Boot Issue - Compaq Presario 4540

Boot Issue - Compaq Presario 4540

Hello All,

I am hoping that someone out there has experienced the following
problem. I maintain a handfull of Compaq Presario 4540's at my place
of employment. I've had 2 of them completely crap out on me in the
same way. They will not boot at all, even to a floppy. Additionally,
you cannot access the setup configuration (CMOS settings)... It
appears that the on-board video is not working, as there is no display
what-so-ever. The monitor light never turns green. When they are
powered on, the CD-ROM and hard drive are temporarily accessed, but
that is the end of it. I've tried removing cards (modem, NIC, etc...)
to narrow down the possibilities. Also, I've tried a known-good video
card. No luck, however. Thank you, in advance, for any commentary on
this annoying problem!

On 20 Oct 2003 08:25:04 -0700, (Geek4Hire) wrote:

Boot Issue - Compaq Presario 4540

Hello All,

I am hoping that someone out there has experienced the following
problem. I maintain a handfull of Compaq Presario 4540's at my place
of employment. I've had 2 of them completely crap out on me in the
same way. They will not boot at all, even to a floppy. Additionally,
you cannot access the setup configuration (CMOS settings)... It
appears that the on-board video is not working, as there is no display
what-so-ever. The monitor light never turns green. When they are
powered on, the CD-ROM and hard drive are temporarily accessed, but
that is the end of it. I've tried removing cards (modem, NIC, etc...)
to narrow down the possibilities. Also, I've tried a known-good video
card. No luck, however. Thank you, in advance, for any commentary on
this annoying problem!

have you tried a new power supply? I had a similar problem when I
added a connector to my power supply ( it didn't have as many as I
needed !) The CD would look like it was doing something for a second.
It had the +5VDC to power the 'brains" but the +12VDC had a bad
connection.

It looks like you might be missing the +12VDC or the -12VDC.

just a guess.

On 20 Oct 2003 08:25:04 -0700, (Geek4Hire) wrote in
posted to
comp.hardwa

Boot Issue - Compaq Presario 4540

Hello All,

I am hoping that someone out there has experienced the following
problem. I maintain a handfull of Compaq Presario 4540's at my place
of employment. I've had 2 of them completely crap out on me in the
same way. They will not boot at all, even to a floppy. Additionally,
you cannot access the setup configuration (CMOS settings)... It
appears that the on-board video is not working, as there is no display
what-so-ever. The monitor light never turns green. When they are
powered on, the CD-ROM and hard drive are temporarily accessed, but
that is the end of it. I've tried removing cards (modem, NIC, etc...)
to narrow down the possibilities. Also, I've tried a known-good video
card. No luck, however. Thank you, in advance, for any commentary on
this annoying problem!

I'll presume that you also have no POST 'beep' signal during an
attempted boot.

If you have a spare, compatible power supply remove everything but the
video card, the CPU, and the memory.
Connect the temporary power supply and power up the machine.

It _could_ be that the power supply has lost its 5-volt supply. If
that's true, then your system will not work.

The CD and hard drive utilize 12-volt power along with 5-volt. You're
seeing the effect of the motors attempting to power up. With no
5-volt power the drives' electronics "don't know what to do" and the
drives' motors may shut down.

If a new or borrowed power supply doesn't work then you've lost the
CPU, the BIOS, or possibly the CMOS. At this point it's probably time
for a new motherboard.


Ron n1zhi