Compaq Presario Won't Boot
in [Laptops]
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From: Erehwon on 21 Dec 2009 04:12 My son's Presario C700 (1.73 GHZ Celeron M with 2 GB ram) running VISTA appears to have died. It will not boot and the screen just turns a blue-grey with an inch-and-a-half wide vertical black bar down the middle. If I plug in an external monitor, I do get a legible screen but a normal startup just gets through the Compaq startup screen and a black Microsoft screen with a green block repeatedly cycling across a status bar after which the screen turns blank. Trying the System Recovery or "repair your computer" options gets me to a white progress bar showing "windows is loading files" after which I again get the above Microsoft screen followed by a blue screen. If I select "safe mode with command prompt" it progresses though loading a couple of pages of drivers until it loads CRCDISK.SYS at which point it freezes. Not sure if the screen issue and failure to boot are related or separate problems. I've tried removing the battery and reseating the memory as a shot in the dark but no change. I have no experience with laptops or VISTA and no VISTA installation disks. Does it sound like there's any likelihood of recovering this thing or should I just resign myself to having to purchase another one? If the latter, and since the disk drive appears to at least be reading some data, can it be plugged in to my desktop to recover what's left of the data? Most of what he needs was backed up to a USB drive but I'd like to get the rest if possible.
From: the wharf rat on 21 Dec 2009 13:09 In article <hgne6j$13s1$1(a)adenine.netfront.net>, Erehwon <invalid(a)address.here> wrote: >My son's Presario C700 (1.73 GHZ Celeron M with 2 GB ram) running VISTA >appears to have died. It will not boot and the screen just turns a >blue-grey with an inch-and-a-half wide vertical black bar down the middle. Can it boot a cdrom? If you don't have a Windows cd try a Linux one. If it boots a cd, chances are just that the Windows installation is hosed. If it won't you may have a hardware problem.
From: Barry Watzman on 21 Dec 2009 21:42 I think your son is not "fessing up" here. From your description, both the LCD screen and hard drive are damaged in a way that strongly (STRONGLY) suggests that the laptop was dropped. With likely both a bad hard drive and a bad LCD, I think that the "fix" is a new laptop, you can sell the damaged one as-is for parts to offset the cost. Please do understand that a diagnosis without seeing the "patient", just from a description of the symptoms, isn't guaranteed to be correct; but that sure is what this sounds like. [Yes, you can try plugging the hard drive into another computer to recover files; it may or may not be successful (the symptoms suggest that the hard drive is damaged but not dead; MOST files are probably recoverable). You will need a USB to {SATA or IDE} adapter, about $10-$15.] Erehwon wrote: > My son's Presario C700 (1.73 GHZ Celeron M with 2 GB ram) running VISTA > appears to have died. It will not boot and the screen just turns a > blue-grey with an inch-and-a-half wide vertical black bar down the middle. > If I plug in an external monitor, I do get a legible screen but a normal > startup just gets through the Compaq startup screen and a black Microsoft > screen with a green block repeatedly cycling across a status bar after which > the screen turns blank. Trying the System Recovery or "repair your > computer" options gets me to a white progress bar showing "windows is > loading files" after which I again get the above Microsoft screen followed > by a blue screen. If I select "safe mode with command prompt" it progresses > though loading a couple of pages of drivers until it loads CRCDISK.SYS at > which point it freezes. Not sure if the screen issue and failure to boot > are related or separate problems. > > I've tried removing the battery and reseating the memory as a shot in the > dark but no change. I have no experience with laptops or VISTA and no VISTA > installation disks. Does it sound like there's any likelihood of recovering > this thing or should I just resign myself to having to purchase another one? > If the latter, and since the disk drive appears to at least be reading some > data, can it be plugged in to my desktop to recover what's left of the data? > Most of what he needs was backed up to a USB drive but I'd like to get the > rest if possible. > >
From: Barry Watzman on 21 Dec 2009 21:43 Did you miss the point that she had LCD screen problems and that all of the other stuff she described was done with an external monitor? I think that the laptop was dropped. the wharf rat wrote: > In article <hgne6j$13s1$1(a)adenine.netfront.net>, > Erehwon <invalid(a)address.here> wrote: >> My son's Presario C700 (1.73 GHZ Celeron M with 2 GB ram) running VISTA >> appears to have died. It will not boot and the screen just turns a >> blue-grey with an inch-and-a-half wide vertical black bar down the middle. > > Can it boot a cdrom? If you don't have a Windows cd try a Linux > one. > > If it boots a cd, chances are just that the Windows installation > is hosed. If it won't you may have a hardware problem. >
From: BillW50 on 21 Dec 2009 21:48
In news:hgne6j$13s1$1(a)adenine.netfront.net, Erehwon typed on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:12:49 -0600: > My son's Presario C700 (1.73 GHZ Celeron M with 2 GB ram) running > VISTA appears to have died. It will not boot and the screen just > turns a blue-grey with an inch-and-a-half wide vertical black bar > down the middle. If I plug in an external monitor, I do get a legible > screen but a normal startup just gets through the Compaq startup > screen and a black Microsoft screen with a green block repeatedly > cycling across a status bar after which the screen turns blank. Trying > the System Recovery or "repair your computer" options gets me > to a white progress bar showing "windows is loading files" after > which I again get the above Microsoft screen followed by a blue > screen. If I select "safe mode with command prompt" it progresses > though loading a couple of pages of drivers until it loads > CRCDISK.SYS at which point it freezes. Not sure if the screen issue > and failure to boot are related or separate problems. > I've tried removing the battery and reseating the memory as a shot in > the dark but no change. I have no experience with laptops or VISTA > and no VISTA installation disks. Does it sound like there's any > likelihood of recovering this thing or should I just resign myself to > having to purchase another one? If the latter, and since the disk > drive appears to at least be reading some data, can it be plugged in > to my desktop to recover what's left of the data? Most of what he > needs was backed up to a USB drive but I'd like to get the rest if > possible. It sure sounds like the hard drive is bad to me. All of the other possibilities is a bad motherboard. Unless you can find one cheap, they are not worth repairing. And if you do find a cheap working motherboard, that is the hardest service you can do on a laptop. As virtually everything else has to be removed first. -- Bill Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) - Windows XP SP2 |