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Computer wont boot

post #1 of 9
3/8/04 at 11:22pm
Thread Starter 
Ok my cousins step dad found this old compaq desktop somewhere, probably the garbage, but it does not get past the compaq screen (red letters, black bg). I get the feeling there is no OS installed or there are no gfx what so ever. I do not know how to tell if there are onboard gfx or not, and I cant get the cd-rom to work apparently because I put in a windows xp cd and it doesnt read it or anything, cant get to bios....nothing.

The cd-rom may not be installed right because theres only 1 IDE cable, but I should be able to set it as slave right?

the computer has 128mb ram in it, 800mhz processor, and a 45 gig western digital hard drive...

I also get the feeling some jumpers or something may be missing because theres empty plugs on the board, and one just hanging connecting to nowhere, but I dont know to much about board jumpers.

any ideas?
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post #2 of 9
3/8/04 at 11:30pm
And.....

Maybe you can salvage a few bits and pieces - or become depressed trying to put together a $100 - $200 computer for someone - probably for free.

If you get the LCD display, then the graphics card is probably there. Can't remember what the COMPAQ control sequence was to get to BIOS; however, remember it was not "Standard".

If you have the time and patience - try to fix it; otherwise, you might tell your cousin -- HHmmmm, that's odd and too somplicated for me to fix.
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post #3 of 9
3/8/04 at 11:38pm
Thread Starter 
well if I fix it I can keep it and use it as a server or something, id steal the salvagable parts (hdd, cd rom, floppy) for another machine but dont want to dump money into another good machine (cant see myself dumping money for something not top of the line)
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post #4 of 9
3/8/04 at 11:47pm
Thread Starter 
I cant even get it far enough to seem to want to even get into bios, most computers have that energy blah blah screen where it detects things, this doesnt....just "compaq" and nothing more. tried everything to get into bios, but no luck....is it a lemon?
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post #5 of 9
3/8/04 at 11:51pm
Only you can tell since you are there. I am assuming that you know what the different cards are, etc... If not, salvage the parts... Wait a few days and let others answer your questions. Good luck.....
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post #6 of 9
3/8/04 at 11:53pm
Thread Starter 
im just pretty sure im missing some cable, I know for a fact im missing the floppy connector, so I cant make any attempt at a boot disk, because the cd rom probably isnt even installed on the machine. and I could use another IDE cable, but the master/slave setup should work.
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post #7 of 9
3/9/04 at 3:31am
Be careful here on old Compaqs. I tried to upgrade a hard drive on an old Compaq for a friend of mine and I could not get this going.

He had a SCSI drive and I was trying to Ghost it to an IDE drive. Ghost did not work and the PC would not boot to the IDE drive.

On this old unit the BIOS was a sector on the Hard Drive. I tried to download the correct drivers from Compaq and it still did not set up the BIOS boot format correctly, so I quit and took my friend out and helped him buy a new computer.

Find the model number on this system and head to Compaq's web site and see if they can give you any ideas.

From your descriptions of the mainbord it sounds like this system is too far gone for anything but the trash bin.
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post #8 of 9
3/9/04 at 3:35am
i will give you 10 bucks for the HD!
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post #9 of 9
3/9/04 at 12:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Two Man Riot
i will give you 10 bucks for the HD!
hehe heck no thats the best part on it


but im at work now but not sure if I can even get the model number off it, i used to have a presario and all the info was on the pretty part of the case, which doesnt exist on this one, all I have is the frame really, but ill take a look over it.

so if its crap whats the best place to get some mobo combos and things for cheap? pricewatch.com still the best? not sure if I can dump a lot of money into this because getting my new car and money will be dumped into modding that. but I want another machine so 2 of us can play games against eachother, games like savage, UT2k4 ect, dont want nothing to compare to my sager, just something my cousin or friends can play off of when they are over. (thats a lot)
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