(oc) my laptop and If I oc my laptop to high I fall under group 2 nothing but a power light. I know that is because the cpu is generating way tomuch heat and will not work. so It maybe a heat issue for group 2. just my 2 cents if someone wants me to try something else with my laptop let me know maybe working backwards to get the problem will come up with a soultion

Hello All

I am a new member to the club!

I, too, am having the same problems. I just bought my Compaq Presario 1200 (XL110) for my birthday in February (used, from the local paper).
When I arrived to view the laptop, he had it running (that seemed strange, but I didnt question it). Everything seemed to be fine and working good. I brought it home, I used the discs that he provided to recover the original win 98se version, upgraded to win ME. Everything seemed to be going fine. I used it for 2 days, then....

I turned my laptop on, after it was sitting for 2 days with no use, (had to use the power cord, because the battery wouldnt hold a charge) The Compaq Logo came up on the screen, then....NOTHING!!! I was so upset! I had to shut it down the improper way (Ctrl + Alt + Delete wouldnt work to shut it down). I then proceeded to restart, but nothing... The power cord light was on, the battery light was on, the power light was on, and the far right light (some kind of lock) was on, it clicked a few times... it goes clear threw to the floppy drive then gets hung up there. Just keeps trying to get past that... makes a recurring noise.

So.... I took it to a local computer shop, he said it might me the floppy drive and he would look at it for me. He got back with me and he said he couldnt bring it up and said he thought it might be the mother board! Yesterday, I made arrangements to take it to someone else for a second opinion. Last night I used the web to search for a probable cause, and found this website.

All I got to say is, WOW!
All of us has the same problem!!!. The reason I thought I was getting a good computer is, my sister has had a Compaq Presario desktop for the last 8 years and has not had any trouble with it. I guess she is one of the lucky ones.

Please include me in your endeavors
Compaq Presario 1200-XL110 (Series CM2070)

Good luck to all, and thank you for this forum.
Barbi

I also have the same problem with a Presario 1200 xl-103... I m in club 2... Just the green led of DC... Nothing else...I checked almost everything ...Evetything seems to be fine...but just the green DC light..

12XL125 GLOB: As a member of the GLOB club I wanted to add my news.

See previous posting for background info. Found motherboard and dc charger board on the internet. Prices varied greatly, but found mobo for $229.00 and dc board for $14.00. Removed and replaced same items.

Only problem was setting up the dip switches. Couldnt decide which setting to use. My choices were: the settings as received from the supplier, or to use the settings from the service manual, or duplicate the settings from the old mobo. I opted for the old mobo settings and have started the laptop up and so far it works.

As a note. To seat the CPU I had to use **LOTS** of pressure to get the CPU base to "snap" into place. There is a small plastic piece that fits into the CPU base to lock the base into the locked position.

I sure wish Compaq/HP would change the design of the mobo to preclude this from happening again. This is the 2d time Ive had the mobo fail and both times it was the GLOB failure mode!

Good luck to all other club members

Hi i am new to the club but not to the problem.

I have a Presario, when turning on I can here a short burst of activity from the hdd, and the dvd drive will eject but thats all.
I have got a faulty battery which has got worse over time and will now not hold enough charge to boot. So i just use the mains cable. I did notice that before this the laptop was getting very hot, so i turned it off and its hasnt been back on since.

I dont know what to do! There are so many suggestions on here that to try them all would be pricey

Umm! Guess this makes me the newest member of the G.L.O.B. Club?
(Hope its not a 12 step program!)
System: Compaq Presario 1200 XL118 (Stock)
About 1 1/2 yrs ago my laptop froze while booting, turned off the unit by pulling the A/C cord and poping out the battery. Set it aside for a few hours and then re-connected it. Nothing except a Single Green Light! (A/C) Replaced the battery (Nada!) Replaced the A/C cord and power pack (Zip!) 7 months ago I replaced the Voltage Controller(used). worked well untill 2 weeks ago. Back to the single green a/c light.
Also I have found that there is hundreds if not thousands of others with the same problem......Defective Product??
Just My 2-Cents.
Thanks,
Willia

My 2700US laptop was dead, with that annoying green light. The problem originally started when some keys stopped working, then it went dead entirely. A local computer shop wanted to replace the motherboard for $800. I bought another laptop, and heres what I did with the 2700:

1. Opened it up - remove battery, keyboard, HDD, DVD, top, display
2. Replace CMOS (CR2032) with a new one
3. Put it all back together

XP booted up, but some of the keys were not working - like in the very beginning.

1. Stripped it down again
2. Replace CMOS (CR2032) with another new one
3. Found a funny thing - the keyboard, touchpad and the PCMCIA were all connected to a daughterboard. Thisdaughterboard plugs into the motherboard using a huge plastic connector. This daughter board was screwed to the motherboard on one side, and was not held tight enough on the side of the connector. The Connector was loose, and a good push set it in. Nothing can guarantee that itll hold there. A few shakes, and itll be out.
4. Put it all back together

This time, everything is fine, keyboard is fine, XP boots up and the P-iii 1Ghz is roaring.

Its a design defect - there isnt enough to keep the daughterboard plugged into the motherboard

I dont think it could be my video card because it happened to my computer before i had one in it. after it froze on me when i was shutting down, the only way to shut off was to pull the power cord. The next time i went to turn on it turned on when i plugged in the power cord, and nothing came onto my screen. than after a week of sitting around it worked, so than i went out and bought a graphics card and was working fine until one day when i went to turn my computer on, nothing came onto screen and my computer was running still. fans on both motherboard and battery are on. however nothing comes onto screen. when i do hold the power button for 5secs it shuts off. And i know the monitor is working because the screens goes dim when i shut comp off. Anyone have any suggestions :) thank you for any :

Concerning the desktop that has no video:

I would try to remove and reseat the video card if you havent done so yet. There is a chance that the video board has slowly moved, ever so slightly, in the slot. Ive had this happen to my desktop before.

I think its called "board creep".

Good luck

Howdy Im in the Power light nothing else group. My XL-111 has been my work in progress for a while. I think everyone had the same problem and then took out the battery and put it back in and it worked. Which lead me to believe it was the voltage converter. Before I switched it out for a supposedly "good" one I tested the outpt prongs to the battery. First one nothing, second one had voltage (I dont remember how much but it was hot maybe 5 volts goinf through), the rest of the prongs had nothing. After I switched the voltage converter and tried it same as usual green light no charge on battery. So I tested the second prong again to see if it was hot. Now it barely came up on my meter, like barely 1 volt was going through. SO I put back the old voltage conveter and now its the same voltage as the other. Barely anything is going through to the battery, which is why it wont start up! duh. So I just wanted to put that up on here to help anyone out. I think somethings either a short on the mother board where something shouldnt be grounded. I duno. Anyone feel the same way?? Over and out

Hello All...
I am another dissatisfied customer...with the same problem power on...green light....no display...nothing....HP has offered no real help...I will keep looking for posted suggestions for fixing the problem

Hi guys,...from bonnie Scotland

i just spent 1 hour typing out some help on this subject, but when i hit the "edit" button it was wiped. DRAT !!

in short.... i swapped parts on TWO 1200,s and still have no answers, except that it appears to be the Motherboard/bios.

if i find the answer i will post here.

Dont buy any more 1200,s meantime !!

SCOTT

well folks. I just finished quality work for a client who didnt want this broken laptop which had been sitting in his closet for years.... its a 1200x-111. Im not out any money however im disgusted at the amount of posts for the same problem for the same model. How can HP possibly deny this is a defect which should be repaired at their expense? To put it simply. This IS illegal. I am personally responsible for atleast 10 - 20,000 dollars a year in sales of HP / Compaq products. so be it... Lexmark or another brand for printers, dell for laptops / desktops... etc. If any reps of HP happen to read these posts you would be wise to address each customer, and even more the wise to correct this problem. This is CLEARLY a case of faulty equipment, fix the problem!
-Andrew
Calgary Albert

Hello, I have the 1277 with the no display problem. It did work like 2 weeks ago when I sold it on Ebay. When it was shipped and recieved by the buyer it was DOA. It was shipped back and after reading this post, I tried the CPU snap thingy. I pushed so hard that the tip of the flat head screwdriver broke. I powered up and it booted! I super glued it and threw away the brown cpu lock. Now it boots on AC and old used batteries. Thanks guys! Hope this helps

This possible solution might help for Presario laptop Models 1200 - XL120 through XL127.

After my laptop sat (since last shut down) for 57 hours and 15 minutes it booted properly. To drain all circuits, the main battery and AC power should be disconnected...let it sit for at least 50 hours... plug in the battery while pressing the ON/off button...if it doesnt start the HD...unplug the battery and let it sit for another hour. Try this method until it boots...then try the next steps.

I disabled the hibernation function (and set the system turn off to NEVER) in Control panel, Power Options and downloaded the Compaq BIOS flash (SP15303) here: http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/softwareDownloadIndex.jhtml?reg=&cc=us&softitem=33417&prodId=compaqpres95041&lc=en&plc=&sw_lang=en&pagetype=software

and installed per screen instructions....it apparently corrected three problems:
Added support for resume from Hibernation...fixed the Hibernation function and corrected the power on function ..where more that one button push is required.

This BIOS flash is for specific Presario models 1200 XL120 through XL127... you should ensure your precise model is listed in the flash information text or locate the correct one for your computer. Otherwise, if you flash with the wrong BIOS instructions....it could make your problem worse.

So far, 12 hours later...the computer will power on...sit and cool down and complete a new boot each time in perfect order.

The first boot after the BIOS flash, it just spun the HD and the Compaq logo boot screen did not appear. I held down the on/off button until it powered off. Waited 30 seconds and pressed the power button again...it come on did a good POST, booted into WINXP and has behaved since....after 11 power offs and on...each time I let it sit and cool off completely....

All applications run well and WINXP is functioning OK...I had it multitasking with six simultaneous functions.

So....hopefully this will take care of the problem on my system...I still think the BIOS or CMOS circuit and Hibernation functions were corrupted and working together to prevent a proper POST and boot. The BIOS flash seemed to clear up what ever problem it had...so far.

W.Kilcreas

hi oscar,

tried the "Rammit" thingy with the CPU, but to no avail.

mine has:
power light, on,
mains light, on,
laptop switches on with the power button,
cd works, and tries to read
floppy isnt interested in doin anything,
hard disk spins,
no beeps or sound
CPU heats up as expected,
blank screen as usual.

using what you might expect from a standard PC diagnosis, the system bios will check for the default boot method, if indeed the bios is in control.
with mine it checks the cd-rom, it spins the hard drive, but doesn,t access the floppy..(i,ve tried two floppies) and the processor gets hot.

i feel i am very close to working this out, but there is a clue missing. (maybe a hibernation/sleep code ??
...any of you good at cross-words.lol

will keep you posted.

Scott

hi again,

for anyone really interested in resolving this issue, there is a lot of valuable diagnostic info in the attached URL (on this site)

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/UCR/SupportManual/TPM_120205-002/TPM_120205-002.pdf

however, having spent a few hours checking up on all of the available technical available here, i dont hold out any hope of a solution from Compaq H/P as i note that in certain already identified problem areas, there is no resolution to some of them at date of writing.

i have identified that there are MANY reasons why we are all experiencing these GLOB problems, and they range from :

incomatable cd/dvd roms
faulty CPU,S
faulty motherboards
incompatable modems,
faulty screens and inverters
and the list goes on, and on.

this is the reason you have had no input from Compaq/HP is...... the problem is too variable, and complex to assign to any one piece of hardware.

in the majority of GLOB servicing directives from HP, their technicians are advised to replace the system board eventually. if all else fails.

i have unfortunately reached the end of my research into this phenomenon, as it appears to be an open ended problem, and can only hope that someone eventually comes across a "typical" resolution of the problem for the benefit of all of you.



regards
Scott

It seems to me, being an owner of a 1215us, that all of the fixes presented on this thread relate to a design/manufacturer flaw. My notebook has always had these phantom problems, and eventually my original 20Gb harddrive came apart internally. I knew this by the telltale grinding noise coming from the hard drives vicinity. The laptop was used as my home DVD player and someone broke the headphone jack out of it. Ok, I could no longer use headphones, but the built in speakers still worked so I refrained from tearing it down. Later, I personally tripped over the power cord, answering the phone, and that was that. Over a year after fixing the jacks(both attached directly to the motherboard) is when the HDD died. Enough rambling, now to my point. Since most(all) the time when anything happens with a laptop, the thing has to come apart, HP(Compaq) has everyone to beleive that they are the only ones capable of fixing them, but they are wrong

I am not an expert by any means, but it only adds to the proof that anyone can to anything. My laptop began to present these problems momentarily before the HDD failure. Just dont be afraid. Use a large table, and static control, and as long as you are using the proper tools, ie a torx driver not a flat bladed screwdriver, you will never physically damage anything. Just be sure and replace the heat sink grease thats between that large aluminum plate and the CPU. Also, be sure to release the CPU before pushing it in, or else youll end up with a permanently loose chip,ie the silver lever on the side of the CPUs mount. Also, if ever you have something like this apart, work very slowly, and methodically. The case cannot touch the motherboard anywhere except where its supposed to. If you resolder the power jack, be sure there isnt enough solder there to even almost touch that case. It may look plastic, but that copper sheilding paint on the inside is conductive. In the bottom of the main board, after removing it from the case, there are two small brass contacts that ground the main board, they are very sensitive and could possibly be touching something that they arent supposed to. I have, as I said before, had my notebook apart many times, sometimes not getting it to work just after. Thus I had to re-disassemble it only to find something loose, or a solder joint I missed, or excess solder laying on the board somewhere where it wasnt supposed to be. All in all, after buying a new hard drive, replacing RAM, battery, supply cord, and jacks, my notebook now runs beautifully. Updating ROM and drivers may be difficult, but I suggest HPs chat help for them. The HP website should have all of them, but if youre upgrading to different versions of Winblows(oh excuse me) try the chat, they hooked me up within seconds with all the drivers(all updated) I could ever ask for, and it was free

I have a similar issue with a 1200XL-111 laptop. It sometimes boots up and freezes after 15-20 seconds, and in other cases it will not power up (only single green light is lit)
I finally realized that the cooling fans are not spinning any more (the 2 fans at the back).
I was able to boot up and shut down when using a hair dryer pointed at the rear cooling fans.
Can anyone suggest how I can fix or replace these cooling fans ?
Is there any link to dis-assembly instructions

Service manual is available here for $8 + shipping:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3475602182&category=31534

HTH

Roge

hi kalda,

i am of the opinion that may not be your fans that are at fault, and that it is more likely your heatsink for the CPU.
if the heatsink (which is more readily replaceable) is not functioning properly, and keeping your cpu cool, then the laptop will shut down.
the heatsink also swithes the fans on when it gets hot enough.
it may be worthwhile taking the heatsink out, and re-applying the conductive paste between the cpu and the heatsink.

worth a try anyway.

scott

Mine does the same thing. Just found out that it was a faulty power cord. The little silver part that plugs directly into the computer was loose and eventually just broke off. WHen it did we discovered that the negative connection had been broken, and that unless the computer sat just right, there was not enough power getting to the unit to power it up. (Explaining the green light with no real power) this also led to a problem with my battery not charging up so the computer didnt have a back up source to go to. I found I sometimes got messages saying that I should save my work because the battery didnt have much power... when I was plugged into the wall. I realize now I should have paid more attention to why this notice came up. Many of you may try a new power cord. We had to solder mine and its worked fine ever since

Hi Guys. I have a Compaq 1200XL125 for the last two years. Today I got a membership for
the GLOB club. After reading all the messages in this forum (I spent more than three hours to do that), I concluded that I have to send my notebook to the trash. I am going to buy a desktop and stop using notebooks. Good luck to all of you that are members of the GLOB club as I am

I just got a Presario 1210US from an angry client. The power adapters light is green. The green light indicating power on the laptop is green. When i try to fire it i get fans, hard drive, power light on, but no video, sounds, etc. The cdrom will also open, but that may be irrelivant.

I think that you are all having the same problem, but is anyone experienced with this specific model

I can power my 1200XL-111 all the way with a little help from a hair dryer (blowing cold air towards the rear fans)
I therfore conclude that I have a cooling issue, and I wonder if the heatsink is bad or the fans or the heat sensor or all of the above.
Can anyone recommend what is the best way to determine what is really the problem causing the CPU to heat up and freeze

I have just performe some tests in my presario that I would like to share with you. I have a presario that started to show all the problems related above (defect of type II - only the green light and no activity if I press the on/off switch). If I take the batteries out and keep the unit unpluged from AC for five or six hours, It is possible to turn the unit on (without the batteries). I was able to back up all my files. I tried to turn the unit on and off many times and got no problem. When I take the unit out of the AC, I have to wait for another five or six hours to turn the unit on again. It seems to me some kind of problem in the DC converter. One interesting thing is that if I keep trying turn the unit on (I do that keeping the on/off switch pressed and plugging the unit in the AC) sometimes I get some activity (fans on, CD activity, etc) but no logo screen. I will try to disasemble the unit this weekend to try to figure out what is going on. By the way, does anyone know where to get a copy of the schematic circuit of the DC converter for the presario 1200XL125

My Presario 1200 has been up and behaving for over two weeks now.

Possible solutions
1: Heat sink is not fimly atached to CPU..Soultion: Buy some heat sink compound at Radio Shack and apply to the top of the CPU. The CPU and heatsink must be firmly atatched, otherwise the fan does not work properly

2: You might need to replace the CMOS battery (under the Modem... see link to assembly instructions below)Replacement requires the BIOS to be run and I used the default settings and hit"SAVE".Then reboot.
Note: Word of advice here...do not unattach the ribbon cables for the keyboard and palm rest.

3:If your BIOS is not upto date....Update and flash the BIOS...must accept a 100% install. Reboot at least three times
Run system to check all circuits.

Link to How to disassemble all Presario 1200;
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/athome/support/msgs/1270-1675/newp1.html


To get to what is required for the CMOS battery replacement and the CPU heatsink....remove the three case screws in the front and the one screw in the main battery opening...then pry apart the case at the front GENTLY...there are two plastic retaining hooks that will pop apart with gentle pressure.

Good luck.

Bil

Just want to clarify.
Are U saying the keyboard and touchpad do not need to be disconnected for replacing the battery and re-attaching the heatsink

The keyboard and touchpad-palm rest are connected to the MOB by ribbon cables and the keyboard can be slide slightly forward and then turned upside down and laid onto the plam rest...this will expose the heat sink...a 2.5 inch by 6inch piece of silver metal...fastened to the MOB by three screws....The heatsink will be adhered to the top of the CPU with double sided tape...it can be pulled loose gently(do not bend the metal)...reapply the heat sink compound to the top of the CPU and the top of the three screws....

If you are replacing the CMOS battery..it is under the modem...the 1 inch by 1.5 inch rectanglular small board held by three screws...on the left side of the case...(to the left of the CPU) the CMOS battery is under the booard...The modem is also plugged into a socket on the forward edge.The battery is held in place by a small clip in the front...gently pushed it back and the battery will pop out.

You will probably need a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers.

Bil

Ive a presario 1200 & 1685 both also with green light only and no display. for the 1200 at first Ive check with multimeter on the capacitor below the cpu and it shows no voltage and the processor get bout 10mins to get hot. then I check the MAX1636 and it seems that theres no supply to trigger it so I check the osc and theres no signal to it too. I then jump a cable to trigger the osc and now finally the cpu get hot very fast and the capacitor indicates 2.2V but still no display. For the 1685 the processor get hot fast and the voltage there also indicates 2.2v but still no signal. Ive checked both processor on a AMD board and it seems that both of the cpu is working fine and in good conditioin. Anyone here with electronic skill & dare to repair mobo? I think we can workout something here. Please mail me if you do. Thanks ":

POSSIBLE NEW TWIST ON GREEN-LIGHT-ONLY SITUATION!?!?
Hi There!
Im a UK member of the Green-Light-Only club:- Presario 1200XL122. However, I would like everyones advice on whether I have two seperate problems or if all my symptoms are related (I have only been using computers for a few years and have very basic knowledge, so please excuse me if I sound completely stupid!). I shall explain...
When my Presario was just thirteen months old, it broke down. I was told it needed a new motherboard and that I was looking at hundreds of pounds. I phoned Compaq and complained, and they finally agreed to repair it for free even though it was a month out of guarantee.
The repair was great and I had no problems until about eighteen months later when the Presario started automatically doing Surface Scans on the C-drive and finding bad clusters (to which I clicked repair). When it had finished, it would say something about "at least one area of the C-drive has sustained actual physical damage. This may be due to an isolated incident such as a power cut, but it is usually a sign of impending hardware failure" (I cant remember the exact words, but it was something like this). It did this a few times and then was fine for months, but a few months before Christmas it started doing it again until it was doing it every time I turned the Presario on, and was finding hundreds of bad clusters.
One day, just before Christmas, I turned it on just before I went out, and it again started doing a surface scan. I decided to leave it doing this while I went out, but when I came back a couple of hours later, it had turned itself off (this is something that has never happened - I have never been aware of this hibernate mode you speak of - the screen would stay exactly as it was however long I left it for!?!).
That night, I turned it on again, and sure enough it started the surface scan again, HOWEVER, when it came to a bad cluster and I clicked repair it didnt respond. I then found the power button wasnt responding, had to unplug it to turn it off, it wouldnt turn back on again, and green-light-only-syndrome ever since (it was just 3 and a half years old when this happened, 2 and a half years since the motherboard was replaced).
One thing which may interest you is that I think my battery is completely knackered (as we say in the UK!) - I have barely ever used the Presario without mains power, and have not bothered to (and dont know how to) condition the battery. The battery charge lights stopped doing anything some time ago, and if ever I forgot to plug it in before I turned it on, it would turn off after just a few seconds life (this was up until the green-light problem - I have had no signs of life since except that green light).
I have had two different experts look at it since, and all theyve been able to tell me is that "all the componants are working, so it must be that you need a new motherboard, and thats not worth the money so chuck it in the bin and buy a new one from me"!
I hope this may give some of you new ideas about the green-light problem, but I would really like to know whether my surface scan problems are related to the green-light-death, or do you think Ive got two seperate problems here (I havent seen anyone mention anything similar on this board yet)?
If there is anyone in the south-east of England, UK, who would like to have a poke about with one of these green-light compaqs, I have one right here for you!
Thanks ever so much to anyone who has taken the time to read this - any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Jane.
PS: Since my Presario broke, I have very little access to computers, so it may take me some time to reply to any messages - but I will be back soon!!! - Many Thanks!!

... I FORGOT TO ADD...

... When I took my Presario to the first expert and explained what had happened, he immiediately changed the c-drive, but when he went to turn it on, he found it didnt work. Also, I dont think it can be anything to do with the little metal power socket thingy, as this came loose some time ago and was fixed by the flex being soldered into the socket.
Just thought Id add this...
Thanks

Hi Jane,

Perhaps some of the following suggestions might be of help.

I have a Presario 12XL126 with the power on problem and solved it with the following steps.
However it sounds to me as if your Hard Drive was slowly going bad over a period of time and when the read head finally came to rest on the disk...is caused a default surge that turned off the computer and might have caused damage to the BIOS or Motherboard. To determine if you can re-activate it ...you might try these steps. THIS IS ASSUMING THE BAD HD WAS REPLACED???

1: Unplug the power cord and remove the main battery.
2: Hold down the on/off button for 1 minute (to discharge all remaining power from the capacitors)
3: Let the computer sit for 5 (five) days...occasionally holding down the power button.

4: After the five days...replace the main battery ...plug in the power and try to power on the computer....if successful go this link:::

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?product=95041&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&os=20

and download the Presario 1200 system ROM update (This is for models XL120 though XL127)...follow the on screen instructions to flash the BIOS...if successful, then re-boot.

However, if the first three steps are NOT successful...you will need to remove the CMOS battery within the case and put in an exact replacement...this is not as hard or as complicated as first appearance....you only need to remove the three screws in the front of the case and the one in the main battery compartment. Lift out the palm rest and then lift out the keyboard...DO NOT disconnect the ribbon cables to either...you can easily fold the keyboard back onto the back of the palm rest....this will expose the metal heat sink...held down by three screws...remove them and gently lift out the heat sink...it will be attached to the top of the CPU by double stick tape...it will come free by gently lifting it straight out...do not bend the metal...

BTW...all power and main battery should be removed to dismantle the case.


The CMOS battery is under the small little (1x1.5 inches) board on the left side of the case, immediately above the HD. It is held down by three screws...and it also has a male/female socket underneath...so gently rock it to either side until it is free...The CMOS battery is then apparent...round about the size of a US dime....It will pop out if you gently pressure the little retaining wire on the front toward the case front...it is like a spring...down is negative and up is positive, when replacing.

You will need to apply some heat sink compound to the top of the CPU and the bottom of the metal heat sink (available from Radio Shack, small white tube)...then close up the case...make sure the keyboard is in the right position and the palm rest is locked in the front..then replace the screws. Replace the main battery and plug in the power...press the power button...if it turns on..let it boot as far as it will go...the screen will have streaks and spots missing....turn it off and reboot..while pressing (several times) F10...this will put you into BIOS setup...follow the on screen instructions to operate the key commands..

First: reset the time and date...

Then scroll over to exit and click on default setting... exit and save settings.

The computer should then power off...reboot and it should run like new.
Email me at address below if the above does not work, with a description of the result or new problem.

Good Luck

Bil

So I have a Compaq Presario 1200 with this problem. I want to try the battery thingâ?¦ but I have no idea where the battery is. Any h

I have the same problem: my presario 2700 EA doesnt boot, I see the green light of power on and i see the noise of the fans but nothing happens.
I have tried to remove the battery and to boot letting the computer plugged in but its the same.
It doesnt boot from cd too.
Thank

Today is May 16th. I reluctantly join this club. I have the Compaq Presario 1200-XL111 which gets green lights and start up sounds (fans & hard drive) but no display at all.
This began when the large battery was accidently removed and then plugged back in. All of a sudden, no dispay at boot. I have read all the above messages with no luck to fix. Now what? If I buy another notebook computer it will NOT be a Compaq. Please keep listing your ideas on how to fix. Thank

Another victim.

1200-XL103 GLOB.

Didnt cost me much but a lot of time. Wish Id read this forum before paying out.

Tried everything suggested and still no good

I too have this problem. I purchased a NEW batter and a NEW power cord. The computer does absolutely nothing. This has to be a manufacturer problem

I have a Presario 1200 xl 103. I have the same problem - the green light comes on but nothing happens beyond that. The battery is not in the machine - it was never any good so I stopped carrying it around a long time ago.

I sent the machine to tech support on three seperate occasions, each time noting this as a problem. I have a ton of new components, but I have the same problem Ive always had. Its not the internal battery or the motherboard or the power supply. Its some other problem that either they dont understand or arent willing to own. Obviously, its systemic or there wouldnt be all these messages about it.

I have done the power drain more times than I can count. That, too, is a waste of time and energy.

Im more than a little irritated that this problem was not fixed, despite my continual requests and repeated packaging to send it in. Now the warranty is out and I have a piece of equipment that is unuseable.

If anyone has a real solution, Id certainly LOVE to hear it. But, trust me, I know from experience that replacing the mother board and the power supply and the battery and a dozen other things will not fix the problem. The problem remains.

Im not an electronics person, but it seems to me like its as simple as a switch that isnt functioning properly. I could never seem to get anyone to actually check that, despite my repeated requests. They would run diagnostics on it but not check the problem Ive been having since practically day one

I cant believe there are so many of us. Today is the first day I have researched this problem. Im going to have the data taken off the HD tomorrow. Please count me in if you pursue legal recourse. This is ridiculous. Margare

I have a Presario XL125 with the same green light only problem. I have tried all the fixes listed, but nothing helped

Hi,

I have Compaq Presario 1260 laptop that is now abt. 4-5 yrs old. Nice, little machine, used pretty well. Was mad because the NeoMagic (NM2160) Video chip in this machine does not support H/W graphic accelaration. However, the sticker from Compaq that came with machine, clearly states that there is 128 bit H/W video accelaration. Came to know abt. that after 1 yr. warranty expiry.

Here is a variation on the Power on Green light - No other activity problem.

About 4 weeks ago, the machine suddnly powered off. Battery was drained to the last ounce. Took almost 2 days to re-charge.

Currently, the machine works only when the battery and the adapter are connected to the machine. The battery drains out in an hour and the machine switches off.

If the machine is started with adapter only, the green power-on light lits; pressing power-on button, 1 click is heard from speakers and then nothing, no Hard-disk or floppy or CD-ROM activity, no glow in the TFT screen.

I have observed these following points since the problem started,

- When I connect the DC power adapter to my machine, the power-on indicator in the adapter and the machine blink 2 - 3 times and then they start flickering as if AC power (50/60 Hz) is being fed to machine. The power-on light on adapter remains rock steady (No Blinking on Flicker) when the adapter is not connected to machine.

- I measured voltage on the output of adapter. When not connected to PC, adapter outputs 19.3 Volts DC as stated. When connected to PC, the voltage drops to 12 Volts DC (And the power-on light on adapter starts flickering). This indicates heavy loading of power supply (but not sure as true readings from Compaq not available).

- Now, If I insert battery in the battery compartment, the voltage at the adapters output further drops to 9 Volts DC.

- Battery charging time has increased to days insteaqd of hours. Previously, the battery would charge in about 4-6 hrs. Have 2 batteries and for both, the charging time went into days. Batteris are holding charge @100% for last week or so, while out of machine; hence BAD batteries does not seem to be the case.

I have not tried the solutions described elsewhere in this group, but plan to try them in near future.

With Regards,

Ravi

hi ravi,

i have come across this problem with a compaq 1700xl*** 650mhz where the transformer/charger went into fast blink mode and nothing else would power up.

i had to take the thing apart to find out what the problem was, and was amazed to find a 12mm long screw lying on the motherboard,
i removed the screw .and lo and behold everything went back to normal, and worked perfectly.
lord only knows where that screw came from, but it lived up to its name, and screwed everything up. ...."for a while"

obviously you have a similar problem with either condensation, a screw, or some other item causing a short circuit which is re-routing the power.

obviously your problem is not a "glob" problem in the true sense of glob , as i still have 2 non-working glob 1200 machines here with me, which i have mentioned at length in previous posts.

anyway, hope this gives someone a clue on this particular "power supply indicator" problem.

best regards
Scott

Hi Scott,

Thank you for giving me some pointers.

Although, I thought the same, the thing that foxes me is,

- Put in battery and connect charger to machine. The power led in charger, the battery charging led and the laptop DC power led, all fast blink. But the machine boots and works.

- Take out the battery. Connect only charger to machine. The power led in charger and the laptop DC power led fast blink. Now if I try to power on machine, then I have classic GLOB symptoms (Power LED on, nothing works).

The pt. 2 above made me say that this may be a variation on classic GLOB symptom.

Has anyone tried to switch on the GLOB machine with fully charged battery in the laptop and charger connected to machine at the same time ?

With Best Regards,

Ravi

i have changed the CMOS battery but the problem persist

Im having the same problem. This really stinks. The computer would not shut down, I pulled the battery, now it will not power up and all I ave is the green light on the front.

Add me to the class action suit please

I need to get myself on this list since my compaq died one month after the warranty ran out, how convenient, right? Weird thing is, my compaq is a 700 series and everyone on here seems to have a 1200. The problem is the same though, hit the power button, watch the green light come on and nothing else.

Cha

Add me to the list. I have a Presario 1200XL
I hope Richard Omara will share with us his progress with HP on this matter and hopefully a satisfactory conclusion to this matter.
Does anyone know whether the monitor on the Laptop can be used as a second monitor

Maybe the CD-ROM is just corrupt.....

You may then just need a new printer cable at the most.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Keep on trucking.

Keeping it Real

1200-XL118 No video, Floppy runs, Same as the rest. And School starts in one hour. NO LAPTOP

I came upon this thread by accident and became interested in it.

I was given a Presario 1200 12XL505 by a friend who replaced it. It wouldnt power up one morning and while it was "trying", she smelled a burning smell. The case started to melt at the botom of the LCD display by the 1200 logo. She immediately shut it down and took it to Compaq repair. they said it couldnt be fixed and sold her a new one.

I took it to a friend who dabbles in electronics and likes a challenge. Long story short, he found a short and replaced the Inverter Board (part# 2221441-001-IB.

Ive been using it now a couple of weeks and no problems with it. I dont know if this could be anyone elses problem, but since she said that it wouldnt power up, I thought it might be worth a try for you. The cost of the part was $90 and I gave my friend $30 for his work.

Hope this helps someone

I had the exact same problem as everyone else. The only difference is I have a Compaq 900 series. I wrote it off as dead until I found this forum and thought there may be hope. Here are the exact steps I took to fix it (working perfectly 4+ hours a day for 3 weeks):

1.) Bought a Husky 8-piece Torx driver (5.99 at Home Depot, SKU #165355)

2.) Carefully remove the F2 key. Use a flat metal object to pry up the thin plastic piece that is immediately above the keyboard.

3.) Lift the keyboard out of the way. Underneath, you will see a metal plate (heat sink) on the left hand side. It has four torx screws holding it in place.

4.) Remove the 4 screws. Also remove the screw that is holding the fan to the heat sink. Remove the heat sink.

5.) Underneath will be the CPU. Use the lever to remove it. Carefully reseat it and refasten the lever. Place the heat sink back on and reinsert all of the screws. Tighten the screws until they are firmly in place.

6.) Check to make sure the the power lines to the fan are firmly in place.

7.) Put together the rest of the laptop.

8.) Download hMonitor from http://www.hmonitor.com/

9.) Install it and set the CPU warning level to 55 deg C. This will cause the fan to automatically run at 60 deg C and cool the system to 50 deg C. My laptop did not work fully until I added this software!

Sorry for the excruciating detail, but it took me some experimentation to get everything working just right. Looking back, I had two problems with my system:

1.) The heat sink was not completely flush with the CPU.
2.) The fans were not kicking on with any regularity.

Steps #1 - #7, solved the first problem. Step #8 and #9 solved the second.

This method has completely solved the problem for my Compaq 905US, but obviously could be model specific. Try at your own risk

Hello GLOB Club !!!
Im a member of your Club!!
My Presario 1200-XL103 join to yours !!
Im Happy!
Well Done Compaq!!
After Almost 4 Hours to read all the information that i can, now i give up :-(
Tell everibody that the HP/Compaq is the best eqipment in the world and we can trust in all them !!!

I apretiate all the time dispended for all the GLOB members to solve the problem.

Im a Electronical technitian, I tried to solve the problem before i come to this page, without success, and after read all the information, nothing to report...

Give up to try to repair it.

But try to make what is more usual in all the cases analized by me:

1-Disconnect all the power source, MAIN CHARGER, BATTERY PACK, BIOS BATTERY and
"pray" for about 4 Days that your notebook starts.

2-Make as possible a bios update for the model.

3-"Pray" for the BUG to be solve.


In this moment im waiting for the next days to try power on the notebook...
IM "PRAYING

The problem is due to the defective mother board. The only way to fix the problem is by replace the mother board. As the life time forecasted for this notebook is close to end, HP wont do anything to help us and leave us alone in the dark. Next time try a Fujitsu...

Jonn

well, Im also a member of this group.
I have a compaq presario 1200XL106

I did post 2 messages but hit new message instead of reply, one message was deleted by HG,(they didnt like my vocabulary) and the other I got a reply from an HG tech. Well they called me 4 days later and gave me a free telephone call from one of there techs. I got what I payed for in the call. He just ask me to hold down power button for one min (to drain power ) then hook up battery and adapter. After I told him there was nothing but the green light showing power, he just said to send it a HP center to get looked at, probably a motherboard problem or power supply problem.

Ive had more different fixes just by reading this post.

Iam looking for a new motherboard now (already got a new battery and power adapter. Well, I guess we all learned by theyre mistakes (hp that is)....I know my next one wont be ...

I am in the doesnt turn on at all group.

I have pretty much given up on the laptop.

It stopped working when I was trying to upgrade the OS from 98 to XP...I think it made the laptop overheat and it froze and stopped working ever since.

The WinXP CD is still inside the computer and I would like to get it out...but since I cannot power on the laptop, I would have to manually take it out somehow. I took off the CD-ROM drive cover, but I dont know what to do from there. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

thanks

HI THERE,

Always keeping up to date with the compaq GLOB forum.......i noticed your problem extracting the winxp cd.

there is a tiny hole in the front face plate of the cd rom. big enought to get a large needle into.
push the needle or similar into the hole, and the cd door will open,

best regards
scott wilson .......a regular GLOB SUBSCRIBE

People,

Unfortunatelly, the problem is really in the motherboard. I have made by myself a fix in the motherboard by changing some components (and other little changes in the electric circuit). Now my Presario is ok. I know about others guys with the same problem and they fix the problem in the same way. I think you must looking for someone that know how to change this circuit.

Jonn

Jonny:

Would you consider sharing the details of your repairs?

Thanks and make a great day!

Roge

thankyou very much Scott...your solution worked and I now have the CD in my hands. I appreciate it.

Also, I am probably planning on selling this non-functional Compaq 1200 laptop for more than $100. How much do you think I could sell it for?

It has 192megs of RAM, 450mhz Athlon, 6gig HD, CD-ROM.

Thanks

Its the CPU!
Ive just had one of the recently often blackouts (GLO) on my Presario 700. So I took a screwdriver and I spread abroad it to reach for the hart. I unlocked the CPU and locked it again so hard that I almost broke screwdriver. Anyway I did not hear famous click. After putting heat spreader back and before I reassemble it completely I hit the ON button with the screwdriver. It started OK but as soon as I make little knock on heat spreader on the CPU location it turned off. So, in my case I know that it is for sure CPU, actually socket. Now I can say that I agree with the guy whose solution was reseating CPU, only problem is that I cannot reach famous click. I should take some bar for this maybe..

lvica,

your solution and description for the GLOB problem is as pertinent to this forum as your language..totally innapropriate.


FOR those of you who are interested in solving this problem ......try a mixture of ..w. kilcrease and my own options (both dated 19th june 2004)

if successful.drop in and tell us .as i currently dont have a 1200 series any longer....lol

yes a poorly seated cpu will cause problems similar to the ones loosely described by lvica....but i am nearly certain that system restore is reqd to get a non functioning 1200 working

Scott

Roger,

As I finish all documentation for these alterations, Ill make it avaiable to all of you in this forum, ok?

bye/Jonn

This is to William Christen:

Who is Vince Sardo? Would like to know before I email someone I dont know or why Im emailing him..Does it have to do with this problem?

I live out in the country so computer techs are few and far between. If anyone knows of a good one that would look at my 1200XL106 for this problem. If its reasonable enough I would ship the computer to them.

I have tried all the fixes to this problem except anything to do with actually and circuit replacements...Well any more ideas?

The restore disc wouldnt work on this computer...and I did change the cmos battery.

Next?

To the hundreds of others that have the same GLO problem I add my sympathies, but since success is so fleeting in these posts, I wanted to add my two cents worth.

I was able to resurrect a Presario 1277 using information from several of the previous posts.

My symptoms were very similar (same) as many others. No POST, only Green light.

After purchasing and replacing
1) a new LAPTOP BATTERY with a NUON NUL 18650CP16 (the cover comes attached and has to removed for the battery to work with the 1277 but that is fairly easily done), then

2) replacing the SONY CR1220 3V Lithium CMOS battery with a CR1220BP (from Batteries PLUS) and then

3) replacing the COMPAQ AC adapter with a model 177626-001 Compaq replacement adapter from House of Computers in Brea, CA.,

4) I finally RESEATED THE CPU (be sure that you LOCK the CPU firmly [but carefully] or you will not get any VIDEO, ie COMPAQ logo)

After all of these steps were completed the system did power up and I was able to use F10 to reset the BIOS settings.

I chose to customize the DOS Power settings.

I decided to set the following:

Idle Mode: Auto
Sleep Timeout: 10 minutes
Resume On Time: Off
Resume Time: 00:00:00

Hard Disk Timeout: 5 minutes

THERE NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THESE SETTINGS, BUT I FELT SINCE THE SYSTEM DID RESTART, I WOULD SHARE THEM. (You never know).

Under the BOOT tab, I selected Diskette Drive then CD then Hard Drive.

I did check my AC Adapter with a MultiMeter and found that it is outputing 40V instead of the 19V that is printed on the back of my original AC Adapter.

I expect that this may have been caused by some power surges from storms that passed through my area recently.

I hope this helps someone out there. From the reading I have done on this issue, I can tell there are a number of similar sounding problems, that may not all have the same root cause.

Best wishes, Rober

This similar problem has occured with my 1200xl also known as a 12xl430. A couple preludes to the black out included a new battery that from time to time would not fully charge unless I pulled the battery out and put it back in with a little shove. The charge light would blink until fully charged then go out. When it wouldnt charge all the way the green light would blink undlessly.
The computer would also make a strange sound from time to time. Difficult to discribe the sound though it reminded me of sounds Ive heard when using a cell phone too close to a running computer. But no phone was in use when this sound would occure. There was no association with any particular program running or a frequency of time when it would happen. There was no flicker or performance problem associated with the noise.
The total black out ( no lights ) happened thursday. Tried a variety of unplugs of AC and battery, wiggle connections etc. Then for whatever reason I picked the laptop up with battery and AC plugged in and dropped it onto the desk from about 1/2 inch. The AC and charge light came on and when I tried booting the COMPAQ screen came on, it continued to boot then died. The lights were still on. I tried the on switch again and nothing happened. Held down the on switch for 30 seconds or so and when I released it it booted but automatically went into SAFE MODE then automatically switched to Compaq knowledge base telling me about using "restore". From SAFE MODE I did a scan disc: got a message that there were errors found that would effect the performance of my computer recommending to fix them. Chose fix them. Got back to desktop in SAFE MODE and defragged. Left the computer on all day to see if I could get the battery to completely charge. The light blinked for hours. Pulled the battery and shoved it back in, got a fast blinking light that then went steady for about 5 mins then started blinking again. Repeated the battery unplug reshove thing about 3 times each time getting the same results.
Called HP who advised me that my 3 year extended warranty ran out on June 15 two days before the problem started. The thing about that is that I purchased the computer in 2001 and the extended warranty in 2002. Wouldnt a three year extended warranty take me to 2005? The person I spoke with didnt speak english too well so Im going to give HP another call today. Will let you know how it goes

My Presario 700 (722US) has had the exact same problems -- GLO. The Presario 700 series was cursed with this problem, and apparently the later models did not fare any better. Ive tried about all of the fixes Ive read about, and sometimes they work, but after a while -- Green Light Only! Again.
Im told now that I need a new motherboard, and I have a non-Compaq extended warranty that will pay for it, but I wonder if that will even work in the long run

Jamie,
Thank you for the site, but I dont think it applies to most in here as the replacement memory chips were manufactored in March 2002 and july 2003. I believe most of these GLOB problems have occured on laptops made befor these dates.I bought mine in 99, so it wouldnt be in this group. Maybe this will help newer laptops, but I dont believe it with mine. But Im sure your post will help someone...

thanks Agai

Well, same problem, new person. My 1200-XL111 froze up on me the other night. Had to remove the main battery to get it to shut off. Now I only get the green light, dark screen, no BOOT, no fans, no nothing.

After reading through this forum a bit, I tore it apart and changed the CMOS battery (the cheapest first step). The old CMOS battery (made in 1998) metered out at 2.5 volts. The new one measured 3.3 volts. So the old CMOS cell was definitely bad. Unfortunately, it didnt boot up even with the new CMOS battery.

I wonder if this problem is related to a condition that gets set up in the BIOS when the CMOS battery gets low.

I thought about reseating the processor, but theres no lever to release it. Anyone have any idea how to release the processor from a socket that has no lever

Hi there AIG


Many of These compaqs donâ??t have a lever, instead they have a slot at top and bottom of the processor seat (viewed from front ) where you place a wide screwdriver or similar in order to slacken or tighten the processor by applying angular pressure to make the processor slide from front to back thereby tightening or loosening it..

As far as freezing up is concerned, that can happen to the best of PC, S and is usually related to too many programs working at the same time , the problem seems to be how to get out of the situation without achieving GLOB status.

I donâ??t have a Compaq any more, but when I did and had the GLOB problem I did notice that my CD-ROM spun when I switched it on.

I subsequently had a GLOB problem with my ACER Travelmate, and noticed the cd-rom spinning at start up also.

Being a bit desperate, I stuck the SYSTEM RESTORE DISK into the CD ��.and lo and behold .off it went and re-set all the values of the ACER .which is now working perfectly.

I am keen to find out if the system restore disks will sort the GLOB problem on the COMPAQ,S so would be obliged if someone would give it a go, and post back here so that we can all try it.

Best re

Scott,

See my post on june 20th. I have tried it, nothing.

Jonny,

Have you documented the fixes on the MOB as of yet? looking and waiting for your response to see if any apply to mine

Thank yo

Yeah, I found the manual on the web and reseated the processor. I still have the Green Light Only (GLO) problem. This thing is dead, I mean no disks spinning no blips on the screen, no nothing. Just a green light. I metered out the external power supply (19volts) its okay too.

After looking around on the web a bit, Im fairly convinced that the processor is fried, at least thats what Im going to try next, since a replacement motherboard for this baby is $400 to $700. The reason I think its the processor is that if it were the motherboard, I would expect some sort of booting activity, even if it was garbage on the screen, or a spinning disk.

Im speculating that the low CMOS battery may have flipped a bit somewhere in the BIOS that caused the CPU to overheat and not shut down, or just to not turn the fans on when it got hot, thereby frying the processor. Just a guess though.

Anyhow, a new K6-2 500MHz socket 7 processor is only 15 bucks (free shipping) at newegg.com, so Im going to take a chance on that before I give up on this thing. I aint buying a new motherboard at that price.

What do I have to lose? 15 bucks. Everything to gain.

I figure itll take about a week to get in the mail. Ill let you guys know it works out

A.I.G.

Please do let me know about if the processor works, Have a 1200XL106. Although I did hear fan running up till it shut down.

As for a motherboard, have found a few on ebay, and have now 2 places where theyll check out my laptop and let me know if it can be fixed (for free..only paying shipping to them and return)...will wait till u find out if the processor worked first, if not will ship it off.

Ar

After reading my last message...I need to clear one thing up....they wont fix it for free,just check out the laptop for free....sorry if it was misunderstood..

This is a FYI for all who need to dessemble the laptop...this site is for Compaq Presario 1200XL 101-127. But from here you can also get other models.


http://h18027.www1.hp.com/athome/support/msgs/1200XL101-127/ch7removal.pdf.


Hope this will help..

my friend has an XL300 which suffered from the single light nothing else problem. I was able to get it to load by putting pressure on the power jack. As long as pressure was held the computer would act normally, but as soon as I let up, the computer shut down IMMEDIATELY. I sat it on a table, with a remote control sitting underneath the power jack (so the weight of the computer was applying pressure to the jack) and the computer loads normally. Obviously this is in the "Needs to be resoldered" category but not sure if Im ready to tackle that. Has anyone tried applying pressure like this to see if its a bad connection

Wanted to add my name to the growing list. I have a 12XL125. Starting about 2-months ago I started getting the green light only. When I hit the power button the fans whirl, the HD spins up... then like Simon and Garfunkel say, I get "The sound of silence".

Seems that this is a long running gremlin problem. Something I have found that works (at this time anyway) is to do the following:
- When I get the green light, I pull out the external battery, and disconnect the powercord.
- let it set for about a minute then plug in the power (which should give the green plugged in light)
- Press the power button which starts the fan and hard drive spinning.
- Pull out the power cord and immediately plug it back in. This isnt a hard boot, but rather a "Kick in the Teeth" boot.
- Immediately hit the power button again... whalla.

This leads me to beleive that the problem is associated with the power cord fitting.

Next step I will do (but havent gotten around to yet) is sell this piece of junk and see if I can find a laptop that works

Arthur,

Sorry by delay, but the fixes was made by a friend of mine, so Im waiting too by his answer in order to send the documentation to you. I hope send it to you by next week.

Br/Jonn

Okay. Finally got the new processor in the mail. Installed it. Still had the GLO problem.

Took the PC apart and looked at the DC connector. It was broken and de-soldered, so I fixed that too. Put it all back together, and still had the GLO problem.

That leaves the little power supply board with the battery connector on it, or the motherboard.

I dont know what Ill do with it at this point. Something like a boat anchor comes to mind..

AIG

Have you replaced the CMOS battery?
Updated the BIOS?
Is your OS anything other than WIN98SE?
Is the heat sink firmly attached to the top of the CPU with heat sink compound?

I suggest letting it sit with AC power and main battery unplugged for at least 5 days.

Then plug in the AC and battery and try the power on switch..if no joy, let it sit for another day and continue trying to power on.

When successful, reflash the BIOS and restore the OS back to factory original.

Good luck, Bil

William,

Yes, Ive replaced the CMOS battery. It was low (2.5v) vs. 3.3v for a new one.

Cant update or re-flash the BIOS because I cant boot the laptop. GLO = Green Light Only (no boot, no POST, no fans, no drives, no blips on the screen).

Ill try disconnecting the AC & battery + letting it sit. Ive got nothing to lose since sitting and doing nothing is what this laptop does best lately. :-D

Please see my 2 posts on Jun 27 also.

It would be nice if HP/Compaq would post the schematics of this thing on the support website. Its not like this is cutting edge new technology or anything. If theyre not going to support it, they might as well put it in the public domain

I have a presario 1200us with the same glo problem. It seems by the postings that there are hundreds of us out there. Ihave tried all the posted fixes with no luck

Someone just brought me a Presario 2100 which apparently has the same problem. So far none of the fixes has worked

I have a Presario 1200 XL-118 with this problem also. When plugged in, the power light comes on but the computer wont start. I got frusterated with it when the problem started about 6 months ago, and set it aside. A few weeks ago, I got it out again, and it booted up fine, with the exception that changing any of the power management settings in the bios caused it to freeze on the next boot up. I watched it carefully to see if the problem would reappear, and it did. When the battery charge reached 100%, the system died and wont start again. Also, the system, especially around the battery, is VERY hot (to the extent I was worried about system damage, especially with the touchpad nearby). I have opened the system and read the service manual, and I think the voltage converter/battery charger board is bad (the battery never really charged properly when it was working.) Has anyone with this problem tried replacing it with any success? (Its spare part number 352891-001.) Im considering doing this if I can get one cheap.

As a temporary fix (about 1-2 hours), try unplugging it and leaving it sit for a few weeks, until the battery dies completly. As noted above, this worked for me and gave me time to backup my data on the hard drive

I am the 1.000.000 user with the same problem !!!

My presario 1200XL101 wont boot !

I read some posts and i have a question / tip :

In some desktops (not compaq) when the bios is lost and when you turn on the computer, he try to get a copy of the bios in drive a: .
If in the mainboard has a ami bios, get the bios from manufacturer and rename it to amiboot.bin and insert in the drive a: , turn on the computer and he flash the bios autimatically .

If i can get a copy of a bios from this notebook and rename it to ???????.??? and insert the disk in drive a: .... perhaps works ???

Think this !!

"Also, the system, especially around the battery, is VERY hot (to the extent I was worried about system damage, especially with the touchpad nearby). I have opened the system and read the service manual, and I think the voltage converter/battery charger board is bad (the battery never really charged properly when it was working.) Has anyone with this problem tried replacing it with any success?"

This makes some sense and would explain my machine getting hot and the fan coming on even though I though it was powered down (but it was plugged in) although Im surprised that the fan and thermostat remain active when the computer is powered down?

"As a temporary fix (about 1-2 hours), try unplugging it and leaving it sit for a few weeks, until the battery dies completly. As noted above, this worked for me and gave me time to backup my data on the hard drive."

I find it strange that this worked (didnt work for me). Others have said that their machines run fine with NO battery (just plugged in) so just removing the battery should fix things if the problem is battery related. Maybe just chance?

To get my data back I just took the hard drive out and put it in a HDD case that I bought on Ebay for £15 which plugs into the USB2 of my desktop. Now Ive got a portable hard drive - something useful out of my Presario anyway

Jonny,
Would you consider posting your friends results on this thread? I was involved in this thread many months ago and was never able to fix the problem. I am very interested in your friends solution.

Thank You

i have the following symptoms with my presario 1688 laptop.

-laptop ran normally for a while, but i had to pull the power cord to the side to get power into the unit. unit ran without back-up battery installed at this point.
-purchased a back-up battery from CompUSA, Li-Ion. i got the green light that the battery was installed. noticed that the battery charges to 100% then slowly drops down to 0% then charges again.
-got to the point where pulling the power cord over to the side would not work. opened the laptop and re-soldered the power connection (which was completely unsoldered.) noticed that the white piece of plastic had brown contact burns on it also.
-plugged laptop into A/C power source, back-up battery removed. green a/c power light comes on strong. i believe that the problem is fixed. while pushing the power button, i get a whirring sound from the floppy drive. sounds like a car trying to start but it wont.
-just for kicks, i put the back-up battery in. the computer boots normally, but only lasts for a few minutes due to low battery power. keep in mind that the a/c power cord is plugged in and i have a/c green light.
-i try this again, this time it stays on for less than 3 minutes. try again, less than 2 minutes, etc, etc, until i get to the point where the battery is completely dead and i am back to the whirring noise.
-i let the battery charge with the computer off (no choice really) and when the battery was charged, the computer worked normally.
-in using the computer i noticed that it seems to be running off the back-up battery as the battery power level decreases over time (and quickly by my guess.) but the icon and power management settings say that the battery is charging and that a/c power is being supplied.
-sometimes the battery icon will tell me that the battery power is down to 1% and the computer will run for hours on this 1% (AC power is plugged in too) but the battery will not charge when the computer is on.
-other times, after charging the battery to 100% with the computer off, i will run the computer for maybe 1 to 1.5 hours and the battery will drain completely. when this happens, the computer shuts off completely but makes this sort of sound similar to an air-raid siren. when i remove the power cord, it stops.
-when this happens i reconnect the power cord, and sometimes the green battery LED will flash 4 or 5 times, then go solid like it is charging. other times it blinks endlessly, not seeimg to accept a charge. then for some reason at some unspecified time, the light will go on steady and the battery charges.
-i have been repeating these last stages for about 6 months now

Add me to the list too. Model 1200-XL118. Green power light only, nothing else. Thanks a lot Compaq / HP...

I bought my laptop from Sears in Nov. 2001 and I have also been dealing with the dying issues from the beginning. I had the MB replaced once under warranty and then it died again shortly after the warranty expired. BTW, I have a Presario 1214SR, which appears to have the same MB as the 1215us. I have done the resoldering bit, too, but a couple of days later it just dies again. I let it sit for awhile and then replaced the Lithium battery. It booted wonderfully for a day and then back to the same intermittent freezing, where CTRL-ALT-DEL doesnt work. If I try to reboot, the lights come on but the screen stays blank and the boot sequence stops...?!!? Does Robert or Vince have anything new to add? It is interesting to note that Sears no longer carries computers

Okay, after messing around for a while (see my July 2 and June 27, 2004 posts), I finally fixed mine. :-)

I found a place where I could get a cheap used motherboard (www.separts.com), ordered one and changed it. I was able to get a used one for about $95 + S&H.

It started right up. No problems after resetting the CMOS. Works like a charm.

I cant say for sure this is the problem for anyone else, but it solved my problem. It was definitely not the voltage converter board or the processor.

This was the first laptop motherboard Ive ever changed, and I had to completely (and I mean completely) disassemble it to get the motherboard out. It pays to be patient and lay everything out neatly on your kitchen table so you can figure out how it all goes back together.

The dip switches had to be set the same as my old motherboard (they were set differently). I put a tiny dab of heat sink compound above and below the processor, which seems to be running a lot cooler now. If you read back on my prior posts, I originally thought it was the processor and bought a new one for about $15. The laptop runs with either the new or the old processor, but I opted to use the new one because it has enhanced features over the old one.

Good luck to you all. Ill keep monitoring this board for a while to see if anyone trys this and has similar luck

Join me to the GLOB list as well. I have 2 compaq laptop 1200 series. X112 and X103. Both have the GLOB problem. Every once in a while both laptops will start up again after letting it sit for a few days with the ac off and the battery taken out. I sure hope HP/Compaq compensates us for this insult!

Jonny,

Its been over 2 weeks since your last confirmation that your friend would help out.Just wondering if he has gotten back with you as of yet?I really dont want to buy another mobo if possible ,as I have found them from $60 to $550 on various sites.For the most expensive on, I can get a P4 laptop off ebay, so please post as soon as possible


thanks
Ar

IU have a Compaq 1200 that was doing the same thing, I checked the voltage at the power adapter and I was getting the 19vdc that I needed but the unit would still not power up. I noticed that the light on the power adapter woulf flicker when I pressed the power on button for my laptop. I got another adapter and the thing started right up! This time the adapter light did not flicker. I am wondering if my case is similar to yours and the output current from the adapter is weak. If not..... Its not like you have anything else to lose! My fan still is not turning, and I have replaced it. The motherboard might be taking out the adapter too. Who knows.... lol Thanks! Bil

so i have the same problem everyone has with a broken power jack. i took the whole damn thing apart, and i see the jack isnt making a very good connection to the motherboard. all i have to do is push in a little and it connects.

someone on here was talking about gluing a connector piece to the back of the computer so the thing would never wiggle again, could anybody tell me what kind of connector/adapter that is? ive taken it to radio shack and they couldnt help me. from research it looks like i need a male to female BNC thing, but where can i get one thats the right size? or are they adjustable

I replaced the power jack on my old motherboard with a jack that I bought at Radio Shack.

In order to do that, I had to drill out the hole size on the laptop case, then insert the Radio Shack jack and put the nut on it so that the jack was mounted in the case and not on the motherboard. I also had to nibble out some of the metal bracket around the hole on the inside of the laptop.

After that, I removed the old jack (which was cracked) from the motherboard and soldered wires from the motherboard to the new jack.

I thought this was a superior setup because the stress is on the laptop case instead of the motherboard. This way, if you drop your laptop on the AC power cord, it is less likely to do damage to the motherboard.

Unfortunately, that didnt solve my GLO problem. Ultimately ended up changing the motherboard anyhow

I cant believe it (well actually I can after reading all of these posts) but I found a screw inside my 17XL just like Scott Wilson posted on June 2 2004. The screw was wedged under a cable and would have gone unnoticed if I hadnt read his post and was actively looking for one.

I had taken the computer apart twice before and never saw the screw

DAVID,

You never actually said if removing the screw solved any problems.!!
can you advise if it was the sole problem and are you up and running now.

short circuits can be caused by condensation, dust and, little coffee spills...so it is worth checking out and cleaning the MOBO before buying new ones.

my best suggestion for those who dont want to buy a new MOBO , is to buy a working laptop off EBAY, with some silly fault like a broken screen. etc...as they go quite cheap.

i have become so interested in this forum, that i bought another GLOB 1200 from EBAY FOR $50 (with a good screen..lol) so i could play around with it and try and find a/the ?? most common problem, if in fact their is one which is most prevailent.

One thing i did notice on one of my other 1200,s was a short circuit from the power jack to the modem jack, which went across the full rear of the motherboard, and was obviously the result of a power surge, or lightning strike ...most of the items between the two jacks were definately fried.
so that was the end of that scenario.

best regards
Scott

I am finally done with this PC.....
I got it to power up but the fan would not turn. I replaced the fan and it still would not turn.
I disassembled the pc and took the motherboard out and followed the fan traces to a 3 pin surface mounted chip behind the header pins. The chip had moved off of one of the pads, I guess due to heat. I soldered a bridge between the pad and the chip and its working fine now

This is just great! i found this thread when i was searching on why a laptop i was fixing for someone refused to turn back on after crashing. I was running windows updates the machine installed then booted to windows xp login froze and i had to take the battery out to get it turned off.. after that boom didnt come back. I am currently doing the power drain technique just leave it be for a day.. But i cant return this to my customer now that this has come up can i... I dont know how to handle this at all im new to breaking customers computers... Any advice?

Howdy all,

Just wondering if anyone has ever tried this... Recently I took my XL-111 totally apart. I thought something was making a faulty connection when the motherboard met the case. SO I hooked up the laptop guts prety much. I had an antistatic bag underneath the motherboard. Popped in the processor, HD, Floppy, battery coverter & battery, and hooked up to an external monitor, and of course power. And to my amazement it booted up to the compaq logo. (something I can not seen for months!) So I thought all was well. It gave me some garbage about my hard drive not having an OS, which was crap becuase I hadnt touched the HD since it crashed. As I was trying to solve the booting problem, the crap hit the fan again. The screen turned to garbage. Im talking like colored fuzz when you turn on a tv with no antenna or cable hooked up, like a snow storm. And now it is doing this all he time. I took it all apart and left teh pieces so it would "rest". I wil let yall know how it goes. Lat

same glo problem .
HP should know what this problem is ,if not why are they in business of portable computers ?
How can you get to BIOS if no turn on ?
If no turn on ,is the problem with power module ? or something to do with hibernation ?
Someone with more knowledge of portable works may progress this analysis

hi ,had problem of total dead presario1200, after trying all the power downs, stripping and testing the power socket on the board i eventualy found the problem right infront of the power socket on the board is a tiny green "thing"! marked RO40 possibly a fuse or even resistor? (anyone know?) when i bridge this and hit the power button , hey presto it all comes back to life, now just to find out what it is and whats it doing!!, my mate has a duff compaq, think i will just swap the part if one looks similar, who cares what it does!

I am having a problm getting my Caompaq Preario 1200 to work on batery power. Whenever I try to power-up the battery light just flashes. Does anyone have any advice for me. I would really appreciate it

I had a GLO problem with a presario 1200 xl103 and fixed it by replacing the voltage converter board (This is the small board that has the pins that plug into the battery when you put it in). I did this at the suggestion of a thread somwhere on this forum. The board cost about £15, delivered, from ebay. (Open up your machine to find the part number on the back and serach for this). It took 5 minutes to install any my mother could do it (which is saying something). The GLO is probably a symptom of several problems but the bulk of postings about it here sound to me like their problem is this board. Given that its cheaper to try than sending you machine in to have somebody look at it, Id say it was worth a go, particularly if youve been having battery charging problems which seems to be a classic symptom. I had thought my battery was past it as I was only getting a couple of minutes use with it before I had to plug in, but I now know that the problem was with charging as Im getting around 1 hr with my new board...

Computers still not got enough memory to run XP at any pace, but at least now I can get a few £ for it on ebay....

Good

my presario worked for a day then packed up with the same old GLO problem so I suppose it cant have been the voltage converter board that was fault

hi klemen,

your compaq wants to start up....!!
it just needs a bit of kidding i would suggest.
try booting up with the restore CD in the CD rom and see what happens.
This is an optimistic suggestion, as many have tried this and failed, but it is always worth the effort in the first case, as it is a cheap fix.

i have (nearly )given up with the compaq GLOB problem, however i am currently sitting trying to work out a GLOB problem with a Toshiba that was working 2 hours ago.

This is worth paying attention to .......as i will sort it out, but here is the story.

1.Got a 2nd user 900mhz Toshiba from EBAY ..for a song as it was sold as faulty.
2. got it delivered, switched it on and lo and behold it worked great !!..no problems.
3. Tried to upgrade the memory from 128mb to 256, and cant get the damn thing to kick in at all.
4. using my old reliable Toshiba 400mhz i checked the memory supplied with the 900mhz machine, and succesfully acheived GLOB status on my old reliable toshiba 4090cds, which has no problems, but it just would not work at all with the new memory.!!
5. i now have the TOSH 4090cds working fine again using its original memory, but the newer 900mhz Tosh now doesn`t want to play anymore, even with the memory that worked before..
6. i have a box full of memory that i can check the 900mhz with, but i think that it has gone into some form of hibernation, (or sulk) ..so its off to the Toshiba website for operating manuals for me ...lol.

upshot is .......!! GLOB "can" be caused by bad memory chips as well as i proved with the 4090cds . so if you have a 32/64mb base memory in your laptop, try removing your additional ram, and see if it tries to power up ??
if you have any success .dont forget to let us know !!

P.s ..i noticed on another web site that HP/COMPAQ had recalled a load of newer MEMORY CHIPS that were faulty, cant remember where i saw it .but a pertinent "surf" should show it up ..??

hope this helps someone.....let us know if it does please ..!!

Scott

Gordon, ive allready tryed to boot up with restore disk and allso with windows install disk(tough it have autorun), so that is not an option. I will try to hackim up with bootable diskette, and ill report what happend (probobly nothing, but well see)

Here are the latest results of testing:

Niether with CD or diskette, my presario do not want to run.

I forgot to write yesterday that HD makes some noice only when power button is pressed and then for a faw seconds later, later than that its only spinning-without any other noice of HD.

Ive doscovered one more thing: Presario is reacting totaly the same as if CPU is inserted or not, but CPU is heating.

Is there a posibility that the CPU is dead??-It seated on the right place, ive reseated it plenty of times, so there is no opion that it have loose contact.



I used to have on Compaq computer once (it was desctop), that was the good old pentium 75MHz - they used to know how to make a computer that time - not today :-(. But after a while that desktop had problems-it was "hanging" most of the time (if it managed to start) - the diagnose for that computer was that mostly all of the conectors was full of dust and corosy (i dont know if write that down properly), when i clean that mess, machine worked like new.

Conclution: I hope that it wil help enyone to clean connectors and presario will worm, unfortenetly in my case, thats not it

Klemen,
Its not he processor that I can see,I put a new 500 mhz processor and it still has the same problem, but if I wait 2 weeks and try, the computer boots up for 1 hr. then back to GLO problem.
As for the chips being faulty...see my thread on June 26th, This is related only to chips from 2002 ,and most these computers are made befor that date.....

Still looking to find if Jonny has posted his friends fix on here, but see he hasnt. His friend doesnt seem to want to share how he fixed Jonnys with the same problem.I cant blame Jonny for that, if the guy doesnt want to help us out, nothing we can say or do will change that

hi again guys,

further to my post yesterday (5 posts back) i have managed to resolve the toshiba 900 GLOB problem......and this solution could apply to ANY GLOB laptop so is worth a try.

The 900 was not booting, and was doing the GLOB THING, so i put in numerous memory chips to try and get it to boot.

one time whilst starting, i applied a little pressure to the memory chip (face side , not edge side) and noticed that the chip moved about a few degrees lower in its seating (flatter in the slot).
The thing booted straight away, AND HAS DONE EVER SINCE.

the problem was that the memory slot is either enlarged, or the memory is too thin.. thus creating a poor contact.

I eventually cut a 1/8inch thick circle of
packing and placed it directly between the memory, and the memory cover.
this was enough to get the necessary contact on the memory chip, and it is now working fine.

worth a go if you are having GLOB probs.

remember to let us know if you get a result

Scott

Scotty,

This must work if your putting memory into laptop, but the only memory I use is onboard memory, as I dont use internet with this laptop, just use it for keeping my bank book ,and some games my wife plays. Like I said in other threads, if waiting for up to 2 weeks, then computer boots for a short time, it has to be problem on mobo...Ive spent over a $100.00 so far in all the different threads here,and unless Jonny comes up with his friends fix on his computer, Ill have to invest in another mobo,or just buy another laptop on ebay. thanks for ur fix on your other then compaq laptop

Hey Gordon,

I see where compaq is recalling 1200 laptops for a memory problem...maybe you are on to something!!!
Wayn

Wayne,
the replacement memory chips were manufactored in March 2002 and july 2003. This makes most our laptop that were made around 1999 not included....but if your laptop was made during this time...well...you need to contact sit

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5248097.html

Sorry, forgot to give you the site for the recall....but here it is, if any of you may fall into these dates...

Well I going to jump in and see if I can help. To this date I have replaced motherboards to repair this issue.
I will be testing a couple of the bad boards against a known good one.
I am a x-circuit board auditor and I am starting a company repairing laptops.

I suspect the oscon caps these are the
the items on the board that look like a ultra small beer can.

the oscon cap contains organic componets on the in side and has a shelf life and can become useless after they get old

I all so seen this problem surface more often in laptops that see light use I have
a laptop on the bench right now that has seen only 10 hours max of use and it has this problem it looks like it just came out of the box. Not a flaw or one sign of missuse. All I can say is that is a very costly 10 hours.

So any way this is what has brought me to this oscon possibility they may have got alot of old caps the only thing this LT. has that could of caused this problem is age.
When I get the new caps in and my frankin stine back to gether I will drop you guys a note
Later Jo

I absolutely cant believe how long this thread is and there has been no real solution.

It is not worth much to say but I also have the same problem with Compaq 1247. Problem was intermitant at first now it refuses to boot up at all. Only the greed lights on teh power supply, and the on the keyboard light up when you plug in the power supply. The batter light will go on and off if and sometimes blink if you remove the battery and then replace it.

I cant believe we there is nothing we can do legally to compaq. There are over 100 people reporting this problem in just this thread alone and there are many others out there...

I inadvertently started a new thread but wanted this message to be part of this thread. I would like to say that I am joining the club of folks who have a Presario Laptop 1200XL that will not power on. It was given to me by someone about a year ago and I bought a new battery for it and have had trouble free operation until last week (although the person who gave it to me said they could only get it to work intermittently).

Symptoms I noticed was that the battery was dead. I plugged it into an outlet and powered it on. The battery got up to about 48% charge but would not go higher. I pulled the battery and reseated it (all the time the computer was running) and it started to recharge and got up to 100%. I switched the computer off and didnt try using it again for about 3 weeks. The battery appears to be dead since it shows no sign of life when I push the test button and it will not recharge at all when plugged into the computer. I only get the green power light but no sign of activity when I plug in the AC adaptor and try to power it on.

I tried numerous things as described in the very long thread. (I have to admit I started reading at the top and when I saw the date I thought - great the answer will be here. Imagine my dismay when I realized how long the thread was, how long it has been going and there is still no answer).

As I was reassembling the laptop I tried powering it on in various stages os assembly and at one point actually got it to power on and saw a number of messages about a bad checksum on the CMOS. I assumed this was due to the fact that I had removed the battery. Anyway before I had a chance to investigate further it powered itself off again and has remained dead ever since.

The CMOS battery only registers about 0.75V instead of 3V. Would you expect the laptop to still power on with this low a reading? Should it power on with no CMOS battery installed?

Like many of you I will be monitoring this site in the hopes that HP/Compaq have the decency to respond.

Another thought I had was that the system behaves as though it is in permanent hibernation mode and wont "snap out" of it

Well I the oscons are good.

When I have hooked up the good board on a Mastertec (this is used to test boards at the factory)and the 2 bad boards test good.
so it seems to be in the bios. It may take me a while to get access to the equipment
but I will get the file off a chip on a working board and load it to a chip on a dud
and see what happens.
all of the bad MB did have dead cmos batts.

I will keep checking in and see if some one comes up with any thing

has anyone considered that these laptop mainboards might have bad capacitors? being k6 based, at first i thought that the systems were too old - but someone said that they were made around 1999. these symptoms are notorious, and for boards made between about 1998 and 2002 they almost always indicate bad capacitors

In my case, that is not the failure, because electrolythic capacitors has been replaced. Only if you ment some others capacitors?

Well I too have the same power problem and have tried all suggested by the thread. I think that Jon is on to the real problem. That is the BIOS....
If you go to the Compaq site and read the information on updating the bios they go into what it does and under Power Menu it states (POWER BUTTON BEHAVIOR). Sure makes what JON thinks look promising.
I wonder if removing the bios battery for at least 24 hours and then replacing it will work to start it. Will be trying that today. I would really like to update the bios by flashing it if the software is available and I could get it up long enough to do it. Jon if you have a way to do it let me know...

One other thought is that after removing the BIOS battery is to short across the battery holder to discharge any capacitors that may be holding a charge and keeping the memory alive. This should work so that you do not have to let it sit for 24 hours. In remembering back to when the problem started with my laptop is was when I had placed pressure on the power plug by lifting up the computer to look under it tilting it up from the front. I did check and resolder it. The laptop did not start up directly after that but finally did and worked for six weeks before failing again. Again it is possible that the power input being seen by the Bios may have been damaged during this time

After removing the memory battery and shorting across it did not help and still was unable to turn on. After leaving out both the memory battery and the laptop battery for three days I powered it back on. Doing this will reset the memory to the factory settings. I still plan on flashing the memory to see if it will correct the problem. So where are you Jon on this problem? Made any headway

Hi everyone,
As an owner of a Presario 1200xl-111,I am a member of the green light only group 2. This has been an ongoing problem for me as well. It started as an intermittent problem, but has become a permanent problem. I too have done several of the suggestions listed. All to no avail. I agree with putting the pressure on Compaq/HP for failing to do anything to help those of us with this problem.

Dorri

I, too, am another member of this group. Ive been following the threads and trying the many ideas that have been presented over the past several months.....all w/o success. Though Ive located a replacement motherboard for approx. $100, Ive been hesitant to go this route as Im still assuming the problem lies elsewhere? For now, my laptop is completely disassembled waiting for some time to troubleshoot it a bit more or for someone else to come up with a viable solution. As a techy, Ive experienced problems with a HP Pavilion XT983 (see the lenghtly treads on this one too!) tower that I resolved with a replacement m/b. This one stumps me more than ever. Thanks everyone for the ideas on attempting to resolve this issue

Hi,

I guess I can sadly claim membership with the group. Last week my presario 1200xl18 just stopped starting (and it was feeling abnormally warm at the time). All I get is the ac green power light, and nothing more. I have removed and rest the cpu, and cleared CMOS. I am now looking for a really cheap replacement processor to try out and see if that will help. Obviously, I dont want to spend too much since that might not be the problem. I have not had any success though. HP part are prohibitively expensive, and the cheapest so far on a surplus site was $192- (still way too high) I have not had any luck on ebay. my part# is 173534-001 (500mhz 2.1v k611) If anyone has any leads as to where I might find a cheap part or if you know of any other compatible part. Also, I have another question. When removing the battery to clear CMOS why is it important to wait 24 hours. I thought 60 seconds was enough. Does anyone have a link to the compaq site that discusses bios and the power on button?
Thanks,
Cecili

Cecilia,

Go to newegg.com can get a 500mhz for around $15.00..free shipping. But, just a FYI...its not the procssor...Have already gone that route...Non the less Good Luck..

Please post back after you change the motherboard. I realize that thats the ultimate step I will have to try, but Im still hoping not.

anyway, I only removed CMOS battery for about 2 minutes, why is 24 hours recommended

24 hours are recomended to discharge all capacitors on MB (i think). Somewhere in this thread is written that you can allso remove all batteries and AC plug, then hold power button for app. 1 minute - that precedure should allso discharge capacitors on MB

Jules,
I own and operate a computer repair business and have had several Compaq Notebooks that have had this problem.

90% of the time the problem is the keyboard.

Dont ask me why (because I dont know), but replacing the keyboard on these systems corrects this problem.

Do Not Assume that the keyboard is more expensive if purchased from Compaq, call them first.... they charge at least $50. less than the average Internet Vendors.

Hope this helps everyone who might read this.....

Sheri Bush
CompuAide Computer Services, Inc

Sheri:

Is it possible to unplug original-internal keyboard and plug-in external keyb.? Will that procedure show if original keyboard is damaged, or the or. keyb. must be conected all the time?

Do you have any manual about layout for external keyboard? (mostly function keys and shortcuts)

Thanks, Kleme

Ms Bush,

Dont know if keyboard is the problem, as I relpaced the keyboard before this happened.Also, the laptop will boot up every 2 weeks or so, (after battery is taken out,and power drains)and it works fine for about a hour or so.After putting in new keyboard ,worked great for 4 or 5 months before GLO problem started.
Also, I noticed that there is a medal ring that has a cable looped in it..connected to motherboard..it sits on the CD casing...have no idea why,or for what purpose.Tried asking compaq, but no answer was ever given.t

All,

Just wanted to let you know, Ive got the GLO problem again (see my July 13, July 2 and June 27, 2004 posts).

I have replaced virtually everything in my laptop except the peripherals (drives, display).

My laptop began working again after I replaced the motherboard, and thats where I think the problem is. It worked for about a month or so, then went back to the GLO problem. I have replaced the power supply board, the processor and the battery as well. Only the motherboard fixed the problem.

I believe the problem is due to aging of components on the motherboard (probably the capacitors as someone mentioned before). So buying an (old) used but functional motherboard will only yield the same problem eventually.

In any case, at a hundred bucks a pop, Im not replacing any more motherboards.

Ill keep monitoring this forum to see if anyone figures out which component(s) are the problem, but Im cutting my costs and Im finished with this laptop.

I sent my information into Compaq/HP to let them know (symptoms, PC serial number, etc.). Do you know what those SOBs had the gall to do? They sent me a Laptop catalog just in case I might want to buy another one from them. LOL!!

Art,

The metal ring with the wire looped around it is actually made of a material called "ferrite" and it is commonly used to reduce electronic interference on a wire. Kind of like a filter to reduce noise on the wire.

Dont remove it, youll only make things worse

I hereby reluctantly join the GLO club...

Computer has been like this for about a year now (worked fine for 2 years). First time it happened I took it to a service center but they (of course) didnt find anything wrong with it. It worked when they tried it...
Ive read somewhere else on the net where users had similar power problems with Compaq 715 models. One guy there says he has fixed many such models by redesigning the power supply. He says the traces in the motherboard are too close causing a short circuit in the power supply. Someone else now about this ?
Link: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/15852/?o=20

For now the Compaq is in pieces waiting util someone comes up with a solution. I wont buy a new board, it aint worth the money. Compaq/HP will never, ever get anymore money from me. Thats a promise

to everyone I had the same problem with my 1200 XL106 after working on it for three weeks I took every thing out of the computer,I begin plugging in each item hard drive ,floppy and so
on and I finally found it ,its the modem ,unplug youre modem and leave it out and get an
eithernet card or wireless card and I think you
just may fix it.It did min

Guys,

From some time I was a member of the GLO club. Fortunatelly, I founded a guy that solved my GLO problem. Last week I have sent him my Compaq Presario 1200 motherboard. He changed a smd, and it solved the problem. I don´t know the cause of the GLO problem. I know at least 5 guys that have sent him the motherboard with the same GLO problem and he solved it.
regard

Luiz, can you please ask that guy wich SMD part he replaced?? Cause im a little to far away to send my MB for repair. My connection with a service in our country has failed :

Klemen,

The smd was the one that is below the small modem board (it is close to the CR battery). He removed this smd and inserted a socket with a new one.
Rgs
Lui

Thanks Luiz, ill change that IC if I can get it in slovenia, and report if it will work.

RGS Kleme

Luiz,
I emailed your tech and gave him this site, maybe he can give us some idea on how he did this, Sorry not sure what smd means...if its a diode ? well if you can let me know, Id appreciate it..If hes in the US would send him my computer to fix..well thanks...once I see what the initials mean...will check it out...thank

Arthur, SMD means - Surface-mounted-device, this are components on the motherboard that dont need holes thru the board to solder them, allmost complete MB is assembled with SMD parts. If I understood Luiz right, he changed the IC(chip) that is near by the C-mos battery

Luiz,

was it the IC next to the CMOS battery or some other component next to it ?
The closest SMD IC on my board (Presario 1247) is an audio amplifier (TPA0202) so I cant understand how this could cause to GLO problem ? Its just an audio amplifier...

Please give more info about the SMD part if you can, Luiz.

Regards,
Tobia

Tobias,

When you open your notebook, there is a small board that is the modem board (left side). Below this small modem board, there are basically two things: the CR battery and this small SMD. That is it. If it is different, it can be because your Motherboard is different than mine.
rgs
Lui

Hi Luiz

Below the small modem board, there are CR battery and a 5x3 mm IC chip, plus a couple 1x2 mm resistors. Is this SMD the smart guy replaced for you a big IC chips or a small resisteor. Would you mind find out for us. This looks like a break through to me.

Regards

Bai Zho

" The closest SMD IC on my board (Presario 1247) is an audio amplifier (TPA0202) so I cant understand how this could cause to GLO problem ? Its just an audio amplifier..."
I dont know if this is a cause of problem, but its possible if an audio amplifier had a short-circuit.

Sorry for my terrible English :

Luiz,
I sent a message to your tech, but havent gotten a reply as of yet.
Where can we get these chips? Also, just a thought, but if we all can get on yahoo, we could make a date and time for us all to get on and discuss,whats up.That way we can throw around ideas...just a suggestion.
Well later al

Lu

Contacted your tech friend this am, seems like a nice guy, but for the price he wants to fix the board, I can get a used Laptop on ebay

Just another thought, maybe we should see who makes these chips, and see if they would replace them or at least sell them to us at a reasonable price....Ar

Texas Instruments makes the chip. Like someone mentioned before, its an audio power amplifier. Only draws 30mA, so I doubt it would bring the whole laptop down. Chances are the chip isnt even enabled until the laptop is fully booted up (pin 8 is a shutdown signal). If the chip were fried (Vdd was shorted) theres a good chance that it took a regulator or a fuse with it. There are a lot of fuses on the motherboard, I checked them all on mine, none were blown.

You can get free samples of the chip fed-exd to you overnight by searching on the part number at www.ti.com, following the links, and clicking on the "samples" button. It helps if you work for an electronics company, otherwise youll have to "stretch the truth". TI is pretty good about sending samples.

Youll need a microscope and a Metcal soldering iron (or equivalent) to change this chip, or a maybe a heat gun if youre good. The pins are spaced very closely.

Im a little skeptical about the repair described without a lot more detail.

Since there isnt much room for a socket beneath the modem and TSSOP sockets are hard to come by (if they even exist). The socket would cover the PCB traces, so youd have to reflow the area around the chip to install the socket. Even then youd be installing it blindly. Why would anyone go to the (extreme) bother and extra expense of installing a socket anyhow? Maybe you send your motherboard and $XXX.XX to Brazil and you never see either again. Aye

I agree. We need more info about the repair as I just cant grasp how an audio amplifier can be responisible for this.
If it shorted, then why after 2 weeks or a month do the board start up again and work for a couple of days ?
If the amplifier was blown it would be no sound again at all..

If you guys have the tools, have you tried to remove this IC chips to see if the laptop works or not. (I checked the chip on my compaq, it is TPA0202 and it is audio amplifier). As I know that for DESKTOP PC, sometime a faulty sound card can stop the PC from boot. I think that remove this IPA0202 chip will have the same effect as remove the sound card and it is a test to see if this chip cause the problem.

Regards

Bai Zho

A.I.G.

Well, I just sent the message to try to help the forum that seems to be completely lost. The only thing that I know for sure is that I have my computer back, and working fine. I do not know for how long, but at least I have it.

rgs
Lui

Luiz,

Sorry for my skepticism, I do not mean to offend you. Just trying to do a little detective work and reason things out. As you know, information is always lost when translated to printed text.

Can you give us a little more detail about the repair? For example, what is the part number of the new chip that was placed in the socket? Is there a manufacturers symbol on the chip (what does it look like). Is there a "U" number on the PC board next to the chip? (for example "U15"), if not, can you give us an "R" or "C" number of a few parts around the chip (e.g. "R12" or "C142") etc.

Is the chip physically attached to the motherboard, or on the bottom side of the modem? Which battery is the "modem" board near (the small disk one, or the large main battery?).

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Also A GENERAL QUESTION FOR EVERYONE: Do any of you know if these laptops (when working) will function WITHOUT the main battery installed, using the external power adapter only. Luiz, could you please remove your large main battery and try this experiment. The reason for my question is that (at least on my laptop), the charge indicator does not illuminate when either the old or a BRAND NEW battery is installed. This indicates that the serial interface to the battery isnt working

AIG

First I believe the battery is the cmos battery, this is the one under the modem.
Second, I checked the adaper for proper voltage, then just decided if the same voltage was going to the battery, I checked the voltage from inside the case, from the adapter plug, then I grounded the meter and checked the voltage going to the battery, they were all 19 volts ((approx.) This was done when it wasnt working,and also when it was.I had a new battery and when it was not in the GLO situation all the readings were the same.and charging the battery.Its just after it went into GLO again (approx. 1 1/2 hr) and waiting for 10-14 days with battery left in, it wouldnt reboot, but after all power (including taking out battery)then in this same amount of time it would boot and give me another hour or so.
I dont know if this helps you or not, but its what I have experienced.
Art

Also Lu, believe me nothing was meant to insult you or your tech friend,what you gave was a start ,its just I cant afford the $s he wants to get mine fixed..being disabled and on limited income..So hope no hard feelings there

Ok,

As my father is travelling with the laptop, right now I cannot give you more details about the SMD. I will meet him on Sunday, so take a picture of the changed SMD and send to you for analysis.

rgs
Lui

Art,

The main battery in the laptop has a serial (digital) interface. Since the "charge" LED does not illuminate when the new battery is installed, Im wondering if the laptop simply doesnt know the battery is there. Thats why Im asking if anyone has been able to make their laptop work with only the AC adapter (and no main battery installed in the laptop).

So my question still remains. When the laptop is working, will it work ONLY with the AC adapter (and the main battery removed from the laptop)

Yes, it will work without the battery. The problem comes into play before that though. Since when the a/c power is plugged in and the indicator shows that, but the charge indicator does not light, the problem is either the regulator board or BEFORE it. I replaced the board, the battery charged once, but would not turn on and hasnt charged again. I may have blown the new regulator board too

FYI........I just went back in mine, thinking of everything that I did to chase down the 19v. I had had it totally dissassembled and remember not getting the CPU chip back in properly the first time. Anyhow, I just removed the chip, put it back in and assured that it was secured and reassembled it. IT POWERED UP!!! It had no battery in it at first, then I plugged the battery in. I havent turned it off yet and dont plan to for a couple of days. You guys might want to make sure your CPU chip is securly installed, a reseat wouldnt hurt. Let me know if this helps anyone else.
Gen

Thanks Gene. I guess it isnt the serial interface to the battery... Strange that it does not illuminate the charge LED when the battery is inserted. That could be a clue right there.

I changed my processor, then my motherboard. It worked for a month after the motherboard (yeah!), then GLOB again (drat!). Then changed the regulator board and the battery. Still in the GLOB state. Basically Ive changed everything in my laptop except the peripheral devices.

Possibly, the old regulator board blew something in the new motherboard.

Then again, well wait and see what Luiz has to say when he gets his laptop back

A.I.G

When my laptop does work, (After 2 weeks or so)I start it without the battery in it, then if it boots I place the battery in it and the charging lite does come on. as u will wait for the pic...thank

Well, I got ahold of a new TPA0202 audio amplifier from TI (see a few postings back). The package is TIs PWP package (PowerPad). There is a large thermal pad beneath the chip that must be SOLDERED to the PC board in addition to the outer pins.

This would be a really hard chip to replace unless you have the right equipment. You would need a hot air pencil to reflow the solder around and underneath the chip to remove it, and to reinstall it.

Just for the fun of it, Ill have the PCB assembly shop where I work remove the chip from my old motherboard to see whats beneath it.

This was a relatively expensive chip (~$2.00) so TI was interested in whether I was going to buy a million of them when I requested samples :-

Its been a month and a half and my poor 1200 xl still wont start up, although after removing the CMOS batt for aprox 3 weeks, I at least get the power on light in addition to the single green light I started with. (an exciting bit of progress) but still no boot up. Can anyone tell me what the symptoms of a faulty CPU are? How does a bad CPU differ from a bad motherboard?

In any event, at this point I am shopping around for a new laptop (not a compaq)

Thanks for any input!
Cecili

I just wanted to add that in addition to both the green lights on, It does turn on, and I hear and feel the fan, but nothing else, no boot up, no start-up screen

Cecillia - you did try putting a NEW CMOS battery in didnt you? A buck-and-a-half at the Walmart watch counter... Since your fan runs and you get lights, there may be hope. There is also a reset that you can try. Read your manual - something like holding down F10 while pressing the power switch. Hard to tell if its a motherboard or a CPU, but the CPU is cheap to replace. 15 bucks at newegg.com. Anyhow, your problem sounds different from the GLOB problem.

All - I had the TPA0202 removed. Nothing much of interest there. I was hoping that the thermal pad might have been shorted or something, but it didnt look like it. Ill have the chip replaced and install it back in my PC. This is going to take a while though. Havent heard from our friend Luiz yet..

Yes, A.I.G. I did replace CMOS batt twice. Oh if only the solution could be that simple! I was totally frustrated and so just let it sit for about 3 weeks and then last night got that "almost" startup with the 2 green lights as I explained above. I will try what you suggested, but I also noticed in reading the threads that folks have tried to do a restoral with the Quickrestore CD. Thats another economical possibility to try, except for one thing...how can I get the CD hatch to open if I cant get the computer to fully turn on? Is there any litle trick to open it manually?
Thanks,

cecili

Doing a restore wont help either. I did a clean install of XP Pro on mine and still have the problem

Cecilia,

With what you describe..try hooking a monitor up to ur laptop and see what happens. Sounds like everthing is working but the screen...Ar

Cecilia, next to the button on your CD drive, youll see a small round hole. Straighten a paper clip and insert it into the hole. Push gently. The CD drive should pop open and you can remove any CDs in there.

I dont think re-installing the operating system will work anyhow. Especially considering you have to re-boot several times when you do that. Scary.

For myself, Ive already given up on mine and Im in the market for a new laptop. But Im going to continue to try and fix the old one for my kids, so Ill be around here for a while. Its sort of becoming a hobby

reinstalling the operating system will NOT fix this problem. this is a hardware issue, not a software issue

Ya know, during my 30 year career in the computer business I have seen many failures and the hardest to fix are the intermitant ones, but this one stays bad long enough that Im sure Compaq has had long enough, and the test equipment, to know whats wrong. The problem is that they, and now HP, are too head strung to share the info with us. Also, they dont want to admit if it is a design flaw and/or product quality and then be liable for repairs. The units that made it past the warranty were all they are responsible for.

I have the 1200 and a 7470 desktop, but now will look at other manufactures because they wont help with this. You would think someone at HP is reading this thread and realize that the right thing to do is stand behind their product. I had the opportunity once to attend training at the HP HQ in San Jose back around 1990. The president himself, I dont remember his name now, would cook us breakfast every Friday morning. He was so proud of the company and how they stood behind their product. One would think, or hope, that that thinking would have carried over to the Compaq line.

Maybe it will.

Gen

Similar problem, but with 2570US model

Worked fine for over a year. Then this morning it will not boot. AT FIRST no lights. But if I remove AC and battery, hit reset button, plug in AC - I get 4 blinks of AC light and then light remains on. If I replug AC after reset with the battery in, the AC light comes on without blinks.

Either way, the AC light comes on. But less than one second after hitting power button, the power button blinks blue and all lights go off. No fans, no HD spin, no nothing.

Thoughts

If anyone is serious about trashing their 1200. please consider this. If I can get two or three of you to ship them to me, then I will have ones that I can use for comparasion/obsrvation on a hot test bed. I am a retired 30 year computer hardware tech, systems management, software upgrade/installs working for the likes of Northrup/Grumman, Advanced Technology Services at GE Ordinance Pittsfield MA
This problem has spiked my interest and now that I have my teeth in it, lets see what can be done. You pay to ship it here to me in Daytona and Ill work on it with mine and try to isolate the culprit. No labor charges until we know for sure the extent/simplicity of the reoairs. You have the option of having your unit returned at anytime to you

actually, I have one more question I really dont think it matters, but when I removed my cpu to change it, a small black piece of plastic also dislodged from the site just outside where the cpu sits. It didnt break off or anything, but I cant seem to get it to fit back in. I assume its just something to lock it in from the outside of the site, although the cpu appeared to fit in nice and tight without it. I dont suppose this is any real problem....Is it

It most certianally is a problem. That plastic peice must fit in properly to insure proper insulation of the CPU. You must first put the CPU in its slot, then with a small flat edge scewdriver, there is a slot on the keyboard side of the CPU(where the plastic peice came from). Put the screwdriver in that slot and GENTLY pry the CPU forward(toward the screen) about 1/16th of an inch. When the platic peice fits back in properly, you have gone far enough. That plastic peice serves two purposes, one to lock in the CPU and two, to serve as a spacer for the aluminum plate above it.
Gen

Hello Everybody!
Ive become quite familiar with this "group" for a last couple of months. My situation is quite different as Ive received my GLOsario 1200 as a free gift, so it poses no risk to me to keep breaking it apart (unless fixed ;-) ).
What Ive noticed based on your experiences is the laptop resurects itself whenever left alone for some period. My own GLOsario have been working fine for two weeks just after I receive it (!). After it has shown usual signs of illness, I made some investigation and learn that it hasnt been working before! It just have been left for a couple of months and it cured for almost 14 days! Even now I can run it without any problem, because it is lying in a for almost two months, and it is a repeatable pattern. It will last for a couple of hours, but there is plenty of time to do a backup or anything else (except to work with it...).
Additionally - there is no way to wake up the laptop, nevertheless the procedure used. Only the time works any good.

What comes from these observations is:
- as the problem is repeatable (at least for me and few of you allowing it to rest quietly for some time) and the laptop resurects itself it may be just a soldering thing. Some elements on the mainboard run quite hot, extend and, when electrical contact is lost, CMOS nature comes into scene - it will not change the state unless discharged properly.
- it may also be a faulty element, where the "discharging" problem lies within it
- it may also be faulty connection between the element and Nth-layer of the mainboard (this is the hardest to find and repair); The power socket almost self-desoldered because of its poor design - every time you pull the power cord a little harder the socket moves in mainboard causing above, just because it is not supported in any other way. Maybe the same happens anywhere else on this mainboard...

When the laptop ends its life (at least temporarily) it does not "respond" to any button, except pulling off the power plug. Interesting thing is - the screen is frozen then, but not faulty in any way. I suspect that all the input keys are plugged into one integrated controller (keyboard, power on, volume etc.) (I even checked this freezing with external keyboard / mouse, with no success...). If this is true then it might be a microcode problem, not allowing the i/o to set up properly. This, IMHO, supports the "weak connection" thesis.

Ive done all possible resoldering all over the mainboard, but, obviously, missed the right point. Ive paid special attention to the fuses and electrolytic caps, so it might be something else.
Lately one of us successfully repaired the mainboard, by replacing the audio amplifier. As the amp lies quite close to the backup battery it might not be just the amp exchange but the soldering that has taken place around it! Another thing is, if I can suggest something - when inspecting this chip - please take a look around it (or over the whole mainboard) to check if there is more than one soldering which has taken place. The chip and its surroundings may not be the right place to look for it...

Sorry for so long mail, but I wanted to share my observation with you. Im very determined to solve this problem.

All the best
Michal Klimaszewsk

Thanks Gene. I went back in and properly reseated the cpu. then I plugged it in and.....VOILA! still dead, only that single green light. After reading most of the posts, I cant see the point of changing the motherboard as that doesnt seem to be the real problem. Anyway tomorrow, I am going to treat myself to a Toshiba

I have this same problem with my compaq 1200 XL2. Normally while it was working, the green AC LED on the front of the machine would stay on solid. My machine crashed a few days ago and just shut off. Now while the power cord is plugged in, the AC LED just blinks, the LED on the power supply blinks as well while plugged into the machine. When I unplug the cord from the machine, the greed led on the power supply goes solid. Ive tried removing the battery, holding the power button for 5,15, and 30 seconds, all with the same results. I dont even get the hard drive noise. I push the button and absolutely nothing happens except for my frustration level rising. Any suggestions? Thanks

vera,

I did the exact same thing. I replaced my processor (no fix), then changed my motherboard (that fixed it), turned it on a handful of times, and then the thing went back in to the GLOB state again. Ive since replaced the little power supply board next to the main battery also (no fix).

Perhaps one of the peripherals (keyboard, modem, CDROM etc.) is killing something on the motherboard?

Its really strange that no one at HP/Compaq has a concience. At least post anonymously and say what the problem is. Cmon guys, give us a break out here

i am another Green Light only club member..... all the symptoms, tried most of the quick fixes..... still no joy... seems to be a lot of us (GLO) as there a quite a few presarios all with the same problems turning up at an online auction... cannot say who as when i did the email was deleted... would really like to know if anyone has found a real fix (perm

Hi

I have one questions!

Did anyone noticed that fan is rotating noly when main battery is inserted?

Today i tried to turn presario on, first only with AC power jack pluged in - did not start - only the Green light for power-on and for AC power lit up and HD makes some noice. Then i insert main battery (while the machine was ""running"" and fan started to rotate for app. 10 seconds and then started to slowing the speed down - Does anyone have any idea why is this happening???

Without that audio IC sistem is not working!
Now i have to find one to solder it back. Does anyone have any extra of them? Would anybody be so kind to send it to me (name a price)??

Hi Julie!

I sent my presario these week to repair these same problem, and they said that is a common problem in presario 1200 series. It is a project problem with motherboard, and you have 2 options to fix it: Replace your motherboard or fix it (i paid about $200). In these moment im typing in my fixed presario 1200

Hi Julio,

Could you share more information about what is meant by project problem? Is it a part of the motherboard?
Thanks, and Im glad you were able to get back up and running.

Cecili

Hello Julio!

Im very glad that you were able to fix your laptop!

If it is possible at all - please take a look at the mainboard. I would really appreciate (and I mean We would, as whole group experiences the same problem) if you could do it. In my previous post I describe in details what to look for - ICs exchanged, anything unusual, changes, additional wiring, or parts showing close encounter with soldering iron...
As we are not aware what is the origin of the problem, we cant fix it. Once it is known every member of our GLO-group may use it. I dedicated my own laptop for research - it has already been dismantled for several times, but with no luck by now. I will try for as many times as necessary, until fixed.

All the best
Michal Klimaszewsk

Just found this thread. My Presario 1200 has had the same kind of poblems as described on this post for almost a year now. Initially it would boot up, go into windows, but then shortly after, the screen would go blank as the computer lost all power. Now it wont even show green lights on the front of the computer when hooked up to the power supply any more. I think that it has been solely running off of the battery and that it wasnt actually getting any power from the external jack which was plugged into the wall socket. The external power supply is working fine. But external power is not making its way into the computer for some reason, either for battery charging or for powering the system.
Clearly these power problems run rampant in the Presario 1200, and since hp/compaq has done absolutely nothing to serve the customers who have bought these faulty computers, I would be more than happy to add my name to a growing list of people interested in seeing a class action lawsuit brought against this company

will this thread live *forever*?

:- ) Ja

This thread will last as long as it takes to get a definitive answer

Hello sweetie:
I have worked professionally in electrical design and manufacturing for the past ten years, and have been paid to design software for the past twenty years. Every time I try to post to this forum my comments hit the bit bucket-- this is proof of collusion and cover-up. If this makes it through, then I can tell you you are simply one of tens of thousands dealing with the same problem,

I have taken this issue on like a heart-attack. The problem appears to be a BIOS issue. Once I determine the fault (and I am close), it is my intention to determine the liability of HP (nee Compaq). Additionally, I will try to include every member of this forum for recourse

Hello everyone, I have a Presario 12xl505 and had nothing but trouble out of it running the Windows ME operating system that came on it. I had all kinds of issues such as the not booting, losing the dvd drive until reboot, well, all kinds of problems. I suggest doing what I did, put a copy of Windows XP on the laptop. I am running Windows XP Professional on mine and it is doing GREAT. The Windows ME operating system was a major MESS that Microsoft seemed to never have any fixes for. It looked good, but stopped at that. I seriously suggest putting a copy (either XP Home OR Pro) on the laptop. I have had both of the XP versions on mine and have had no problem. IMPORTANT: the ONLY problem I had after upgrading to XP was that the TouchPad Volume control did not get recognized. To fix this, download the Windows 2000 (2k) TouchPad drivers from the HP website and intall them, they work just fine....maybe HP will ad more XP updates for the Compaq Laptops soon, it would be nice. Hope this helps. - Ro

I have just been reviewing all the entries on the problem with compaq laptops 1200 series. I cant believe so many people are having very similar problems. I have a Presario 1200 XL125 that my grandson gave me to see if I could fix it. It has a power/bootup problem that sounds so much like many of yours. I thought it was a power switch problem because it was intermittent (usually would not bootup but sometimes for no apparent reason it would come up and run fine even while rebooting over again seven or eight times. However, at this point with AC plugged in and the AC green light on nothing happens when I press the power on switch. I completely tore down the whole system, tested the power sw which seems to be functioning correctly, found that the CMOS battery was all but dead, replaced it, tried the CPU press, and checked the power jack which does not seem to be the problem. I reviewed what you all have tried and decided to reassemble.
No success. I will continue to monitor this forum. You guys have really worked this problem. I hope someone has some good success

I am just wondering if anyone received photo from Luiz yet? If so please let us know what you found on that photo. I also want to ask if A.I.G have replaced the IC and what is the result?

Regards

Bai Zho

I have been looking on ebay for a motherboard for my compaq presario 1200
XL125 laptop. I do not have a part# so Im not sure if what I see is right for my machine. Two part#s look like they might work: 356877-001 and 102246-001. Does anyone have an answer or can you direct me to a link where this info is available?
Thaks, DBon

Try HP part surfer at

http://partsurfer.hp.com/cgi-bin/spi/main

Regards

Bai Zho

Thank you Bai Zhou

Thanks to Bai Zhou I was able to get the Part# for my motherboard. My Compaq Presario 1200 model# 12XL125 has a part# of 202071-001. HP wants over $700.00 for one. Im looking for something a lot cheaper. Does anyone know if there is any kind of crossreference for other boards that might substitute for my PN202071-001

Hi Douglas!

If the GLO problem is associated with the mainboards, getting one used may lead to the same problem very soon... IMHO the one and only REAL solution is to pinpoint the origin of the problem and publish easily repeatable way to repair it.

All the best
Micha

Bai Zhou, I have removed the IC from my old motherboard to look beneath it in case there was anything there that might electrically short. I didnt see any problem. I have not reinstalled a new chip and tested the board, because in my opinion, thats not the problem (Ive been wrong before though...) Simply because someone has posted a reference to a "pay for" repair on a web forum does not make them legitimate. I would find it hard to believe that at least a few scammers arent out there trying to make a dishonest buck off of our miseries. The fact that they havent follow through on their promises only raises suspicion. Be very cautious!

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT ANYONE REMOVE THIS IC unless you have access to special surface mount soldering/desoldering equipment, and you have done this type of work before. This is not for amateurs. You will destroy the chip or the motherboard or both. The chip has a large solder pad underneath, and simply desoldering the leads will not remove the chip. Check the data sheet for the part and you will see the pad.

Klemen, since you have removed the IC, you can either request a sample from Texas Instruments (www.ti.com), or buy one from Digikey (www.digikey.com). They run about $6.00 (US).

Douglas, I replaced my motherboad with a "refurbished" one from www.separts.com. It was about $100.00. The repair worked, but in only a few months, the same problem returned. There may be a fundamental aging problem with one of the components, or some device attached to the motherboard may be causing it to fail. I would follow Michaels Oct. 28th advice

I have borrowed my uncles 1200XL107. Worked well for an hour then started turning off at random times. A few days later it would not always go on. 3 weeks later (now) it wont go on at all (GLO).

I noticed that at some point the power jack got loose. The positive lead solder cracked at the MB. I resoldered it. Still GLO.

The CMOS battery was found dead (0.3 Volts on the meter). When the battery got replaced the fan would turn on and HD would make a bit of noise, then nothing but the fan, whenever power was plugged in. This was without hitting the power switch. After 20 minutes playing with it, were back at GLO.

During this whole ordel the laptop battery was in rough shape too, it would power the PC for maybe an hour when fully charged. But over 2 days sitting alone, it would fully discharge.

I hope that some of the info could help finding the problem

Let me toss something into the fray... my buddy bought a 4-yr warranty. Four years and one day later his system died. He brought this machine into Best Busy at this time and they replaced the CMOS battery which controls the BIOS settings. Here is the joke... everybody is told to buy (or have replaced for free) a lithium battery (non-rechargeable) based on available knowledge, when almost ALL systems require a rechargable cell. This is not a myth.

On the hunt...
Bo

Andrew makes a good point. My laptop does the same thing. If a good battery is left in the laptop, with it shut off for a couple of days, it will drain the battery. I know the battery is good because before the Best Buy warranty ran out, I put a new battery in it. I know its not the charger board as I have replaced that with a new Compaq charger board.
This leads me to believe there is a short to ground somewhere on the motherboard.

Any thoughts

ok - if it is a short, can someone who already has their machine apart try this - get a tube of silicone caulk, and form a thin layer over the areas that the mother board comes in contact with, unless there is a reason that that would be a bad idea. I havent had my coffee, yet

Hello Im Riccardo from Italy. Im an electronic technician and I work for the Test Engineering department of an italian contract manufactor company. Ive bought a 2nd hand Compaq Presario 1200 XL 103 for only 50 euros because it is faulty: sometimes it will not turn on. Ive decided to investigate the problem so I made several measurements on the mother board with a digital oscilloscope . Ive found a reading problem on the flash memory (ATMEL 49F002T) wich is the BIOS memory. The power management IC (PC85750) read the memory when you first apply power (battery or AC) and if it cannot read the memory correctly it will not turn on the power supply unit mounted on the mother board, so the laptop will not start at all! Now I will try to change the damaged memory with a new ones, but I need to program it before soldering it on the mother board. My question is: does anybody knows where can I download the BIOS for my computer? I hope my experience will help anybody to fix their problem (I know that is easy for me to replace damaged IC because Ive worked with them), but....good luck to every body

Riccardo,
Thanks for the new information...this link will take you to the updates for the Presario 12XL126, which is very close to your model...and will probably work.

The BIOS update is the ROMpaq sp15303..
Link: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?product=95041&lc=en&cc=us&tool=softwareCategory&dlc=en&os=20
copy and passte into the address bar of your browser.

We will all be very interested in knowing if it works on your system.

On my 12XL126...the problem seems to be connected with heat build up affecting the BIOS..so Im installing a new cooling fan and will reflash the BIOS (and a new CMOS battery)

Good luck

Bil

William Kilcrease,
I downloaded the sp15303 BIOS that you provided the link to in your answer to Riccardo. How do you install this onto the BIOS of the computer? I attempted to open the file with no success on my desktop since I cant get the laptop to boot. Because my system will not boot at present, I do not understand how to install this BIOS update. My presario is a model 12XL125 and when I searched for the BIOS update for it I was sent to the download for sp15303. Therefore, I assume it is the correct download for my system.
I am waiting to hear what success Riccardo has on his system. Thanks for the link!
Dou

Dogulas,

You will need a floppy disk in the A:\ drive.

Click on the ROMPAQ SP file and follow the instructions...you will need to download the opened BIOS ROMPAQ onto the A: drive floppy....then when you are able to activate the laptop, place the disk into the A: drive on the laptop and start the computer. Let it boot from the A: drive floppy, it will automatically flash the BIOS with the new settings. When it completes, reboot the laptop and hopefully it will start and boot properly.

Good Luck,
Bil

Presario 12XL103...?

I think the correct ROMpaq is 15611.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?product=95019&os=20&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&tool=softwareCategory&dlc=en&softwareitem=36734

I hope you can revive it. Kind of a catch-22 tho, having to refresh(?) the BIOS image without being able to power up. Hopefully you can write it and re-attach. I think you may be able write it in place with about 5 connections total?

Let me know if you have success, as I am going to explore this as well.

(Background info: although the Atmel chip is non-volatile, the BIOS image may need to be refreshed due to outside issues corrupting the image. The alternative is that the Atmel chip is just bad and needs replacement

Hello fellow GLOB club members. My last post was Dec 03. I decided to dust off the compaq doorstop as i,ve not tried it for 8 months.
I removed the main battery and plugged in the power supply and on pressing the power button amazingly it started up.
The CMOS battery i guess is dead as the system date showed 1/1/99. i do not intend to use the main battery at all cos I think the residual power in the main battery prevents restart after its charged a bit. I think thats why you have to leave the unit for days or weeks once it stops working.
Ive shut it down and restarted it successfully 4 times now. I have left the power supply connected all the time.
I have disabled the hibernate function but still expect the unit to fail again soon.
I have given up on this unit so if any of you long suffering GLOB members want me to run any tests on this unit whilst it is still working let me know. There is nothing of value on it now

Hi fellow, Im Riccardo.
Ive fixed my Presario 1200 XL103, now it is in good working condition. Ive used it for 8 hours today with several power-up and boot correctly. All the hardware seems to work properly.
The bug was the BIOS flash chip as I told in my first post. I replaced it with a new ones. Here the story of my work on it:

1) I removed the original flash BIOS chip with an hot-air soldering station.
2) I bought a new flash chip (blank).
3) I down-loaded the Rompaq 15611 from HP site. The Rompaq is self-extracting file that contains the "image" of the BIOS and a boot-loader to write it via the floppy drive.
4) I wrote that file (.rom) to the flash by an universal programmer.
5) I mounted a socket on the mother board, than I placed the new BIOS flash memory on it and...........I fired it up and it come back to life.
6) Finally, I put all the hardware back together (HD, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, LCD, ecc.).

This is my story, the system seems to work, I will update all you. I dont know if the BIOS faillure is a common problem. My suggestion is: if you are able to work with electronics components maybe you can fix it, but if not DO NOT TRY to make anything on the mother board: you can damage it without any possibility to fix it. Better if you take your system to a good electronic technician.
Good luck to everyone!! Rick

Riccardo -

what is the universal programmer that you used to write the bios to the chip? A program? A device? Fill us in, okay

I hate to be a pessimist, but please tell us it still works in 30 days. I have had mine work for several days at a time, then poof!!!! GLO

A universal programmer is a little box about 4" x 4" x 1" tall that you hook to your USB or serial port. You use these to program microcontrollers (the actual CPU chip with a bunch of pins) and memory chips. The only person who would have this is someone who develops their own microcontroller-based projects e.g. someone who designs and builds a computer to monitor the speed of a conveyor belt and send an alarm if it goes too slow or too fast. A local tech shop might have one. You can buy one at places like Jameco.com or Digi-Key.com but its not cost effective ($200 & up).

If I were you I would consider paying them to flash the chip for you then do all the rest of the work yourself. This kind of stuff is for the digital electronics person.

This level of work that Riccardo did is not for the average tinkerer although I think if you just copycat what Riccardo did, buy the chip & have someone else flash it for you, you will come out OK. -James

Riccardo:

Do you think it is possible that the chip is BIOS chip is OK, but the firmware is bad?

Are you convinced that the chip itself was bad?

I am wondering about lifting the affected leads and re-burning it in place using an external writer. What do you think

Hello Bob, hello Gail

Im writinig this post on my Presario 1200 XL 103 (2nd day after fixing it).
Im 99% sure that the BIOS flash chip is damaged because I can measure an internal short circuit between pin 31 & 32 (/OE, A10).
When I made measurements on it with the digital oscilloscope I saw a conflict on that pins, so I suspected a faillure on the flash or in the power management IC (PC87570). Then, after removing the flash, making measurements on it I discovered the internal short.
Gail, the universal programmer you asked for, is a common tool used on production facility of electronic board (the company I work for). There are several type on the market, some are quite expensive, other are cheaper. The kind of work I did on my laptop is quite easy for me because I had the possibility to use the right tool to do that (soldering station, microscope, universal programmer, ecc).
I wrote my story to suggest what could be the reason of so many computer with the same faillure: maybe there are other reason each of them different from others.
I hope that my sytem will work for some time!
Regards Rick

Riccardo,

great work!

This certainly looks like a solution. You say the flash chip had an internal short in it. Do you have any idea if that short can, after some time, un-short ? The reason I ask is because if the computer goes GLO and you let it rest for a while (days, week, months who knows?) it will suddenly start to work again. This seems to be the case for all the GLO members here...

/Tobia

Thanks for the reply, Riccardo. Now it is all of you stateside techs to come forward and let us know where we can find a specialty electronics repair facility that would have the equipment that Riccardo used. I bet a lot of us would like to resurrect these doorstops

I have a compaq presario 900 and have the same problem as described on above thread. Sometimes it just wont turn on. I have to take out battery and disconnect power supply. I have experimented with different order of starting, taking out power supply and starting it from battery then replug in and it works. this failure happens about twice a week now...its getting more frequent. it is still under warantee and i have talked to the tech support and they act like they have no idea what i am talking about...just send it in. which is very inconvenient!! i am hoping there is some new updated success stories to follow

Hi Tobias,

yes I think it could be a thermal problem, infact during my test I heated the mother board with an hair dryer and it works for some time...not hours anyway.
If anybody else could make my same test on their system we could have some more information on what could be the reason of so many GLO notebook computer.
I will update you all about my system after fix.
Regards to all. Rick

Count one more flustered indivivdual to this group. I have a 12XL125 that refuses to turn on. I have had it since around 2000 and this is the first time it has acted up. I was also running Win 98 SE

Riccardo,

Ive got an Iroda 70 butane hot-air pencil. You think its possible to remove the flash chip with this or is a hot-air station really necessary ?
Also, where is the flash chip located ?

/Tobia

I had a similar problem for quite some time. I got the 1200 from someone who was going to trow it away because the hard drive went bad for the second time. It started up every time, just locked up when into windows.

So I put a new (used) hard drive in and tried to start it before I had it fully put back together. It was really finicky this way...didnt really want to start up.

When I got everything put together it worked great for about a month, then it didnt want to start. Acted just like power switch was broken or there was no battery. It did this a few times and I would take the whole computer apart and put it back together again (not really doing anything to it) and it would work great for a few startups.

This last time it wouldnt turn on for almost 2 months after I disassembled it and put it back together. Then one day the power light started blinking for no reason (only noticed cause room was dark). When I took it apart this time I realized that one screw holding the CD-rom in place (bottom of cover) was a little too long and was toughing the metal framing of the CD-rom.

Ever since I removed this screw and placed on the correct length in the computer has worked flawlessly.

So in short...when I replaced the hard drive I mixed up 1 screw that was too long and grounded something that wasnt supposed to be. This caused my no-start problem. Also when the computer was half apart the same no-start condition would occur when some of the screws werent in place (just the outside ones that hold the caseing together).

Sorry for the novel...hopefully it makes sense

Hi Tobias,

on my system, the flash chip is located on the bottom side of the mother board (opposite of CPU side) it is in TSOP (Thin Small Outline Package).

I think that your butane torch is good, but keep in mind to regulate carefully its temperature to avoid over-heatig of the board. You can do some practice on other electronic boards to improve your skill. Make sure that you will uniform heat the flash chip.

Another way to remove the chip is to melt some thin on all the pins and to heat up them with a standard soldering iron (for electronic pourposes): I use my Weller 50 W. Keep thin liquid on both side of them. (If I will have time I will make a photo on how to that and I will add it on this forum).

After removing the chip you need to clean the pads on the printed circuit board and make sure to remove any excess of thin to avoid short circuits.

Flash in TSOP format are difficult to reprogram with an universal programmer because you need an adapter (expensive): Ive repalced my one with a PLCC (Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier) type (bigger) and there was the possibility to mount it on my mother board. You should verify the same possibility: look under the modem board on the left corner, you should see pads on the mother board.

Sorry if I write a novel, but to explain all sometimes is too long. One photo is more clean I will manage to make one to show you all.

Good luck! Rick

Riccardo - I havent had any luck finding anyone here around Indianapolis, Indiana, that can do what you did. I am not opposed to mailing you the motherboard with Global Priority Mail. How much would you charge to do the same to my motherboard? Beasley Allen (the law firm) mailed me a letter, telling me that they are unable to pursue a claim against HP/Compaq. Oh, well, it was worth a try

************PROBLEM SOLVED**************

. I FOUND THE ANSWER TO A LOT OF PROBLEM WITH THE COMPAQ PERSARIO XL111 I GUESS IT COULD APPLY TO A LOT OF LAPTOP WITH THE PROBLEM. MY PROBLEM WAS THAT THE LAPTOP WAS WORKING AND STOP WORKING FOR NO REASON, THE ONLY LIGHT THAT STAYS ON WAS THE POWER LIGHT THAT INDICATED THAT THE POWER WAS GOING IN AN NO ACTIVITY NO BOOT OR ANYTHING. I HAVE BEEN ON THIS WEBSITE MONTHS BEFORE AND COULD NOT FIND AN ANSWER BECAUSE I FIX COMPUTERS AND I AM NOT A+ CERTIFIDED OR ANYTHING, I HAVE FIX MANY COMPUTERS, I HAVE EXPRIENCE. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF ME AN DYOU GUYS I COULD NOT FIND OTU WHY THE LAPTOP WONT BOOT. UNTIL YESTERDAY WHEN ME AND ANOTHER FRIEND WAS TALKING A AN IDEA CAME TO MIND, BECAUSE I HAD SEEN WHERE COMPUTERS WOULDNT BOOT BECAUSE OF THE HARD DRIVE , I GUESS YOU START TO FIGURE OUT WHERE I AM GOING AT. AND I REMEMBER EVEN ONE TIME A COMPUTER WOULD GIVE NO BOOT OR POWER BECAUSE THE MODEM WAS BAD. SO I WAS THINKING IF I HAD APPILED THE SAME PRINCIPLE HERE IF IOT WOULD WORK. I EVEN SOLDIER THE MOTHERBOARD AC CONNECTOR BEFORE TOO AND REPLACE IT. BUT THE LAPTOP BOOT AGAIN AFTER I TOOK OUT THE DVD-ROM AND THE MODEM, AND IT BOOTS TO THE DESKTOP AND I WAS ABLE TO SHUT IT DOWN AND THE BATTERY BEGIN TO CHARGE AGAIN, A FIRST IN OVER A YEAR, SO MY CONCLUION IS THAT THE PROBLEM IS EITHER THE DVD-ROM OR THE MODEM. I WAS SO GLAD I JUST DECIDED TO TELL YOU GUYS THE GOOD NEWS TO SEE IF IT WOULD HELP YOU GUYS. SO I HAVE NOT THE TIME TO TRULY TEST BETWEEN THE TWO OF THEM. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU GET YOU LAPTOPS TO WORK REPLY TO MY EMAIL AND LET ME KNOW, BECAUSE I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW THAT I WAS ABLE TO GIVE BACK AFTER SO MANY PERSON SHARED MANY AN IDEA WITH EACH OTHER. THANK YOU

Hi Gail,

I apoligize for my late reply to You. Yes I want to help you to fix your system, but I cant offer you any warranty
of my work: it could be the same reason like mine or anything else, so maybe I will not be able to fix it.
Anyway I thik this is not the right place to talk about "job opportunity": it look like a commercial ads.


David what you tell could be another reason, in my system it was a BIOS memory faillure.

I will update you all with news about life status of my system (at the moment good!).

Regards

Rick

Hello, I would like to join your GLOB culb, Group #2. As of Sundy, Nov. 14, 2004 my Compaq 1200-XL110 stopped turning on and has all the same symtoms mentioned in this thread. I bought my system new on 5/2/2000 and treated it like a baby. Before I found this thread, I Instant Message HP technical support. This was a joke and a waste of my time, They are not technical people, but good at reading flow charts!

They had the nerve to send me an e-mail questionare to fill out about their help service,
My reply " Hp does not want to solve my problem or over 300 other peoples problem. Go to your own website and read http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/ forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=36917 - 101k - As of Sunday, 11/14/2004 Im in the same boat as many other people and wasted $1400 of my money. I guess you dont care about your customers. I kown it is a Compaq Machine, were you just getting rid of your competition, and had no intention of supporting their existing products! After reading that thread I cant believe you wont help. Not even a schematic so we would have a fighting chance. I quess our Compaq computers are obselete and we need to buy a new one. Im sure we all will have too, but mine will not be an HP / Compaq system!!!"
I will be keeping in touch with this thread! This thread has save me alot time and money, but I never give up! Cheer

Hello everyone:

I have been following this thread with great interest for a long time. I think I may have made some suggestions when I first read it. Now that I read Davids post of yesterday, I realize I may have had some good information all along. Unfortunately, I never connected the problem I had with my Presario 1800XL-190 to the symptoms you are all experiencing (until now).

A customer asked me to repair the Presario 1800. She had no power cord/brick and the battery was dead. I was able to power it up with an IBM Thinkpad power source (dont try this at home ;-). It seemed to work fine for a whil, then it began to spontaneously reboot. You really couldnt get any work done with it because you never knew when it would die. Since the cost of the parts and the likely cost of the repair would have probably been very high, the customer opted to buy a new laptop and gave me the 1800. I started working on it during lulls in my other repair activities and when I disconnected the DVD drive, it never failed again. I got a used DVD drive on eBay and its been fine ever since (over a year).

FWIW.

Make a great day!

Roge

Hi everybody,

im the owner of a GLO presario 912EA. Before finally going GLO, most of the time I was able to start the computer up some way or the other (first by starting from battery only, afterwards from starting from AC only).

Anyway, now by toying around to get it going, I discovered that after leaving the computer closed for a few days with the battery inside (battery which was full only a week ago), the battery lost its power.

In a non active computer, this would indicate a short of somekind. Whether this can be linked to the CPU shorting through overheating or other hypothesis posted on this site and others, I leave to the more technically formed.

regards, jef

I tried Davids solution on my XL111 and it didnt work for me. Unfortunately. I was really hoping that was it since Ive changed everthing else on my laptop. The only positive fix I had was the motherboard, but that eventually ended up with the same malfunction.

I think I might try Riccardos solution, but I have a couple of questions. 1) I cant find the exact TSOP Flash chip in stock anywhere. I noticed that theres a PLCC footprint for another IC on the other side of the board. Is this an alternate location for the same chip, but in a different package Riccardo? 2) If I cant find a similar speed flash chip, is it permissible to use a faster chip of the same part number series? 3) (and this is the biggest obstacle...) Compaq does not have a ROMPAQ for the XL111 listed on its website. So Im going to have to ask them for it. This will be interesting..

@A.I.G.: if you select presario-12xl 103, you will notice that there is rompaq update under the windows 98 OS. That Rompaq suppports all presarios from 1200XL101 to 1200XL115

Thanks Klemen. I also just remembered that I ordered the "Presario Software Enhancement CD" several years ago, and the ROMPAQ was on there too.

In the mean time, I received a reply from HP Customer Service, which I am posting here for your amusement:

"Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

I understand that you need the ROMPAQ for updating the BIOS in the Presario 1200-XL111.

Currently the Rompaq that you requested is not available. Please be assured that once the BIOS update is available, we will inform you via the E-mail.

However, I recommend you to check out the Software and Compaq Software & Drivers webpage frequently for the Rompaq. Inconvenience is regretted.

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

Regards,

Britney
HP Total Care

I have removed the motherboard, and Im looking for the bios chip. Im used to desktops, and am not seeing anything which definately is it. I have found several small chips which are possibilities, but Im not sure which it is. Could someone describe what Im looking for?

Thank

Flip that motherboard over, and look for a narrow rectangle labelled Amtel. Thats it. I tested mine today, as Riccardo instructed, and... surprise! My BIOS chip is shorted between pins 31 & 32, also. Hmmm

Ok, I have found the bios chip. I have also found sites for programmers, but where do you get a new chip? It seems they are only sold in bulk. Atmel doesnt list that model on their website, so what should I replace it with?

Also, http://alphazee.webstrikesolutions.com/tutorials/tsopextraction.htm has info on replacing tsop chips, but relating to satelite recievers. Would it be the same for a laptop?

Thanks for the help. I Hope I can get this fixed

Perhaps Riccardo will fill us in regarding where he got the chip. And as far as those removal/reinstallation instructions go - whoo-wee! That looks pretty intense! I wouldnt be able to have any coffee for a couple of days before trying this

Whats the part number on that ATMEL chip? I left my old motherboard at work...

Whoops! It is ATMEL, not AMTEL. Sorry. Ok - in my 1200 XL118, the chip reads: Atmel - AT49F002T - 12TC - 0013. The dashes are taking the place of hard returns here. Each of those items is on a line by itself

Just out of curiosity, does anyone elses Atmel chip have dots on it? Mine has a green and a white dot of paint or something. Does this mean anything for QA when it was made

Rob - Yes, mine has the dots you speak of. What they are for? Who knows. I tested my chip again, this time using the specification document that Riccardo sent so I got on the right pins. I also had my husband watch the meter while I watched myself hold the meter leads still - not easy, on this tiny chip! I had an infinity reading, indicating there is no direct short in my chip. Drat! I thought we were on to something there

Gail,
Trying not to sound too stupid, as I havent taken electronics in over 20 yrs, and until recently havent even used it...but doesnt an infinit reading mean there is a short? otherwise u would have a resistence reading? Just asking...maybe I have it mixed up...thanks...

Rob - Easy mistake to make, and I have made it myself in the past. An infinite reading indicates so much resistance it is immeasurable; a 0 or low number indicates no resistance or very little, thereby indicating a short

Whoops! Sorry - Arthur, not Rob. Guess I havent had enough coffee, yet

Yes, my ATMEL chip also has the green and white dots on it. Probably just means its had the BIOS flashed into it and its been tested

I measured the resistance between pins 31 and 32 of my ATMEL chip. Also open (not shorted). Gail is this the procedure that Riccardo suggested? (i.e. measuring the pins with a meter?

Yes, that is it. Are you testing the correct pair of pins? Locate the recessed dot on the chip, that is pin 1. Directly opposite, on the other end of the chip, is pin 32. Mine was not shorted, so Riccardo sent me further instructions

yet another GLO on a compaq 1200 xl103. Never looked inside a laptop before so Im a little reluctant to whip the screws out.

Same old fault I guess.
One lonely green light on.
No sound, No screen, No Hope

Martin - Dont give up, yet. Riccardo seems to have the chops to figure this out. Where are you located? I am in Indianapolis, and am working out repair details with Riccardo

Im checking the correct pair of pins. Even if they do not appear to be shorted, the solution proposed by Riccardo seems more compelling than any other Ive read here, so Im going to try and implement it if I can get the parts and the prom programmer. Digital isnt my specialty.

Incidentally, if you look at the postings by Luiz Monfardini around Sept 20 of this year, he mentions a chip and a socket being inserted next to the CMOS battery beneath the modem. We thought he was talking about the TI audio chip, but it is now clear he was talking about a PLCC socket that was installed on the PLCC footprint located the OTHER SIDE of the battery. Whoever fixed his PC apparently removed the ATMEL TSOP device on the other side of the board, then installed a PLCC socket with a newly flashed BIOS chip (ATMEL) next to the CMOS battery. It all makes sense now.

For those of you that dont know, TSOP and PLCC are two different kinds of plastic leaded packages that the same electrical chip comes in. They both have the same function and pins, they are just arranged a little differently and one is easier to work with than the other

Arthur - I should add that your resistance readings of infinity and zero are also dependent upon the ohms range you select on your meter. Sorry to add to the confusion

I had a fluctuating ohms reading today on pins 18 & 19, which is signal A2 and A1, respectively. It settled out at ~35 ohms. The rest of the readings that I took were infinity. I am using the 200 ohms setting on my meter. Are we also measuring this resistance through the circuit

I think the suggestion by A.I.G. is logical and makes sense.

Thanks

Gail,
thanks. Your optimism doesnt appear to be shared according to the length of this thread. However surely someone somewhere must be able to find a solution. Perhaps this is how the world will end, a few lost souls feverishly communicating in a last final effort to get more than one green light to come on.
Im in England by the way so I guess this thing is worldwide eh?
Please keep looking into this problem. There must be thousands of others like me who cant provide any useful info but are eagerly watching this in the hope that someone will eventually post the answer and we can all go back to using our laptops

Martin - I think Riccardo is on to something here, and I am trying to verify his findings by testing my husbands laptop, too. Riccardo is in Italy, so he is a lot closer to you! Maybe we can all get a definitive answer, and some of the more technically gifted people (with access to the right equipment!) can come forward and offer their services. You never know

I am having power on problems with my Presario 12-XL125 and after reading all the previous posts. I am in the group 2, green power lights nothing else turns on or spins. It was working fine then froze up and had to pull the plug/battery to shut down. After dis-assembling everything and re-solder a/c power jack and switch still only had the green power light. Tried all the previous fixes but nothing seemed to work. Then I read something about the battery connections. So I removed all power sources and cleaned the terminals that side into the battery. After that, I got all 3 green lights and it booted up. Not sure if it will help everyone but at least its worth a try. (I used a flat blade screwdiver to scrap the terminals but perhaps a pencil eraser would be better

Sorry for the false hopes with cleaning the battery connections. My laptop froze up again and wouldnt power off with the power button/Fn.
Now only the green power light again!!!!
So back to square one

I gave up a couple of months ago with my 1200. It would boot up occasionally but usually die within about a half hour of use. When it first froze I had noticed some weird behaviour with the battery not charging correctly. I removed the battery (which was only a few months old) and worked on trying to fix the laptop with just the AC supply.

A couple of weeks ago I gave the battery to my son for his Compaq 1800 but it will not charge at all in his machine.

Can someone tell me what the terminal/pin assignments are to test. When the laptop has AC power applied what voltage on what pins should I be able to measure? And with a charged battery what voltage should I see across the different terminals of the battery.

Thanks Mik

Hi Riccardo,
Im Antonio and Im from Italy too.

I joined the GLOB group for quite two years and Im still following this forum to solve the GLOB problem that affected my Presario 1200-XL122 (of course when it went out of warranty!).

As for many people here, my Presario still boots up sometimes... Now Im in its "NO-BOOT-TIME" (GLO as usual) but I gave up to post this piece of news and only have a look sometimes around this forum, hopefully hoping :)

Well, Im not skilled enough to do the same job as you do, but Ive become able to mount and dismount my Presario...

See you and, again, good luck to al

Ihave 1200xl-103 GLO ,I found a drawing showing bios battery location but there is nothing at the position shown .
Can anyone tell me where the bios battery is on this model ?
Malbr

Malcolom, bios battery is on the left side of motherboard, underneath the modem (small plate on spacers)

Any memberships to GLOB still available ;) You guys ought to be in the hall of fame!

Never dealt with Compaq before--love HPs and have had good luck with them, got pretty mad when they merged. Now I have a 1200xl-118 belonging to a local religious non-profit, trying to help them out. Turns on, fans run, battery light LOOKS like it is charging, but blank screen. Looked at other issues first, trying to recover data they needed--checked HDD on desktop system using 40IDE to 50IDE adapter (you might try one of those if you dont have one) and found viruses involved--would not boot another system, OS gone. Had been upgraded to ME; reparted and will reinstall 98SE using their OEM key.

Have yet to try clearing CMOS--any BIOS updates for this model? There are some given on this thread, but are from prior and later models; 118 seems to be left out. May have found one by calling the system a "12xl-118" but am unsure if that is the same as a 1200XL-118. Anyone know? Link is http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/previousVersions?dlc=en&lc=en&os=20&product=95033&lang=en&cc=us&softwareitem=36734

Hope your days are merry and bright, as Bing used to say!

PS:Before you toss your system into the backyard pothole or trash, consider donating it to the cause--I could probably get you a receipt for tax purposes

OK, heres the scoop so far.

Removed the CMOS battery. Held the power switch "ON" for a few seconds. Put in a new battery, $3.01 at Wal-Mart. Put the CPU back in--TIGHT. Lost the brown clip, didnt work well anyway; glued the socket with RTV. Put it back together enough to try and POST, then boot--except powered with power supply, not main battery.

Noticed the display cable (the one on the right side, with a flat six-conductor array) was PARTIALLY CUT.

Hooked up a desktop monitor to the 15-pin socket on the back and tested it. IT BOOTED! The red "Compaq" logo never looked so pretty!

Able to enter bios, set system time, date and saved. Have not installed the main battery yet. I chose to run it for only a minute or two at a time, because I havent put in the heatsink yet so I can hook up the display cables.

Removed the broken/cut display cable. Very carefully soldered each conductor together. Removed the desktop monitor cable and hooked up the LCD--and now it works too!

***SOMETHING I NOTED: When the machine wouldnt boot, the fans ran all the time. Now that it boots, the fans dont run until it gets hot.

HYPOTHESIS: ALL THOSE MACHINES THAT LIGHT UP THE GLOs BUT NOTHING RUNS BUT THE FLOPPY, ETC. COULD JUST HAVE A CUT DISPLAY CABLE, SO YOUD NEVER KNOW IT WAS REALLY BOOTING!!!

Hook em up to a desktop monitor--borrow a friends if you have to--and check it out. I never knew the cable was cut until I removed the display. It is too well hidden otherwise.

Still looking for a way to replace it--my solder job, though careful, is ugly and impractical, since it has to pass through a tight space right where the solder job is

Well compaq needs to be a little more specific in posting what motherboards are interchangable with each laptop. I just got a like new 173539-001 mobo, (the screen got cracked) and It was suppose to work in my 1200-XL106 . Well they didnt tell me about the LCD cable difference. I put I took the laptop all apart and placed in the new mobo and when I got to hook up the lcd cable found out I had a different one.Well thats my luck, but I did put the old one back in and behold it came back on. I played with it for 6 hours last night and not once did it shut down (never put in the battery, also didnt hook up the Modumn.) So if anyone is interested in a like new mobo (173539-001) let me know..will sell it for $60.00 US plus delivery. Also will send you picture of board and test done. The only difference is I put a new K6_2 processor in it (had 475mhz, now has 500 mhz)..will wait a couple of days then will list on ebay.....Happy Holidays to All.

I have a CPQ Presario 1247. No power, only green light when I plug the power cord into it. I have read the postings here and it seems to be a very popular problem. Postings for more than a year. Has anyone found a solution yet?
I know when a car has a problem they issue a recall to get it repaired at no expence to the owner. Has anyone addressed a possible "recall" foe the 1200 series CPQ laptops/notebooks with HP? Just a suggestion

Riccardo fixed my mobo! I mailed it to him in Italy, and he removed the offending BIOS chip, soldered on a new socket for a different style BIOS, programmed a new BIOS, installed it, and BAM! It fired up. He is a genius. His friend, Benny, in Florence, had the same problem with the same solution, as well as one Riccardo had himself. This seems to be the most consistent solution for the GLO so far. My hero

Hi to everybody, I apologize for my silence.
During this time Ive made several test on my Presario and its in good working condition.
Ive fixed the mobo of Gail Phillips who mailed it here in Italy before Christmas.
At the moment there are 4 fixed Presario:

mine,
the Bennys one (Florence),
the Fernandos one (Brazil)
the Gails one (USA)

All of these Presario were GLO and the faillure on all systems was a bad BIOS flash chip with an internal short circuit.
On all mobo the original ATMEL AT49F002T BIOS memory has been replaced with a Winbond W29C020CP90B in PLCC 32 format.
Benny and Fernando, both electronic technicians, did the job themself.
The old memory was removed and the new one was mounted under the modem board with a socket. All the laptops are in working condition.

Best regards to all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Riccard

I think Riccardo has the ultimate fix, but not all of us have access to a universal programmer. Anyone think of trying to hot-flash the new chip after installing the socket? I have hot-flashed dead ROMs successfully on desktops with sockets, but hard-wired-soldered may be another story. Which BIOS do you use--the newest Rompaq, or one from WinBond

Ive been also following this thread, big thanks to everybody.
I will share my own experience.
I still have a GLO motherboard, but I also got a semi-working one with video problem and was able fix it by soldering bad connection.

Since I do have a good motherboard, I can describe few tests.
1. Disconnect everything from MB and unplug CPU. CMOS Battery can be also removed.
Connect only panel with LEDs.
It should be able to turn on/off power LED after clicking power button.
2. Plug in CPU and connect external monitor, speakers, it should display Compaq logo and "No OS" message after power up. Speakers should beep, if anything is wrong (POST failed)
3. Connect keyboard, should be able to enter BIOS
4. Continue connecting and testing remaining devices.


I would like to try fixing another one by reprogramming flash memory. I have chips and sockets, but no programmer. So to program flash, I will try a method similar to hotswap, but to switch memories with chip enable lines instead. Both original and to be programmed memory will be connected in parallel except CE lines

Hi, everybody -

If you are interested, and want a programmed chip, I am sure that Riccardo will be happy to program them, send them to me, and then I can sell one to you. I have to find out the cost from him, of course, and the availability, but we have been talking about how to help everybody else who is in this predicament out of it. If anyone is interested in sending motherboards to Riccardo for repair, I am sure that we can get something going so we can send a bunch at once. I will post more about shipping costs as I find out more - it was about $25 for me to send him my motherboard and power converter board. He needed both to test it after he did the repair. I can test the board if you dont know how, and let you know if it is a short like mine was, then you can decide what to do from there - send or dont send

Hi Gail,

Count me in! I have a Pre-Sorry-O 1200. This thing is a one tank trip to the nut house, and were already down to a quarter tank as I am typing this letter now. I dont know what would give me more satisfaction... getting it fixed and resurrecting it, or smashing it with a sledge hammer...

mmmmmm... Probably the sledge-hammer!

Let me know what you and Riccardo decide regarding cost, etc... and I will do the math and see which method is more cost effective. (Hammer or BIOS) ? :P

Just kidding, let me know. Thanks Gail!

PS. Riccardo - Thanks for all that you are doing! I think I speak for the masses when I say that you are a miracle worker! :

OK, lets give it a shot, my 1200 did the same thing a few years ago, I came to find out that it had to do with stand-by & hibernate, if you use the button to power of,it will stand-by, that then caused a memory leak, so every time I started it up,it would only be a matter of time untill it shut off by its self.Then it wouldnt start at all. Well, after doing a complete tear down and rebuild, I finally got it to boot, then I went to my power settings and set it for allways on, and shut off stand-by and hibernate. Might work might not.

Good Luck,
lowster1

Riccardo, where from italy are you?, maybe we can get together to solve the problem on my presario too, im from Sloveni

Lowster11, tried the power settings changes on the machine Ive been tinkering with, but no go--it seems the power supply has its own mind--will go into standby no matter what the BIOS settings are or after changing settings in Windows, even with the newest Rompaq.

Riccardo--Looked into getting a Winbond chip and socket--there are some shops that will program a PLCC chip (one was in Italy) but they prefer a true BIOS image in .bin rather than an EXE like the rompaq. Do you use the rompaq alone,or do you look for a BIOS image and upgrade it with the rompaq once the .bin has been saved to the ROM? Not averse to asking for one from you, just trying to save some time by doing it myself

update - the laptop is reassembled and working properly. Riccardo replaced my BIOS chip. It was internally shorted. If anyone needs instructions regarding troubleshooting, I will send them to you

Im going to try the Riccardo fix also. Will let you all know how it works out.

Im going to try a different PLCC chip (AT29F020-90JI) since I cant find the Winbond chip. Heres a web page with a table that has (supposed) cross references for the 2 MEG AT49F002 chip:

http://xtronics.com/memory/faq.htm

Ill let you all know how it works out when I get the chip (on order)

Hi, Bai - Riccardos fix worked for me. It is an internal short in the BIOS chip

Ordered a PLCC socket and an Atmel AT29C020-90JI from http://www.mouser.com. Looks compatible based on docs. Chip backordered. Wonder if I can hot swap it somehow..

Johnny - no way. The original TSOP chip is soldered directly to the motherboard. It needs to be removed first, then you can solder on the socket, and place the pre-programmed chip into the socket. There is also a place called badflash that sells pre-programmed bios chips, but I dont know if they handle laptop bioses

Gail, I know where the BIOS chip is, and have thought about it somewhat. I think I can do it by cutting the old chip out carfully with an exacto, and dont have anything to lose since the people I was trying to fix it for have written it off. Will let you know how things work out after I try. I just have to get the thing to boot out of the box.

Sure, Im crazy, but someone needs to push the envelope :)

BTW, they lost my user ID somehow--had to re-register, explains the name change

John - aahhhh, just heat it up and yank it out! That way, there wouldnt be any residual solder there to goof you up. Are you familiar with solder wick

Yeah, I have a roll. One of those vacuum pullers would be nice too. I just dont have a temp-controlled soldering iron and Id be too afraid of pulling up pads and traces.

Im thinking I could cut a score first, and then snap it off

Does anyone know where I can find instructions for removing the motherboard from a 1214sr? I thought there were such instructions somewhere on the HP site

Note they "found" my user name again! I tried and tried to log in yesterday and the server would not hear of it, so I specificially put my real name in yesterday as a workaround. AAAGH!!

Terry, try this link provided by MC YAP in June 2003:

http://h18027.www1.hp.com/athome/support/msgs/1270-1675/

It does help to read the whole forum, even if it may seem laborious

johnnyrev: You can get the AT29F020-90JI chip at digikey.com They have them in stock

Oops, thats AT29C020-90JI (not F020

Thanks, A.I.G., but I already placed the order through Mouser. At least now I know THEY can get it somewhere:)

I did download DigiKeys catalog, and suspect I will spend most of the afternoon browsing through it..

johnnyrev: Radio Shack has an AC potentiometer you can plug into the wall first, then plug your iron into that to regulate the power to the soldering iron..
Thats what I use, its not real fancy, but it works.

Hey if any of you guys/gals can get me a programmed BIOS that I can solder into this dead thing, let me know your price and lets do business. I need to get this puppy up and running. Gail, any word from Ricardo yet

Nick - yes, I have heard from Riccardo

Guys,
Maybe good or bad news, but the problem is not always with flash memory, at least from my experience.
I have one good and one bad motherboard, see my previous posting above.
So, I decided to swap flash memories between motherboards to verify the problem is really there.
To my surprise the good board still worked and the dead one was still dead, so this means that both flash memories were OK.
I did some thoubleshooting on a bad board and it looks like the problem is around PC87570 power controller chip.
The power switch is actually connected to this one.
If anybody is interested to know more about it, the datasheet can be found at www.national.com
I am giving up on this one since I have good working board and fixing bad one doesnt seem to be easy.

Also, I got my laptop running, but in Win98 it installs a very basic video driver and I cant seem to find proper one anywhere. The model of mine is XL118, please anybody advice

Hi Everyone

Replace the BIOS chip seems fix most of the notebook here. It is looks like the BIOS is faulty. But is it bad batch of the bios or something cause Bios chip to fail. I think is the later one. Two weeks again, I put my laptop back again (IMPORTANT, I DIDNOT PUT IN THE BATTERY!) and it works until now. I suspect that the battery, or the change or even windows power management program somehow corrupts the BIOS and maybe even kill the BIOS chip.

So if you have not decide to replace the bios chip yet, you can try to take the laptop apart, leave it for a couple days. Then put everthing back without the battery.

I will let you when my laptop fail again.

Regards

Bai Zho

Alex - let me know which version of video driver you have, and I will see which one is on my husband, Johns, laptop. I can post it to a website for you to download, if it is different

Nick, have a SKU number for the pot? Couldnt find it on their website

Alex:

Your laptop has a Trident CyberBlade 3D Graphics with shared 4 MB Video Memory.
Unfortunately, I could not locate a driver, even on www.tridentmicro.com. However, their website seemed to be experiencing difficulty. Try it tomorrow and you may have better luck.

Make a great day!

Roge

I found video and other drivers. As someone already mentioned, search for 12xl118 model or whatever xl you have:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?lc=en&cc=us&tool=softwareCategory&dlc=en&product=95033

And I agree that flash memory can get corrupted because of dead coin battery since it gets written to on every power-up

johnnyrev - Sorry I didnt respond sooner... got a bit busy this week. The CAT NO: on that is 64-2054. Its actually called a soldering iron temperature control. But I just looked on the R/S web site and didnt see it there. It may be discontinued. Give your local radidio shack a ring and ask them if they have any more in stock.

Worst case senario, if your pretty handy with AC, you could probably build your own with a lamp dimmer switch... cant imagine that its really much different

johnnyrev: By the way, this link has a "premo" temp controller, but they want $ 19.00 for it. http://www.alpineglass.com/shop/category.php/id/375/

Boy, Nick, wouldnt a double gang box with a dimmer on one side, an outlet on the other and a cord out the back look nice? It would be great for mounting on a workbench! What a conversation piece! LOL

It really is a great idea for solder temp control, and I already have a few boxes, sockets and cable, so I only need to get a dimmer. Cost might even up to a store-bought model if someone had to buy all the components. Strain relief would be important too, so anyone else trying it would be better off using a metal box with a screw-in relief. I might even draw up a schematic and list of suggested components if anyone is interested.

Guess all those years working on electric forklift speed controls and chargers have finally paid off for me :

SUCCESS!!!

Well, I finally got my AT29C020-90JI chip and installed it. The my 1200-XL111 worked okay the first time I booted it as long as I did not enter SETUP and change any of the CMOS settings. It offers you the choice to enter SETUP or just to BOOT. If you choose "BOOT" the first time, everything works okay after that.

If I change the CMOS settings, then the BIOS becomes corrupted, and I have to reprogram the FLASH chip. Probably has something to do with the fact that Im not using the same part number as the old chip. For this reason, I definitely recommend putting a PLCC socket on your motherboard, rather than directly soldering the chip to the motherboard.

Incidentally, when the BIOS becomes corrupted then the GLOB problem returns, but again, all I have to do is reprogram the chip to fix it.

Thanks Riccardo - that was the correct solution for me

Another Presario 1200 12xl519 DEAD with GLO symptoms.
symptoms:
The computer dont want to turn on
1-When i plugg the AC conector without battery the middle green light make this sequence:
-1 long sparkle
-4 short sparkles
-1 long sparkle
-1 very, very short sparkle
After this i turn on the computer and i can hear the HD, the floppy and the fan, i can open the DVD pressing the button, but nothing more, nothing else matters, the screen is black and the POST dont start.
I checked the processor with another computer and it works, i checked the memory and also works.
I tested the CMOS battery and i view that is loaded between 2v and 3v. (I will buy another CMOS battery).
I leave the computer without DVD,HD, CMOS battery, without the computer battery and unplugged from the AC since 3 days ago and today the computer still dont want to turn on, showing the same symptoms.
I have tried to start without fan, but with the heat dispersor plugged, but appear the same symptoms.

Somebody can help me, please? some idea?

Thanks a lot in advanced and excuse me my bad english

Cesar Muñoz from Spa

My problem is was with a Compaq Presario 3000 but after reading all the complaints I believe its the same problem all around.

Briefly, get a 120W power cord if you are using a 90W cord.

When I first started seeing the notebook power itself off mid-session, I thought it was a loose cord, for Id always notice the lights going out, something it doesnt do when powered down but plugged in. A cord jiggle and the lights would again light up and I could power up again.

Then it ran out of juice and shut down regardless of cord movement and for sure the cord was not loose. I determined that it only happened when the battery did not need charging because when the battery was freshly charged, it would be fine for a few hours. Without the battery at all it was fine as well.

So, I conclude the power cord is just not powerful enough, not enough AMPS available.

I swapped it with the power cord for my HP Pavilion which puts out a good 6.5 Amps (120W), a more powerful power brick, and problem solved.

At first I thought maybe I had been using the wrong power cord all along because the power brick does not say COMPAQ or HP on it. And to be honest, Im still not sure (18-24V, 4.74A, 90 watt), but using the more powerful power brick solved the problem.

I try the old power cord on occassion, the problem quickly reappears. Apparently something inside the computer is causing it to drain more power than is available. There are a variety of things that can do this, from weak, old, or incomplete solder joints, an old battery, a dead battery (hungry), even a dirty power cord end or loose power cord.

http://store.l-f-l.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?pg=prod&ref=317188-001

Fits: Presario 3050, ZD7000, HP Pavlion zd7012EA, DN730AV, DP353E, DP763E, DM793AR, DM793A, DP448UR, DP448U, DR089UR, DR089U, DR768E, DR340U, DP764E, DM788AR, DM788A, DP769E, DT859U, DP765E, DM790AR, DM790A, DP768E, DR761E, DR762E, DR770E, DP761E, DP762E, DP767E, DP770E, DM791AR, DM791A, DP766E, DP447U, DP446U, DR769E, 3005US, 3008CL, 3015CA, 3015US, 3017CL, 3019CL, 3020US, DC924AR, DC924A, DC925AR, DC925A, DG956AR, DG956A, DG959AR, DG959A, DG958AR, DG958A, Compaq Presario 3080US, zd7010US, zd7058CL, zd7001US, zd7005US, zd7010CA, zd7015US,zd7020us, ZD7030US, zd7101us

As a temporary solution, remove the battery and run without it. A hungry battery will draw power.

As far as not being able to shut it down without a power removal, theres hardly a computer Ive owned that did not have that condition at least once in its life. The failure to power back up aftewards just might be that while it was in that state, something occurred so that powering back up now requires a tad more AMPS, such as the battery was not charging and instead was draining do to the lockup, perhaps preventing the power management software to do its job. Or even coincidence.

If it was going to happen (power up inability), it was going to happen during SOME event that caused you to power down and that would not make that event related except that it was the last thing you did.

Ji

James Hinsch:

First, I would STRONGLY CAUTION anyone AGAINST following your advice of using a bigger power supply.

Providing more current (AMPS) or power (Watts) to a malfunctioning circuit is a good way to START A FIRE, or cause irrepairable damage to either the laptop motherboard or the brick power supply (or both). If the laptop will not work with the brick power supply provided by the laptop manufacturer, you should not connect a different one. You should only use one that was designed to work with that particular laptop. Power supplies come in a wide variety of configurations, some put out more or less voltage and current. Some put out DC (Direct Current), while others put out AC (Alternating Current). It is important to make sure you are using the correct one.

Perhaps the DC connector on your old power supply has an intermittent connection from being flexed over the years? Or maybe it was never the correct one to begin with?

The two main problems Ive seen people having in this forum are (1) the power connector on the motherboard has been broken loose (making the lights blink when you jiggle the power cord), or (2) the BIOS is corrupted, causing the GLO[B] (Green Light Only [Brigade]) problem.

P.S.
Heres some interesting web pages on "Intelligent" batteries such as the ones used in laptops:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-17.htm

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-18.htm

Here is the info off of the brick that came with my husband Johns Presario 1200 XL118 - First of all it says Compaq Computer Corporation right on it. The power info says: input 100v 50/60 Mhz 122 VA; output 19v (then there is an electrical symbol consisting of a horizontal line with three shorter horizontal lines parallel to the long one below it) 3.16A. For what it is worth. My husbands laptop is still operational. I am convinced that the shorted BIOS that Riccardo replaced was the problem here. I tested it myself. It was shorted

The main problem Im seeing is the inability for people to power on their machines consistently.

The power cord I indicated is safe for the models indicated and is sold as a replacement. The additional amperage available (note the machine only draws additional amps if it needs them) is not significant and is more akin to putting in a better battery such as larger ones sold for cameras and camcorders, also capable of deliverying more amps and are sold by the number of amps that can be drawn in an hour at the stated voltage.

The power drawn is controlled by the laptop, not the power supply. The 6.0 amp (120W) charge cord runs significantly cooler than the 5.0 amp.

It is possible that the supplied 5.0 amp was at the very limit of the design and perhaps a 6.0 specification for the cord would have made for a more robust machine, just as a larger battery would have.

This solution worked for me, and was a lot faster, easier, and in my opinion safer than working with internal parts of a laptop, especially the circuit board which should only be worked on by an authorized repair technician, or replacing a bios that as far as I can tell is working just fine.

I have no reason to believe their are any short ciruits. Just a machine that draws a little additional power is it aged.

The cord supplied with the machine was not very precise. It is specified to supply anywhere between 18 and 24 volts whereas the replacement cord I used is 18.5V 6.5A 120W and manufactured specifically for use with HP and Compaq Notebook computers, carrying their logos on the back side.

The actual power requirements of a notebook computer are partially determined by the components installed so no one cord can actually be designed to work exactly with a notebook, but rather is chosen by its ability to supply the estimated power requirement maximums. Should components draw more than expected, and the power cord not built with a very large window of power consumption, one could conceivably run into a shortage of power as I have with the manufacturer supplied cord.

As an alternative, see http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?locale=en_US&objectID=c00035814&locale=en_US&prodSeriesId=235992&prodTypeId=321957

Anybody in doubt as to the veracity can feel free to chat with HP Support who will verify that what I say is true

Update: The higher amperage power adapter only made the problem far less frequent, the machine still powers down unexpectedly

A bigger battery might make your PC work for longer, but it wont make it work better (unless it was underpowered in the first place). The PC has internal regulators to make sure that internal voltage levels remain constant. However if the voltage of the power supply or battery is below what is required for the regulators, then a new battery or power supply would help. Did you measure the voltage output of your power supply while it is plugged into the PC?

One problem my laptop had was that it had fallen off a desktop onto the power connector. I took the laptop apart and the internal power connector was broken. I was not able to find a direct replacement, but I found one at Radio Shack that I could wire in (had to drill the hole in the case bigger and mount it to the case). In my case, this repair did not fix the problem, although the repair still needed to be made. My PC still exhibited the GLO problem (with no boot at all), which after a year of troubleshooting, jiggling, probing, pressing buttons, cursing and $200.00 in parts, turned out to be that the BIOS chip was corrupted.

Im not a "qualified technician" per se, but Im an electronics professional over 18 years of experience in analog electronic design, so I feel completely comfortable experimenting and doing this type of work. I would not advise anyone who is not qualified to do this type of work to attempt it, but to leave it to a repair shop, or to someone who knows what they are doing

Hello everyone,

Im back with some questions that I hope someone can answer. I have been keeping up to date on all the comments that have been posted. It appears Riccardo has had the best success with replacing the bios chip! This brings me to my first question. I have a Presario 1200XL110, I can not find a Rompaq for my system. The SP15303 does not include by notebook in the package description. Has anyone found a Rompaq for my notebook?

My next questions are for Riccardo, did you find the same problem, pin 31 & 32 shorted on the bios chip on the other notebooks you repaired, like on your first notebook?

And my last question for now is, after reading the technical notes on the Atmel Flash Chip I found there are several memory banks in the chip. Is the binary file that is included in the Rompaq strictly code or code and addresses? If it is just code, which bank do you put it in? What address did you start with? My only knowledge is with the old EEproms & Rom chips!

Thank you

My shorted pins were A1 & A2, which are pins 10 & 11. - The link for the ROMPAQ that covers the 1200 XL103 through at least the XL118 (I am pretty sure) is http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?product=95019&os=20&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&tool=softwareCategory&dlc=en&softwareitem=36734

Ricky will have to answer your other question

Ronald:

All I did was put the chip in the PLCC socket on my EEPROM programmer and selected the correct FLASH chip part number in the accompanying software, then loaded the binary from the ROMPAQ, flipped the dip switches the software told me to, and pressed the "Program/verify" button. It was that simple. It didnt ask for anything about what address to load at, so that must be in the ROMPAQ file (Er000714.rom). I used the default settings in the software. I dont know much about Flash memory, but it was that simple.

I bought my programmer on ebay.com - a "Dual Power Willem Eprom programmer" from some guy in Hong Kong for about $45.00 and I got it in like a week. He has more posted there for sale.

Riccardo was very helpful in answering my questions by email as I went through the process of selecting and installing a memory chip. Several different memory chips have been used to make the fix if you read through recent postings.

You will need a soldering iron with a very fine tip (0.016"/0.4mm") to solder in the PLCC socket and a microscope or a really good magnifying glass. Desoldering braid was also useful to suck up all the excess solder from the old chip. The kind of PLCC socket I bought could be soldered in by hand from the top without any other equipment (it is Digikey.com part no. ED80030-ND).

Anyhow, I hope this helps.

Yes I would like some info on anybody in the states that might be replacing the shorted or bad bios chips.I have a 1200XL118.That is doing all the above.If I could get my hand on a Chip that is ready to be put in.That would be nice One that has the bios already on it.I have been doing motherboard repairs for years now but never messed with programing a Bios

Can anyone tell me how can I contact Riccardo please?!?!?!

Gail Phillips I live just under you in seymour Indiana and if you have any info or anything like A "HOW TO" I would love to get my hands on it.Or a address to where you sent yours and the cost. T.Connors thank yo

T. Connors - I tried to look you up, but there are no listings in seymour for you

Canceled my order with Mouser, went to digikey instead. Over ten days and mouser had not shipped, digikey shipped same day I ordered.

Thinking real serious about the Willem programmer--look for the "enhanced" model as it has a PLCC socket on it--otherwise youll need an adapter. Youll pay a few dollars more.

On the brick debate: the load determines how much current is available, but if the potential output of the power supply is too high the voltage may elevate, popping one of your zener diodes (should be some if there arent any). At least they revert to normal when the problem voltage is removed. You may find your laptop runs OK when it has a lot of loads going (floppy, CD/DVD, USB devices,etc.) and not when the loads decrease (sitting idle). In other words, it might boot and then black out. Battery might overcharge as well--meaning too much current will overheat it, NOT that it will hold more. Rule of thumb: as current increases, voltage decreases, and vice versa. For power output, use the P=IE formula, where "P" is power output in watts, "I" is current in amps, and "E" is voltage (in volts,of course). Going by this, Gails brick is about 60 watts.

Generally, however, as long as the continuous output rating is correct (voltage, polarity if DC or AC if necessary) and the current rating in amps matches the load requirements it should be OK. You might be surprised how much variance there is from output markings on these bricks. You might also be surprised how much variance most of these "digital" components on power supplies can take. The main concern is to avoid frying the CPU; and AMDs run hot already. There may be only .1v difference in core voltages between models of K6-2 processors, and if you need to know, you are always better off setting CPU voltage a little lower than specs than you are in setting it higher than specs.

No specifics here, and no recommendations; but I think going from 5A to 6A should be no problem. 5A to 10A might be. Again, a rule of thumb for power supplies: a 10% increase in voltage with the appropriate current figures should be OK

I need to clarify one of the rules of thumb I offered--when current LOAD increases, voltage decreases; when current load decreases, voltage increases.

Anyone who has charged a car battery can see it--as the battery gets charged, its internal resistance increases, so the little ammeter drops while the voltage increases.

While checking your brick in circuit on your laptop, if battery is removed, your current and voltage specs should be pretty close. It will vary to higher current/lower voltage with a discharged battery, and should change to higher voltage/lower current as it charges. If not, you may have a bad battery.

The 122VA on Gails brick for the input is an "apparent power" rating, something applicable to AC devices. While it only puts out 60 watts, it looks like 122 watts on the AC side. In other words, it looks like it takes more power than is used, because simply multiplying AC volts and amps isnt as straightforward--you need a little trig to be more accurate. Isnt it just so nice that the KWh meters on your house measure apparent power, not actual usage

Hello:
Just want to add another model to GLOB since 3 days ago. My Notebook is Compaq Presario 1522LA (latinamerican version of 1520US or 1500US)and failed exactly 2 years after buying it.
I think this notebook falls in category 1 problem (some noise and ligths for a couple of seconds before go off).
I`ve read the complete forum and Im pretty sure my notebook is in this category, but living in Chile, South America makes things harder for me.
I`ll try to get the notebook to a repair center change BIOS chip, as Riccardo cleverly found, BUT never ever buy another Compaq or HP computer again

johnnyrev:

Let us know how your repair goes. Read my Jan 15, posting about the CMOS settings. If youre able to save your CMOS settings without the GLO problem returning then maybe I have an additional problem in my motherboard (that Im not going to fix because its working okay the way it is). It wouldnt surprize me since my mobo has been jostled around quite a bit. Yes, I bought the "ENHANCED" Willem programmer.

My reason for caution on the power supply thing is that not everyone posting in this forum understands electronics and they wont be able to recognize symptoms of internal shorts (voltage drops, high current, etc.) They may not have a Voltage/Current meter to monitor what they are doing. Id hate to see someone fry their motherboard by applying a monster power supply to a shorted input connector. Worse, they could leave it connected thinking they are "reviving" the battery and walk away, then start a fire. Lawyers..

A.I.G., gotcha--since hooking up an ammeter is difficult for an adapter connection, the voltage drop measurement would probably have to suffice, and you would have to be experienced enough to check it. I agree, if more than 10% greater voltage output on the label than stock OEM just forget it. BTW, I wonder how many people fried their TSOP using an analog meter..

Johhnyrev - here is a stoopid question - I seem to have some vague recollection about analog meters and inductance, but wonder if this is the reason that one would fry the TSOP chip? I used a digital meter on mine, so it wasnt an issue

Klemen - try to look me up

No such thing as a stoopid question, Gail! The internal resistance on an analog volt meter is much lower than on a digital volt meter. I think you can still get an analog meter with a higher internal resistance, but they are pretty expensive. The issue becomes a major problem when checking a component in circuit.

With the ohmmeter side, either an analog or a digital meter will work because the output is generally less than the maximum voltage the digital circuit can handle. In circuit, with power on, an ohmmeter could fry both the component and itself. With power off but still in circuit you could be taking a reading of a nearby component rather than the one you think you are measuring. A 10% rule of thumb applies here, too--with two components in parallel, if one has only 10% or less of the resistance in the other the one with less resistance will be measured and the other will not. Measuring voltage is better in these cases because a component that is powered might have more resistance than when it is off.

In a few cases, analog meters are good for use on some heavy-duty digital applications because they will measure trends better than digital and they can often be zeroed to handle the radio frequency from electric motor speed controls better. RF overwhelms the short circuit distances in digital components pretty easily and gives false readings.

Clear as mud

gah.....drool

Hello to all, Hi Ronald, sorry for my delay but I was busy. The RomPaq Ive used to fix my Presario is the SP15611, you can down-load it from Compaq site. Its suitable for these models:

from 1200XL101 to 1200XL116, XL118, XL119 and
1246,1247,1278,1279

Its a self extracting file and it will create a bootable disk. It can be used to update your BIOS but it works only if your system can be powered up. On the disk you will find Er000714.rom file, this is the immage of the flash (256K). You can write it in a new flash chip (if you have access to a programmer).
I hope these note is helpful to you.

Regards

Riccard

I just got a compaq presario 1200XL110 from a friend because it was dead. It has the same problem as most others only one green LED is on. It is the one with the plug on it and the machine will not turn on. I inspected the power socket and all solder joints look good. She said that she turned it off one day and it never came back on.
I would appreciate any ideas that anyone may have. I have tried all of the fixes mentioned on this thread and nothing has helped so far.The only thing I have not tried yet is replacing the cmos battery, but if power is getting to the LED then I can not see why that would be a problem. also I get no fan no floppy noise nothing. If I plug in A USB device, I do get an LED for that device. Any techies figured out what is wrong with this machine or should I just throw it away.

Thanks,
Charles Whitake

charles,

This might be the bios chip as stated in post of the last months...but try just taking out the modem and see if it starts up...after months of it not working, thats what I did and it started up, and still does...if it goes out again, then the next step is either getting the bios chip replaced or selling it on ebay....

Ar

Hello,
I was given a non-booting Compaq Presario 1200, model 12XL326, to fix. It is still covered by a 3 year Radio Shack warranty, which expires at the end of February 2005. According to the maintainance receipts, they have replaced the motherboard twice in the span of 3 months, and the battery twice in the span of a year. In addition, they have replaced the display panel, plastics kit, DC-DC board, and floppy drive.

Can you believe this problem has been going on for 2 1/2 years (take a look at the first forum post date)?!

Does anyone know if there is a computer equivalent of the automobile lemon law? I feel the best thing to do is to replace this with a better laptop, at compaqs expense.

Roger, I am wondering if you could post a compilation of the highlights on this problem, so that we all dont have to weed through 86+ pages of forum positngs looking for the solution that might fit.

If anyone needs more info on my particular problem, I will be happy to post details as I can find them

Riccardo,

Thank you for giving me the URL for my Rompaq. I dont want to get too excited but I had a great break through with my notebook.

My notebook would show no signs of life. I had to wait one to two weeks with no power source connected. Then after the two weeks with only my AC power cord connected I would try booting my system, and it would start running but would crash after 1 to 2 minutes, showing no signs of life again.

After I downloading the Rompaq, I realized it made a self booting/installing floppy. I thought I would install the floppy and boot my system hoping it would stay alive long enough to complete the flash process. Success it held in there until the flash was complete.

My system has been running fine for 6 days now without a single crash. My battery pack is holding power again the next day I start it up. Even my three year old battery pack is behaving the way it use too.

My theory is: since most of us that have the GLO problem, and most of the systems started failing 3 to 4 years of age, that our Bios chip battery was weak or dead. With the battery being weak, this let the bios chips memory get corrupted until system would no longer boot.

Two weeks before my system had the GLO problem, my system clock would be off by years, and my display would have random squares all over the screen that I could hardly make out the Compaq splash screen. Sometimes it would tell me to push "F1" to contine booting, which usually means something change in the system that the bios does not agree with.

This is only my theory, can someone else out there give this a try. 1) Make sure you replace your bios battery. 2) Download your Rompaq for your system and make the bootable/installation floppy. 3)Wait the necessary amount of time that you know your system will try to boot again. 4) Connect the ac power cord (No battery pack), put floppy in the drive and push you On button. 5)Pray your system keeps running though the complete flash process.

Thank you again Riccardo for my Rompaq URL.

Good luck to all

Eric:

Since Im now working a full-time job, I wont have time to do the compilation you suggest. Perhaps someone else will volunteer. Sorry.

Make a great day!

Roge

OK, I too have been fighting to get a Presario 12XL126 back from the dead (GLOB), and it looks like Ive succeeded, except for a small nagging overheating problem that is reluctant to go away.

Howd I fix it? Installed a new mobo battery, downloaded the BIOS update and created a disk, put the disk into the floppy drive, prayed to the "Almighty Laptop God", and after 20 minutes or so of attempting to get the thing to boot it booted up. I sat on my hands while the computer booted to the floppy and updated the BIOS, then it shut down. One more prayer to the ALG, then I pressed the power button. It fired up like it was brand new and has been running great since.

As I said, though, the single fan (brand new a day ago) doesnt seem to be jumping up occassionally and running in "fast mode" like it should to keep the system cooled properly. Its turning, but always on "slow speed". Anyone know a way to kick this fan in the... ummm... fins

Hey, disregard on the fan problem. Turns out the thing was in backwards. All set, now! =

Hi, Ive been following this thread for some time. I had replaced the CMOS battery without success. Now Ive updated the BIOS as suggested and my 1200XL110 works like it should. Ive noticed that the battery also reaches 100% percent charge where before the update it was only 99%. I had been able to use this laptop by not ever shutting it off but now it functions normally. Thanks for finding the solution

Hello again,

Im glad to hear two others had success with my theory! My laptop is still running like a charm. (two weeks)I hope more people will give this a try to see if it fixes their system. It is a easy test to try, see my thread above.

Good luck

Hello,
Where did you get the BIOS update at? Is it from the Compaq site? I have 12xl118 and i think the latest bios update is for the year 2000. Is there one newer? I have downloaded it to a disk but thats as far as ive gone.

Thanks Dale....

Dale it is the same as this - http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?product=95019&os=20&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&tool=softwareCategory&dlc=en&softwareitem=36734.

Ronald, I am happy it worked for you, but it doesnt for everybody or most of us wouldnt be here anymore.

Gail and A.I.G.: I installed the PLCC socket, and then booted the machine. I noticed the ROMpaq went right into flash after boot, so I paused it, removed the TSOP (with heat after all) but between flipping the mobo over and back and the heating up of the CPU it froze up. So, I have ordered a Willem programmer to try pre-programming the PLCC chip

This is the best way I have found to install the PLCC socket. I think it was on someones eBay site.

"Soldering the socket in place is not as difficult as it first appears. The main trick is: DO NOT USE SOLDER, but USE FLUX. Using a liquid or paste flux, wet all of the pads on the board. Place the socket down and check to be sure it is aligned all around. Use a soldering iron to tack the corners to the board. Like I mentioned, do not apply any solder. The board has been tinned, and this provides enough solder to flow onto the pins of the socket. Place to tip of the iron on the pin, and let the heat and the flux suck the solder from the trace to the pin. Once the corners are tacked down, check for proper alignment of the board before continuing. For the rest of the pins, two or three pins can be heated at once by the iron, depending on the size of your tip, letting the solder on the traces adhere to the pins."

I still did only one pin at a time, and snapped the plastic bottom out of the socket to allow easier access to the pins. Worked incredibly well

Johnnyrev,

I know this may not fix everyones system. I also read all of these threads and know what has been done. My point is if you hadnt tried the way I suggested in my above thread, try it, what do you got to loose? $2.00 dollars for a battery!

I have read all of these threads, and I did not know the rompaq was self booting and auto install. (Maybe I missed this in someones thread) I thought I would have to flash the Bios by running a Windows application like I do for all three of my desktop computers.

My system would not stay alive for more than a minute, never on long enough to start up Windows. And after every try I had to wait at least two weeks before the system would show any signs of life again.

Re-read these threads and you will see a lot of us felt we had to be in Windows or have our system running for a long period to flash the bios or make other changes.

I do not believe we all have bad (Defective)bios chips! I do believe most of us with these simular system symtoms have corrupt bios memory. The bios memory could be so corrupt that you dont have a choice but to replace it with a new programmed bios. And yes one way to fix it is to replaced the chip, but that would be my last resort. If you cant get 45 second of life out of your system for it to complete the flash process you probally will have to replace your bios.

Again this my opinion! Have a great day

Ronold,
Did you use the rompaq the way it is when you downloaed it or is the rompaq used to create the installation disk?
Thanks Dale.....

Ronald, sorry I took offense at what I thought was a little too much exuberance.
I had replaced my battery, flashed the bios, and not only got the machine to boot but was able to reinstall a corrupted Windows OS! It would turn on and off, but over a couple of days it seemed to get more unreliable the more I tried it. I could remove the battery and clear the CMOS, and get it to boot a few more times, but never reliably. Everything pointed to the BIOS.


BTW, I ALWAYS try to get things done on the cheap--the most likely problem is usually the most basic, IMO. I agree with your premise--try the cheapest and simplest solutions first; if you look at my earlier posts, youll see that too. I even tried to hotswap with a soldered in chip! Who else would push the envelope!

Again,my apologies--keep us up to date on how long your system runs... especially on how well it works on battery power

Dale,

You download the Rompaq. Run the file in a Dos Window. The program will ask you to put a floppy in your drive, and hit continue. The program will create a bootable disk and write the necessary files to flash your bios. When the the program is done creating your disk, remove it and put it in your laptop. Push your power on button and hope your system will stay running for 45 sec.

PS.
Dale if this seems to fix your system but you didnt replace your bios battery yet, your problem will probally be back. I mention this because you didnt mention replacing your bios battery in you note.

Good Luck!

Johnnyrev,

Thanks for understanding

Its Alive!
12XL125

I replaced the CMOS battery one more time. I reseated the CPU and finally after 10 months of trying I thought I heard a CLICK. I could not wait to try it, but I very carefully installed the heatsink and screwed everything down. I plugged in the adapter, I could not believe my eyes, 2 green lights, then I pushed the power button, and the third light came on. I think I scared my wife when I yelled " its alive". I flashed the BIOS and rebooted, it came up into windows and showed the last time it was running was 4/26/04. I have shut it down and restarted it several times and it keeps coming back up. I will keep my fingers crossed that its keeps working

johnnyrev:

Sorry it took me so long to answer. I was off working another problem.

Im not sure what you meant by "the ROMpaq went right into flash after boot" etc...

You should have removed the TSOP before installing the new chip in the PLCC socket. The PLCC chip takes the place of the TSOP. Im not sure what the effect of having them both installed at the same time is. I remember you saying something about trying to piggyback the chips...

You cannot flash the AT29C020 chip using the ROMPAQ because it has a different architecture than the original AT49F002 TSOP. You HAVE to use an EPROM programmer for the AT29C020. I think piggybacking the chips would only work if you had another AT49F002.

Also, you should never apply power to the mobo while it is not completely installed in your PC, because the processor requires the heat sink to be attached (otherwise you might fry it). If you fried the processor, you can get a new (better) one from newegg.com for about 15 bucks.

Once you install the AT29C020, you will never be able to directly flash it with the standard ROMPAQ again. Youll have to remove the Er000714.rom file from the ROMPAQ and use the EPROM programmer.

My 1200XL111 is still working, so it was a good fix.

I know some of you other guys/gals are talking about changing CMOS batteries and stuff, but those of us who had to change the BIOS chip had already exhausted that option. The only fix available to us was to remove and re-flash the BIOS off board, since we couldnt get anything but a green light and no boot

A.I.G., I know, I know. I had little chance of success.

I did remove the TSOP before putting the PLCC into the socket. What I meant by "goes into flash right after boot" is that immediately after the screen reads "Starting MS-DOS..." the flash utility begins the flash process. There are no prompts before this happens. I would guess there may be some switches that could be written into the utility, but the point is moot now for me anyway.

BTW, the fellow in HK is in the middle of the Lunar New Year, so I will have to wait about another week before he can ship my programmer--happy year of the rooster, everyone

I wish I knew about that site about six months ago.

Anyhow, Im glad I got the eprom programmer because I had to re-flash my BIOS chip several times before I figured out what would I SHOULD NOT DO that would cause my BIOS to be corrupted and the GLO symptom to return.

In the end, I would have spent about the same amount of money, and I wouldnt have had any fun with the eprom programmer. :-)

The PLCC socket I bought from digikey.com did not have a bottom in it and was very easy to solder with no modification

Hi friends, does any of you know where can I get the electronic drawings of this Presario 12XL125 or 12XL series?. I have the same GLO problem.

I am located in Maracaibo, Venezuela, South America.

Regards, Ramon Antoline

See if this helps:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#24

Make a great day!

Roge

I'd like more details on the WINBOND bios chip from Badflash fix mentioned above. I'd like to try it but am not really clear on the procedure, is it possible to install the new bios chip without soldering the mobo??? Then theres hope for some of us! taho@wctc.net

when you pull the pad off check the ribbon cables very carefully for the mouse and hdd mine was pinched and shorted so it wouldnt let it power up,makes sence that if you play with the battery it sometimes works. ribbons are right on top of battery(external battery)connector. my short was in hdd cable,just a pinhole.

Hi Friends, I am from Brazil - Rio De Janeiro, I have one notebook Compaq Presario 1200 XL-101 with all the cited problems (only the green led respond). I ask: - The solution is change (re-flash) the BIOS? - The other tips do not have success? Leonardo Oliveira leorjgj@bol.com.br icq 40065380

I also have the same problem, i figure, it must be the bios, my compaq 1200 presario laptop, model 12XL125 will not boot, only green light on power pac, and on pc indicating it is plugged in, no battery charging and wont turn on. I kept pressing the power button, etc, got it to boot, used ROMPAC update from compaq looked like it was updating fine, then, when verifying programming of bios, came up and said reboot using phoenix crisis CD. Guess that means it didnt program correctly.....Guess my next step may be to just buy a new bios and have it installed, can anyone tell me where the bios chip is on the compaq 1200 12XL125? I already replaced the cmos battery Thanks

Email me if you might be able to help me out ReneB64@prodigy.net

I also read in the begining of this thread, the originator,"purchased a WINBOND W49F002U-12B Bios flashed with Er000714.rom" I would like to know how he found the correct version for his compaq 12xl11, because i need to find the correct version bios for my 12xl125. Thanks

Hi everyone! I have a Presario 1230 that stopped working within weeks of being purchased new. After a great deal of frustration with trying to get after sales service, I contacted Carly Fiorina, Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard to complain. This resulted in a string of correspondence between me and what I imagine to be some sort of auto-response-type letter selector - she said this, we'll send letter number 13876 in response sort of thing. The end result is that the company successfully ran me out of the warranty period without ever doing anything for me whatsoever. My Compaq is still sitting dead in it's original packaging some three years later. If I can get the instructions for fixing the problem in Spanish I am about to try and get a local guy in Spain to see if he can resuscitate it. I used to buy HP products and recommend them to my clients but have never done so since I gave up trying to get proper support. I saw the thread on HPs support site before they closed it but wasn't in a position to save it or use the information in it. Just thought I'd add to the weight of people grateful to you for putting the information here. Thanks!

Rene Bermudez, I got the Er000714.rom from the disk used to flash the bios. If you have the floppy disk look on that with another computer and see if there is a rom file on it.

I dont believe my Compaq came with a disk to flash the bios. I did try to update my bios with the ROMPAQ off of compaqs site, but dont believe that has the entire program on it. Is that correct?

Johnnyrev....Saw your post on the soldering, looks good, is helpful, but do you have any information on removing the current bios on the 12XL125? Did the motherboard fit back into the case with the socket installed? I found that the ER....rom file is probably on the update(ROMPAQ) disk i created. Thanks

hi, I'm ardel from manila, I was working with my compaq presario 1200 when my 2 year old kid, without me noticing it, put a couple of coins inside the floppy drive. The power went out instantly, without any warning. At first i cant figure what went wrong, its only when i tilted the notebook did i notice the coins inside the drive. Im still not sure if this have something to do with the power trouble. But since then i was not able to turn the notebook on again. I guess the coins might have 'shorten' something in the power system. Also i have not tried any other means to diagnose the trouble, but if it were a battery being drained out, i should have been notified by the pc in any manner. I hope you could help me out with this so i can continue working again. Thanks

JManatee Could you please send me a copy of Er000714.rom to reflash my bios. The location on the mother board for the bios chip is u518. The Atmel chip # is AT49F0002T I also have Compaq 1200XL111 with the same problems you had. I want to try the flash. Thankyou ! Joe u1041460@warwick.net

Rene Bermudez & JoeK: You can download the bios flash from Er000714.rom

Rene Bermudez: The new bios does not solder on the bottom it goes on the top where the modem riser sits. there are pad already for it

At the top of this page it indicates a WINBOND W49F002U-12B was used. I think it should be a WINBOND W49F002U-12BP. The letter P indicates the chip as a PLCC chip. WINBOND W49F002U-12B is a DIP version. Also towards the end of the post, others used a WINBOND W29C020CP90B chip. What chip is the right one to use ????? I currently have an Atmel tsop AT49F0002T that needs to be replaced .

Riccardo Molteni Used the WINBOND W29C020CP90B chip and A.I.G. used a AT29C020-90JI. But it seems A.I.G. has to use a programmer to reprogram his after it gets corrupt again ! After looking at the data sheets for the WINBOND W29C020CP90B chip and the WINBOND W49F002U-12B , they seem to be different.

I Used the WINBOND W49F002U-12B PLCC32 Chip.

The TSOP has to be removed. there are contacts on the obosite side of the Mother board right by where the modem riser is....

Solder a PLCC32 Socket on the pads and use the WINBOND W49F002U-12B

See Photo here

Did you every have to reflash the BIOS again , like A.I.G did ? I want to know what caused the original tsop chip to go bad. I wonder if this new chip would go bad again in a few months just like the original tsop ? What caused the tsop to become corrupt originally ? Heat or Battery ?

My understanding is that the original atmel had a problem with low battery power. this caused a short in the bios. I tested my atmel before attempting this, looking for any leads that were shorted, I found two so I said what the heck and tried it. The laptop is on and running now.

But Remember I replaced the BIOS battery when I replaced the BIOS.

If you contact BadFlash and talk to Jack and reference this site and me he should know what bios you need.

Jon, What made you go with the WINBOND W49F002U-12B chip instead of the WINBOND W29C020CP90B. How did you decide what to use ?

Jon, I did talk to Jack at BadFlash, he was very helpful also. He said he had both chips in stock. Both chips are different internally, but have the same pin outputs. He believes both chips would work fine, but he did say he did a few of the WINBOND W49F002U-12B chips. Thanks again for all your help !! I am going to order the WINBOND W49F002U-12B chip on Monday, I will post on here how I make out !! THANKYOU FOR TIME !!!

"What made you go with the WINBOND W49F002U-12B"

I pretty much took Jacks advice,... I researched the chips comparing the Atmel and Winbond and when I contacted Jack he said I should probably use the W49F002U-12B....

Jon I ordered the bios from Jack at BadFlash, and installed the NEW BIOS CHIP. I used the WINBOND W49F002U-12B chip also, everything NOW WORKS. The laptop booted up instantly, on the first try. But I am not sure which way the fans are supposed to be positioned ? And I would like to find out what the DIP SWITCH's are set to on your board.

JMantee: Thanks, instead of messing with it, i had a person recommended by badflash just replace the bios for me for about $70.00. Works fine now, he told me that with this particular type of bios chip, most times it will not take an update, so i am not sure if the chip was bad, or it became corrupted when i tried to update with ROMPAQ. Reguardless, all my problems started when my cmos battery went bad. My advice, replace the cmos battery, if you can get it to boot maybe it will be ok; dont update it with ROMPAQ unless you have no choice, if it doesnt work, use badflash.com (or their recommened technician) to replace the bios.

Joek Congratulations,... The fans should blow out. I would leave the Dips aloan I didn't mess with mine.

Rene Bermudez Glad to hear it,.. Maybe you could post the phone number or email of the tech that did the swap

Jon, I think I tried to switch the dip switch's when the laptop wasn't working. Just to see if they had anything to do with the computer not working. I thought I set them back to the original settings, but I'm not sure. I just wanted to double check what your settings were for the dip switch's. Everything seems to be running fine, but I don't know what the switch's were to be set at ?

Joek, I will have to get the wifes permission to take it apart again,... She was very reluctant to let me take the pictures... I will ask her

JManatee, I spoke to Jack at Badflash.com and he recommened I use another associate of his to do the work. It was a little less expensive because I mailed him my motherboard only. I paid about $80.00, they replaced my bios which was the problem. Their email is aqs12@broadviewnet.net I was satisfied with their work, and they were helpful. Good luck Rene

My turn! I have all the problems as discussed by many of you with my Presario 1247. Mine also had hash marks on the screen the fist time it failed to boot up all the way. Then the A-drive made the continuos cycling noise and absolutely nothing on the screen. I did find the Crisis Recovery Disk on the WWW and tried that- all it did was make matters worse. I inserted the disk, let it run for 1/2 hour, rebooted but the power button wouldn't work at all now. I'm convinced the bios are corrupted. I made it worse with the disk, but the burning question is- what and why are they dyeing? Perhaps "engineered obsolescence." Anyway- Here in Mesa AZ I couldn't find what I needed, so I too ordered a new chip preprogrammed with the Er000714.ROM file from the Compaq/HP web site from Jack @ Badflash.com. I don't plan to waste much more time on this old laptop so I'm just gonna remove the older TSOP bios chip and solder the new PLCC chip right into that unused PLCC footprint without the socket. I'll update this thread with my results. Cheers- Mark PS- I see there are 4 open SDRAM chip solder pads on the MB- Anyone know if you can expand the onboard memory just by soldering in some chips? I'd think the bios must be written to support it first-right? Just a thought.

It worked like a champ. The removal of the old TSOP bios chip then installing the new 32-pin PLCC chip was delicate work, but it did the trick. Been running for 3 weeks now with no problems. Good luck all. markhinak@hotmail.com

I erased the D partition and now my presario 1675 does not recognize my wireless adaptor. Has anyone else had this problem ?

One more success story ! My Presario 1246 had the GLOB symptoms (power LED on, nothing works), after I had read these posts I order a new chip from http://www.flashbios.org/ (WINBOND W49F002U-12B programmed with the Er000714.ROM binary file). I desoldered the defective TSOP chip, and then I soldered a new PLCC socket. After installed the new bios chip everything worked fine !!!! Thanks everybody who contributed in this page.

MY PESARIO 2100 WONT POWER ON.NO LIGHTS NOTHING,FEELS DEAD

Does anyone know how much Best Buy's Geek Squad charges to fix this? Or if they can?

Same problem with my 2700. Couldnt get it to stay on. Had to replace the HD but that was another problem. I opened it up and the pegs to holf the heatsink on were worn and fell off with little effort. A little gorilla glue on the pegs and some new thermal paste fixed the problem quick. A 4$ solution to a potential larger problem.

wont come on with the ac adpter, the laptop was showing the green and orange flashing when its connected to the power adpter and its making a odd sound, now its only flashing the green light please help its a really nice laptop.

Hi there, I have a semi-dead Presario 1211CA that I inherited from a friend who just replaced it rather than bother fixing it. Apparently due to a power plug issue, some of the traces near the AC plug were scorched and the system would no longer run on AC power - it would, however, still run happily off the batteries (he had four of them, so enough power to get all his data off the computer). I have since cleaned up the scorched traces and put in a new fuse to bypass the damaged area. Now the laptop appears to be semi-functional - the AC power LED lights up, and will actually charge the batteries when they are in the laptop. Unfortunately when I press the power button, the only effect is that the power LED blinks slowly. I tried an additional disassemble/reassemble of the laptop again, with the same results. Does this sound like a corrupted BIOS issue?

I want ot know how to remove my processor from my Compaq presario 1200-XL118

How does one open a 1070 Laptop to get at the RTC battery? ...Al acellier@bnet.org

The Solution showed is exactly the solution that I mentioned. I am glad that everybody has founded it. Regards

I have a compaq presario 1200-xl106 with the sam GLO problem. I replaced cmos battery still doesn't work. Will the bios chip fix (WINBOND W49F002U-12B programmed with the Er000714.ROM binary file) work for me and does anybody have a good explaination on the do-it-yourself installation of the new bios chip? Thanks for your help.

Hello everyone, Just to drop the note to confirm that club is still receiving new members :( and ask for some help. I have quite old and for the most of the time faithful Presario 700US. It's 2 am and I just encountered this page so I'm sorry if I missed out something while reading it. I have "almost alive" set of symptoms with two additional observations. When I press power button, most often I just get AC LED, Power LED ON, and HD blinking for a sec. And it stays there. Those symptomps are already well known. However, it's not persistent. At 10% of times I can actually make it POST and BOOT and then it works like charm (until I try to shut down and start again). I also discovered one more thing. When I press it about an inch (or within battery compartment from down side) while pressing the power button - it powers on each time - that's why I suspected it must be MOBO related, bad contact or something, tried to resolder just about everything, but it's still working the same. I understand it must be BIOS related as well, sometime I get the logo and it freezes there, or I just get blinking "dos type" cursor and it's still frozen. Another thing to add - I have DVD misbehaving as well, machine seems not to see it at times, and it can also be solved by keeping some preassure to the case while powering it on. As I can see that most of my problems are similar to ones described here, but slightly different, I would appreciate if someone can share same "additional symptoms" and opinions if replacing BIOS chip will do it for me? Proud (and sad) member of GLO club :( Ivo

I just purchased a Presario 1200 XL110 today at a garage sale and it is in real great condition. I was playing around with it and went in to check the BIOS and it asked me for a password. Of course you can probably guess the rest. Yep, I'm locked out. Is there a simple workaround. I have not owned a Compaq in over 15 years for the simple reason that they are proprietary company that cares nothing about their customers or customer service. I have read that if one finds the CMOS battery and pulls it out for an hour then replace it my troubles should be solved. Can anyone shed any light on this. I would be indebted. Thanks in advance.

windows 98 was giving me trouble of booting the operating system win 98 ..... It just wouldnt boot ... So what the hell ... i decided to Install XP Pro The LITE VERSION ... and everything works ... xp pro lite found all the video and audio drivers ...incredible ... xp is so much stable than windows 98. and i added a 128 memory sodimm with the 32 memory internal in the laptop ... works fine now

Well, I got it to turn on, after about 30-40 days(lost track of how many). I turned it on then put in the batter, which was completely dead(as expected/planned). Now I'm afraid to turn it off. How would the BIOS be defective if it finally turns on after about a month? Wouldn't this be caused by the power control board?

i have a 1200xl-113, with the same power problems, green lights on, hard disk spins, but no screen information, I have changed the processor, and various small boards on the mother board, this my 2nd 1200 to have the same problem. these note books are fit for the trash bin!!!!

Just bought a Presario 1277 on eBay in non-working condition. I haven't received it yet, but was pretty sure the problem lies with the CMOS battery. I was a PC tech up until 99 and will resume work in the field next month. A little rusty but with overall knowledge still. I've been looking for a page like this for a while that addressed the issues with these laptops. I hadn't even considered that the CMOS BIOS could have been corrupted, but now, thanks to you guys, I know what to do when I get the Laptop here next week. I have the battery and the .rom file ready to go, and if that doesn't work, I'll change the CMOS all together as a last resort. Thanks for all the info on this page and good luck to all of you who visit this page looking for solutions to the same problem, I feel you'll find it here.

Got the Presario 1277 today. Changed the CMOS battery, used the BIOS update startup disk, and... Walla!!!! Up and running. Have XP running on it and no problems at all. Works like a charm.

Also, the previous owner told me that the battery stoped holding a charge a long time ago. The battery now holds a 2 hour charge.

Okay guys. I've been buying several of the 1200 family laptops for the last 3 weeks. 8 in total. All 8 had the same symptoms described in this bulletin. Power on but no display, no activity. So, I changed the CMOS Battery just like I did with the 1277 I bought first, downoaded their appropriate BIOS updates and re-booted them. They all work now, and the batteries that had been described to me as dead, hold an average of 1 1/2 hrs of power. For anyone here having these problems, I'm telling you, it's a $2.95 fix by buying the battery at Wal-Mart. But from what I've observed, the longer you use the unit with these problems, and the more you get it to boot up only to power off after a few minutes, the more risk you run on corrupting your BIOS and frying your CMOS. My advice, stop using it, change the CMOS battery, and before you even power it on again, get the updated BIOS, make the installation disk, inserted in your laptop, power on, let the Bios Update do it's thing, when it is done it will shut down your laptop automaticaly, then re-power your laptop. You should have no further problems for at least 3 more years when the CMOS battery runs out again.

I have a question. I have a computer shop and I have been brought a ,laptop to repair. It is a 1270 presario. Same old glob problem. For those who say that the solution is changing the bios, how will changing the bios help if you cant get the laptop to get any power.

Its a part that just goes wasted on me, as I don't have tools required for doing, not to mention service shops in Singapore are only good in AV equipments service. By changing of BIOS, they meant Physical replacement.

Noel. You first need to open up your laptop and change the CMOS battery. It's 2.95 at Wal-Mart. Then, before you power it back no, make sure you've removed the main battery, and insert the BIOS update disc. Then the computer can re-power, update BIOS, shut down by itself, and it should be fine till the CMOS battery dies out again in about 3 years or so. I've done this with 8 laptops I bought on eBay and it's worked on every one of them.

how can i access my documents folder in winxp password protected hdd on another mechine. when i access this folder it said access denied. i knew the password . this is my hdd. pls help me to back up my doc.

First. Is the password for Windows Itself or for the specific Folder? Go to PCWorlds site and type the following on your browser's address bar: find.pcworld.com/48942 This will tell you how the retrieve the Administrator Password, but you need to have that hard drive up and running. I would log onto that hard drive under Safe Mode with Network capabilities, go to the link I gave you and get the admin password. You should be able to access your file once you log back into the hard drive as an administrator

i have an hp pavillion ze4805 notebook, and sometimes it doesnt like to turn on, meaning that when i press the power button nothing happens, it gives me the power lights, but nothing else. ive tried turning it on with out the battery and all that, but to no avail. normally it turns on after about ten minutes of it having been opened. it also doesnt like to come back from standby. im not entirely sure but, i think it may have something to do with the little pin that gets pressed when you shut the screen, because today when i tried to turn it on, it wouldnt, then i used a knife to pull up on that little pin, and it turned right on. im thinking maybe age or something has slowed a spring on that little pin and cause it to come up more slowly, maybe locking the buttons. if thats not the problem, then i dont know what is, but it worked for me today. but if anyone knows something i could do a a permanant fix, please to tell me. good luck everyone.

i have a compaq presario 700 series with glob syptoms. i replaced the cmos battery, put the bios update floppy in, but again only glob (no spinning of hard drive nor any other activity other than the green light). anyone with success with presario 700 series glob?

Sometime laptops can have more then one problem. Problem 1 A few years ago, my Presario 715 would run for a few minutes. It ended up that the heat sink was not sitting properly on the CPU. It looks like the CPU over heated once and caused a small bump on the heat sink side. There was a small amount of carbon dust between the CPU and heat sink. (Carbon dust is not heat conductive.) I filed off the bump and cleaned off the dust, and finally put heat silicon cream between the CPU and heat sink. It worked great for about a year. Problem 2 Then the “not powering up” scenario started. I have an optical mouse hookup so I see when the power is constant and the machine will boot. Then the mouse flashes in a fraction of a second I know the power circuit collapsed. As ‘jon soo’ said, it is heat related. When the machine is warm, it boots. (I have but the laptop in the oven for 1 minute at 100F or 40C and it works. This is not my solution.) As time goes on, I know this will stop working. A note: power switch circuit, for the reset circuit does not have enough time to reset CPU. (This means no CPU time, bios does not matter.) At first, I though maybe it could be power load. Stripping down to just CPU motherboard, still it is not booting up (powering up). Therefore, it is not a load problem. My conclusion is that it is the POWER CIRCUIT that allows powers to go to the rest of the CPU board. There is probably a problem with the power control IC or a cap going bad, that is why it is heat sensitive. Does any body have the schismatic of the power supply of Presario 715? I would like to repair or bypass the Power Circuit Switch. I do not care if the laptop comes on when I plug in AC adaptor. (I am not using my battery anyways.) It looks like all Presario laptops will be going though this scenario. Just look at EBay Presario Parts. This is a design flaw! Cliff Can

I have cpmpaq perssario laptop & having Amd K6-2 433 2.1v/core/3.3v .pls let me know the switch setting SW1 & SW2 problem Facing no diplay Email Id :-vinod@ultimasupport.com & pune @ultimasupport.com

Juve, I have installed a new CMOS battery and tried to boot my Presario 1200 XL110 with the BIOS update and have only the green light to greet me. Before my installation of the new battery, the computer would boot up and stay operable for about 1-2 hours. Now it's back to GLOB. Did you need to drain all capacitors by shorting or waiting a few days without power before boot-up. I don't want to have to go the Winbond BIOS replacement route if I don't have to. Is there an additional procedure besides just putting the battery in and booting up with the BIOS update floppy? Thanks for your help.

Thomas. Yes, let the Laptop sit from a few hrs to a couple of days without a CMOS Battery, and make sure the laptop battery is also removed. Un-plug the AC power to it too. Then, when you are ready to power on, insert the BIOS update disk in the floppy. Very important that you do not re-install the laptop portable battery. Install the CMOS battery and fire it up. The key is to make sure that at no time do you insert the Laptop portable battery until after the laptop has succesfully uploaded the new BIOS and you have windows up and running in it.

Hi All! I have a Compaq Presario 3000. The problem with mine right now is it won't turn on at all. When you press the Power button, it starts the process, and in 2 seconds, restarts it again and again, without the COMPAQ screen being shown. The battery is out. I was told it is the graphic card that causes the problem. Before getting in this stage, the screen was frozing after two minutes work. Installed new antivirus, it looked all good, and then, it died completely. Has anyone had similar problems, and I ask for possible solution. Thanks a lot!

Have you tried updating your firmware on it? A complete power down might help it to boot up properly, but make sure you have that new BIOS in the floppy when you start it up otherwise it'll go back to having the same problem. A lot of times the CMOS burns out completely on these machines in where just a BIOS update won't do it. You would have to go in and switch the CMOS chip from you motherboard. And on occasions, the CPU just gives out, if this is the case, there is a good chance that the socket for the CPU might be shorted out too. Process of elimination, that's what I use, but I always start with the BIOS and move my way up.

Hello! My compaq presario 1700xl works for a bit then freezes and must be turned off. I thought it was the hard drive and replaced it, but the same problem kept occuring. Does anybody know if the fans go bad on these? I've noticed that whne the computer hasnt been used for a while it works longer without freezing up. If the fan was working would i hear it for sure? or is it super quite? thanks.

with my laptop I had the same problem the problem was my AC Adapter.. and i got a new one and everything works fine now I had a newer laptop Compaq Presario v2000

i've try to upgrade my laptop i install a program but suddenly my laptop auomatically shutdown and wont open. What can i Do?

HI ALL! IM THE 1,999,000.00 WITH THE PROBLEM MY COMPAQ PRESARIO 1200 XL118 DONT START UP, I HEAR THE HD, CDROM , AND FAN STARS SOME TIME, BUT THE DC POWER LED IS ON, AN THE POWER LED ON, AND THE BATERY LED ON, WHEN I PLUG IN DC, ALL THIS WORKS FINE, BUT THE LAPTOP DONT STARTS (THE MONITOR IS BLANK) HWO CAN I DO??

my presario 715 does this: turn it on, you get nothing but the green light. however, if i pull the plug and try again, and try again, and take the batttery out and put it back in and let it drain and let it charge and turn it on and off about 20 times it always eventually works. it has something to do with the battery, i think, because if i just leave the battery out and pull the plug and turn it on over and over again, it doesnt' ever turn on. but if i mess with the battery too, it eventually works. is there someone who can explain what actually is relaly causeing the problem and put it at the top so people don't have to wade through this HUGE page?

I have A armada M300 it doesnt seem to boot it loads up to the Compaq logo and then dies , it had the Intel boot agent on it but for some reason win 2000 disabled it and now it wont boot even to dos. , i dont think the bios is damaged as that is on a different chip. help

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM WITH COMPAQ 12XL509!!! ARE COMPAQ FOOLING US?!! THOSE BASTARDS!!!

Have a compaq 3080us....getting ready to sendit back for the 3rd time (still under warranty) HP draws a vacuum. first problem, no power, second no power..not the unit powers up as soon as i plug ac adapter in...

Mine had lights, hard drive spinup, power up and shutoff in five seconds by holding down the power button....Then disaster!...Tried suggestions above regarding CPU seating!....Trust your instincts about the CPU being seated firmly...Snug is fine... I've read MANY posts here about "Gorilla" it into place until it seems like it'll break..IT WILL BREAK!!...Mine is junk now...and also took out a small part on the board itself as it broke...definitly needs a new board now!...I'd gotten as far as replacing power supply's, converters, display, hard drive, checked the dip switches for correct settings, cleared the CMOS a couple of dozen times, replaced the cmos battery, replaced the main battery...the only things I can think of that I hadent tried before it broke apart wwere the processor and BIOS CHIP...guess I'll never know...The only redeeming factor is that I'd gotten it for free.

Hi! I need to disassemble my presario v2000z notebook. I find it difficult to remove the switch cover as discribed in the Maintenance and Service Guide. Can somebody, please, post a link to some other disassembling guide?

Oh No, having this problem again! first had it on 3/2005, you can see my previous post. The secret is, it only happens when you let the battery on the laptop fully die out. When this happens, unplug the unit, pull the battery, hold the power button down for 10 seconds, and come back the next day. When you come back, plug it in, and turn power on, if it powers up, then plug battery back in, dont let it discharge again, and you should be ok. What you really need to do is replace the CMOS battery in the laptop, its probably dead, thats what causes the problem. Whatever you do, do not update bios with ROMPAQ, this will kill the bios for sure, just change the battery, and you should be ok.

hey all just wanted to ask, bought a compaq armada and it would boot up. when i got it had no hd and it would start making a beeping noise. I also saw that the fan was not working, please help!!

I have a Compaq Presario p715, which I just reformatted and re-installed everything on (including the operating system Windows XP Home Edition) Everything was working fine until my daughter took it to college and plugged in the internet connection. Since then, it just freezes, whenever it feels like it. Doesn't seem any pattern to the freezing. Sometimes it happens right away, sometime it happens after several hours. She can power down and restart without any problems. Before going away, my daughter used both a wireless and cabled network connection at home without any problems. Any ideas?

hi, I find a crash transistor in the inverter, it have botton writer "25".... I need replaced, help!!!

I have a hp ze4500. It turns on with all power light's but no display comes on. I tryed a external monitor and still nothing. Can any one help me????? HELLP PLEASE!!!!

need manual for a compac 1200XL101 so i can

juve i have a compac 1200XL101 with the same problems. i disassemble it where is the cmos battery located need service manual if you know where to get one PLEASE thank.

Jon, If you scroll all the way back to the beginning of this thread, there you will see a small link that says see photo. This shows the location of your CMOS battery. The model of your system maybe a bit different, but it is the same as far as location. The battery is under the modem. Remove the 3 screws that secure the modem. Next use something small to carefully push the spring back and the battery will pop out. Trust me when I tell you that the original Compaq manual that came with the system is not very much help. You can download a few of the newer manuals from HP, but they are more a guide line to trouble shooting steps. I am currently waiting on a CMOS chip from Jack@Badflash.com . I have a 1200XL119 that will not boot due to a corrupt CMOS. The CMOS chip is soldered on the bottom side of the motherboard and has to be desoldered and replaced. When you resolder a new chip to the board, it can be relocated on top under that modem. This makes access so much easier. This may be your problem. I can't guarantee, but it is worth a look. The parts for my repair came to about $30.00 US.

Sometimes, the BIOS and/or CMOS can be written to or altered by MALWARE. You could make certain your computer has a jumper to disable writing to your Flash BIOS or some positive way of preventing it being altered. Wouldn't hurt to make a backup file of your BIOS before something like this happens.

Well I am back with great news. Sorry for the delay, but things are so busy that I have not been able to post my results when I installed the new CMOS chip from jack@badflash.com. To the original person that started this thread...many props to you my friend. You have given re-birth to my Compaq 1200 XL119. I did as you have suggested and I am happy to say that My laptop came back to life. Thanks so much for posting the picture with the relocation of the new Winbond CMOS Chip. This was a very difficult job with the tiny parts involved, but how does Larry the cable guy say it?.....Gotter Dun!!! Thanks again. 30 Dollars later and everything is working great. It took about 3 hours to replace the corrupt CMOS chip for any one considering this repair. One more thing....make sure that you have a huge magnifying glass or a microscope to aid with this repair. It is very difficult to see these tiny parts involved.

One more thing to post. Bill....you have a great suggestion there with the jumper, but unfortunately the compaq 1200 does not have a jumper. The folks at Hewlittpackard made it very clear that I would need a new Motherboard to repair my laptop. Hewlitt Packard has to have to worst support that I have ever experienced. To bad Compaq could not have remained a seperate company. Their support was much better.

i have a HP pavilion n5350 that someone gave me. I get lights when i move p adp plug as most HP than i get 3 beeps seems like its mb where can i get pdf service manual to take it apart

where do you find the bios update for compaq 1200 XL101

Hi Jon Dehart, I highly recommend not updating the bios!! Been there and done that. The laptop would no longer power up after the update failed. What exactly is your system having problems with? I have just about any file and service specs that you might need for the Compaq 1200 Series. I have spent many long hours looking and testing and I finally have my Compaq 1200-XL119 running like new. It was totally dead when I started trying to figure out what to do. I have tried many drivers etc.... and I can tell you what does work and what does not. Email me jd_heavysteel@hotmail.com with specs and the problem that you are trying to fix. I'll see what we can do to get you up and running again.

heavysteel.i have only green light nothing esle works replaced power supply adapter and cmos battery tried all the tricks in the forums above except bios update and chip replacement in the forum,also do you know anything about the hp pavilin n5350 and the 3 beep code

Jon, I have an email with all of the details on the way. I will look into the HP pavillion when I get a bit of time. We are kind of swamped here. We had a big tree come down on our roof at 2:00 am last Friday from the big storms that rolled through Washington & Oregon. Check your email.

Can I get any one of you to bring my Compaq Presario US 2700 back to life? Any honest replies will be entertained at pbellur@hotmail.com!

What is the system doing or...should I say not doing? Please be specific.

We have a Presario 1200-XL410 that won't turn on. Green light at the transformer, but no light on the laptop indicating that it is plugged in. Replaced the CMOS battery as described above (old battery showed 1.1 volts) with no luck at solving the problem. Any ideas?

Re: Tim's problem. No light on the laptop means no voltage. Check for voltage at the transformer cable end plug. If that's OK, I would guess that the motherboard power connector has failed. Broken plug or cracked solder joint.

i have presario 1200-xl101.after taking it apart found that the keyboard flex cable has a crack accross three of lines and pinched in another area could this cause the green light only and no working devices

Re: Keyboard. Yes. To test - Disconnect power and remove battery. Unplug KB cable from MB. Connect a standard KB with a PS2 plug. Turn machine on. If that works, replace the flex.

First, I want to say that Compaq sucks and they make substandard products. Second, I think this solution will apply to many people. I have a Presario 900, fan wouldn't kick up, but had the green AC light, wouldn't even attempt to boot. It was my father's laptop, been sitting around since last Christmas when he went out and bought a new one because this one died, so I decided to bring it home with me after the holidays and take a look at it. I barely figured the problem out as I was about to put the parts up on eBay to get a few bucks back on it. I noticed that if I didn't screw the heatsink/fan all the way down, it would kick on with a fan for a couple of seconds and die, but if it was screwed on it wouldn't let me press the power button at all. On further examination, I realized that the heatsink grease/transfer sheet that is on the processor had all but worn off: effectively making the processor overheat virtually immediately (processors get hot quite quickly). Tomorrow I'm running out to WalMart, grabbing a little thing of heatsink grease, putting it on there, and all will be well (once I figure out how to put all the pieces back in). I got it to boot up but holding the heatsink down manually, loads up just fine but of course I want to be able to put it back in it's case and use it :P Hope this helps some people. -David (projectshifter@projectshifter.com)

Orville... Checked the voltage at the cable end and all was fine. Do you know where the power connector usually connects to the motherboard? Thanks for the info!

Re: Tim's problem. The power jack is soldered directly to the MB. Full disassembly and removal of the MB is required. Then inspect the jack and solder joints carefully. The jack is a $4 part. Get it on eBay from http://cgi.ebay.com/Presario-US-XL300-XL-1800-1700-1200-DC-power-jack-2_W0QQitemZ180067753880QQihZ008QQcategoryZ60263QQcmdZViewItem If the jack is OK, I would probably give up.

I¡¯m so glad that I find this site. As the newest member of this club, I would like to thank you all for sharing the information and experience. Yes, I have a Compaq laptop and it refuses to turn on too (black-screen after power-on, no beep). After reading through all the posts above, I guess my laptop has the same CMOS/BOIS problem as many of you experienced, but I still would like to share a little bit more about what I have experienced and ask for you guys opinion to see if my guess is correct. It may be a little bit wording so thanks to all for your time in advance: 1. My Presario 730US is about 4 years old, but it is not heavily used at all. In fact, I haven¡¯t touched it for more than half a year until recently. 2. When I started to use it again recently, it was OK. However, when I tried to turn it off three days ago, it started the process OK and then froze with a BLACK. I know it was not completely shut down because the power light was still on. So, I just pushed the power bottom for a while until the power light went off. By the way, the laptop was connected to my TV through the S-Video output at that time but no application was running when I shut it down. 3. The next day, my laptop refused to turn on. Like many of you described, there was no response (i.e. BLACK SCREEN, NO BEEP) when I hit the power-up bottom except that I can see the power light being turned on. I looked up HP¡¯s website, tried the trick of taking out the battery, unplugging and plugging in the AC adapter and it WORKED! Everything seemed to be normal again. 4. Then I made a big mistake ¨C I turned it off before I went to bed. Once again, I couldn¡¯t shut it down properly and it refused to turn on the next morning. This time the old trick of using the AC power only did not work anymore. Now here I am. Any suggestion is welcome if you think there is some other possibility. In the meantime, I'm curious about how you guys make a BOIS update disk. Can anybody give me a hint? Also, does anybody has the manual of Presario 700 series and would like to share it with us? Thanks to all.

Don't even think about messing with the BIOS until the machine is functioning. HP's Rompaq downloads will provide all needed BIOS update instructions. Suggest you R&R the Cmos battery. Wait about 10 minutes before installing the new coin cell, then try powering up again.

Zwick - Resario 700 service data here: http://h20181.www2.hp.com/plmcontent/NACSC/SML/

Oriville: Thank you very much. I was thinking about trying a new CMOS battery first too. And it is a very nice link that you provide me. I'll try it and come back with the update. Hopefully, it's a good one.

OK, new update: CMOS battery removed, went to bed, bought a new battery from Meijer and put it in. Connected the laptop to AC power and powered on..... I saw the Compaq logo, heard the fan running, then it shut down itself. I mean completely shut down, not "green light and black screen". The whole process is about 5~10 sec at most. Well, I'll take this as progress. Any suggestion? Thanks.

Zwick - Compaq logo means the LCD and video are alive. That's good. Was the main battery in or out? A shorted battery could do that. Something else might be shorted. Your next step is to disconnect everything that is not essential for boot into setup - hard drive, CD, modem, charger board, all but one SODIMM, touchpad, speakers, etc. The only things you want connected are one SODIMM, the KB and LCD. If the beast still will not boot, you probably have a MB or CPU failure. Ouch! If it does boot, then reinstall things, a few at a time, to locate the bad component. Good luck.

Hello all and happy new year. I have a HP ZE4500 and ive been having some strange problems as of late.. i installed another stick of 256ddr, ram works fine.. Most of the time though when i boot up im getting the initial boot menu and it doesn't see my hard drive. The odd time it does and everything works the way it should but 8 times out of 10 when i boot, its not recognizing the HD at all. Up until now ive never touched the hard drive, but ever since this started occuring i took it out, looked for any abnormalities none. But im still getting the boot menu although 12 hours ago it was working totally fine. I'm baffled, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. -deniz

Deniz - Hp will solve your problem. Go to http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/solveCategory?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=429264&lang=en and do the troubleshooting steps. If that doesn't work, use their live chat service.

Orville, I'm afraid to say that I have removed the DVD drive, HD and Modam. This baby still just shows me a Compaq logo and then turns off. I looked at the MB and didn't find anything abnormal. Thanks.

Orville, I was thinking about tring the BOIS re-freshing that mentioned by Juve above. I know people here probably have talked about this lots of times, but could you or anyone else please make it clearer again how to make a BOIS-update disk (the one that will let the system re-set the BOIS without booting it up). Thanks

Zwick - Have you pulled the 2nd SODIMM? I do not believe a BIOS update will solve your problem. The Preario 730US is a fairly modern machine so you might try HP's Live Chat and describe the steps you have already taken. If you really want to flash the BIOS, go to http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=37461&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&os=228&product=95617&lang=en Follow HP's instructions exactly.

Zwick - That BIOS update I gave you will not work. It requires a fully functioning machine. Your 730US is a very different design from Juve's 1200. Different update procedures apply. If a cold boot BIOS update is needed, HP's Live Chat can tell you how. Good luck.

General laptop boot info from HP - The boot process sequence is as follows: 1 - ROM BIOS executes 2 - The HP or Compaq logo splash screen displays. 3 - The Microsoft Windows logo splash screen displays 4 - The Welcome to Windows login screen displays. This means that if you can get a logo screen, the BIOS is probably not your problem. Modern BIOS almost never screw up. If you can get to screen 3 or 4, your problem is probably all software. Get a boot floppy or CD and try again or dance on the F8 key to get into Safe Mode.

Thanks a lot for the explaination. I didn't find the 2nd SODIMM. I guess I only have one. I have good news though. After all the frustrations, I just put all the parts back and hopelessly gave it one more trial. I CAN SEE the windows logo now. It stopped there and I restarted again. This time it went all the way back to NORMAL. I tried turn it off and start it again. It seemed to be a little bit slower than before but still managed to work. Thanks a lot for all the help. Now looking back, the only change of the system is R/R CMOS battery and I didn't try anything with the BOIS as you suggested. Once again, excellent job Orville! Just to double check, is there anything I need to do after all this. Thnaks

Boot into Safe Mode/System Properties and check for errors in the hardware list. What OS are you using? Go to HP Support and Troubleshooting. Run all available tests to verify that your now functioning machine might stay that way. Let HP search your machine and install all updates. Run Chkdsk /r and defrag. Cleanup the registry. I use Steven Gould's Cleanup! http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/ and ToniArts EasyCleaner http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm regularly. Be sure you have up to date antivirus software. AVG Free is good. Use anti-spyware software. How much memory does your machine have?

Ok, this is my last update. Everything back to normal. Hardware checked, OS updated. Just in case someone will face similar problem as I did, here is the short summary: Compaq Presario 730us, XP Home, single SODIMM: 1. Green light and black screen; 2. Disassembled the laptop following the guidelines from http://h20181.www2.hp.com/plmcontent/NACSC/SML/ (provided by Orville); 3. Removed the CMOS battery, waited for a whole night and put a new one in; 4. Saw the Compaq logo, but it shut down itself then. 5. Put everything back; 5. Powered on the laptop with AC power only and pushed F8 at the same time. I didn't get the point to choose a safemode but did get into some system config interface. 6. Checked everything (I only noticed that the system clock is off and fixed it). 7. Exit and started windows; 8. Everything came back! Again, thanks a lot to Oriville and all you guys who provide useful information on this page!

I have a Compaq Presario 1525US. I won´t turn on and it seems to have all the symptoms described in this forum. The AC LED is on when plugged to AC. When I turn on the HD starts spinning but after 3 seconds it makes a sound (like heads parking) and the unit never boots. I´ve noticed that if I press on the keyboard, near the space bar, it will eventually boot. I´ve done that so many times that now it seems to have lost that "charm". I also noticed that after leaving the pc in standby mode the pc won´t wake up at all, so I had to turn the pc off by pressing the power button for 5 secs. I´ve tried disassembling the whole notebook. Cleaned every corner of it. Changed the CMOS battery. Pressed everywhere!. But still I don´t find a solution. Can anyone enlighten us, owners of presario 1500, with some hints? Thank you very much for keeping this thread opened!!

Now here is a funny one!!! I too have a Presario 1200 (XL121) with failure to turn on (green but the location where I would expect to see a BIOS chip it is conspicuously absent!!! I have had great difficulty locating a service manual for this exact model to confirm its location (if any)? Does anyone have an clues???