Compaq presario 700 won't boot. Please help the newbie!

restoguy · 12-04-2005, 01:13 AM

First of all I want to thank everyone for checking out my thread and especially to those who post help here. Here's my problem. I have a Compaq Presario 7xx laptop that I built from parts. It won't boot past the Compaq screen, it just goes to a black screen with a cursor in the upper left corner. The light on the keyboard shows that the HD is working, but nothing ever happens. If I put the HD from my working 700 in, it does the same but says 'operating system not found'. I used my restore disks to restore the first drive in the good computer so I know it works, but the computer fails to see it or something. This is my second MB in this computer. The first one did the same thing. Starting to think it's not the MB! Could it be the little board that goes from the MB to the battery/HD? Is this a software problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am pretty dumb when it comes to computers. I just have the ability to put things together like a 3D puzzle.

restoguy · 12-06-2005, 03:01 PM

Have I insulted the intelligence of the members here, or said something wrong? I can't imagine that this is something that no one knows anything about. I'm sorry if it seems really trivial, but like I said, I can take stuff apart and put it together fine. I just don't know what to do after that if it doesn't work. Thanks again for any help.

Hairy_Lee · 12-06-2005, 03:12 PM

is it a brand new drive, if so have you formatted it?
you could also try swapping the hard drive cables. also make sure that the hard drive has been detected by going into the bios and select detect drive

restoguy · 12-07-2005, 12:19 AM

The drive that I'm trying to put in it is used. I swapped that drive into my other machine and used my restore disks to reformat it. It was originally in a Mac. It worked fine in my 'good' machine. But the 'bad' machine won't work with the Mac HD or the HD from the 'good' machine. I suspect the MB is bad, but it's the 2nd one and it boots to the Compaq screen, which the other didn't. I am just wondering if there might be some other problem that I'm not aware of here. (Like last time. I rebuilt an IBM and after buying 3 MB's I found out that they weren't grounding good enough. Fixed that and then it worked fine! Who knew?) Yeah, I'm a compuretard but I'm learning.....

Hairy_Lee · 12-07-2005, 12:21 AM

try putting the disk on the secondary IDE channel and see if that works, you might have a problem with your motherboard if it works

restoguy · 12-07-2005, 03:04 PM

How would I go about putting it on the secondary IDE? (See, I said I was dumb!) Thanks for your help, Very Hairy Lee.

Hairy_Lee · 12-07-2005, 03:07 PM

im guessing your system has two sets of cables for your drives, the one thats currently in your hard drive and the one that goes to your cd-rom.
try swapping cables of your cd-rom drive and hard drive and then redetect them in your bios and see if it boots.
if you have a problem with your cd-rom you know its the motherboard

restoguy · 12-08-2005, 01:54 PM

This is on a laptop, so my ROM drive slides into it's connector on the MB. The battery and HD slide into a little circuit board that plugs into the MB. I'm thinking about trying that circuit board from my 'good' maching in the 'bad' one. If that doesn't fix it, I think it must be the MB not properly operating the HD. That would eliminate almost everything in the chain but the MB. What do you think?

12-04-2005, 01:13 AM	#1 (permalink)
restoguy New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 5	Compaq presario 700 won't boot. Please help the newbie! First of all I want to thank everyone for checking out my thread and especially to those who post help here. Here's my problem. I have a Compaq Presario 7xx laptop that I built from parts. It won't boot past the Compaq screen, it just goes to a black screen with a cursor in the upper left corner. The light on the keyboard shows that the HD is working, but nothing ever happens. If I put the HD from my working 700 in, it does the same but says 'operating system not found'. I used my restore disks to restore the first drive in the good computer so I know it works, but the computer fails to see it or something. This is my second MB in this computer. The first one did the same thing. Starting to think it's not the MB! Could it be the little board that goes from the MB to the battery/HD? Is this a software problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am pretty dumb when it comes to computers. I just have the ability to put things together like a 3D puzzle.

12-06-2005, 03:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
Hairy_Lee VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Age: 25 Posts: 2,553	is it a brand new drive, if so have you formatted it? you could also try swapping the hard drive cables. also make sure that the hard drive has been detected by going into the bios and select detect drive __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 EVGA nForce 650i Ultra mainboard EVGA 7950 GT KO SC 512Mb w/ Zalman VF-900Cu 2Gb of OCZ GOLD XTC SPECIAL OPS Eition Notebook - Acer Aspire 9300 - Turion TL-60/ 2 Gb RAM/ Geforce Go 7600 128 Dedicated (400 Mb turbocache)

12-07-2005, 12:21 AM	#5 (permalink)
Hairy_Lee VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Age: 25 Posts: 2,553	try putting the disk on the secondary IDE channel and see if that works, you might have a problem with your motherboard if it works __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 EVGA nForce 650i Ultra mainboard EVGA 7950 GT KO SC 512Mb w/ Zalman VF-900Cu 2Gb of OCZ GOLD XTC SPECIAL OPS Eition Notebook - Acer Aspire 9300 - Turion TL-60/ 2 Gb RAM/ Geforce Go 7600 128 Dedicated (400 Mb turbocache)

12-07-2005, 03:07 PM	#7 (permalink)
Hairy_Lee VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Plymouth, UK Age: 25 Posts: 2,553	im guessing your system has two sets of cables for your drives, the one thats currently in your hard drive and the one that goes to your cd-rom. try swapping cables of your cd-rom drive and hard drive and then redetect them in your bios and see if it boots. if you have a problem with your cd-rom you know its the motherboard __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 EVGA nForce 650i Ultra mainboard EVGA 7950 GT KO SC 512Mb w/ Zalman VF-900Cu 2Gb of OCZ GOLD XTC SPECIAL OPS Eition Notebook - Acer Aspire 9300 - Turion TL-60/ 2 Gb RAM/ Geforce Go 7600 128 Dedicated (400 Mb turbocache)

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

12-06-2005, 03:01 PM	#2 (permalink)
restoguy New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 5	Have I insulted the intelligence of the members here, or said something wrong? I can't imagine that this is something that no one knows anything about. I'm sorry if it seems really trivial, but like I said, I can take stuff apart and put it together fine. I just don't know what to do after that if it doesn't work. Thanks again for any help.

12-07-2005, 12:19 AM	#4 (permalink)
restoguy New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 5	The drive that I'm trying to put in it is used. I swapped that drive into my other machine and used my restore disks to reformat it. It was originally in a Mac. It worked fine in my 'good' machine. But the 'bad' machine won't work with the Mac HD or the HD from the 'good' machine. I suspect the MB is bad, but it's the 2nd one and it boots to the Compaq screen, which the other didn't. I am just wondering if there might be some other problem that I'm not aware of here. (Like last time. I rebuilt an IBM and after buying 3 MB's I found out that they weren't grounding good enough. Fixed that and then it worked fine! Who knew?) Yeah, I'm a compuretard but I'm learning.....

12-07-2005, 03:04 PM	#6 (permalink)
restoguy New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 5	How would I go about putting it on the secondary IDE? (See, I said I was dumb!) Thanks for your help, Very Hairy Lee.

12-08-2005, 01:54 PM	#8 (permalink)
restoguy New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 5	This is on a laptop, so my ROM drive slides into it's connector on the MB. The battery and HD slide into a little circuit board that plugs into the MB. I'm thinking about trying that circuit board from my 'good' maching in the 'bad' one. If that doesn't fix it, I think it must be the MB not properly operating the HD. That would eliminate almost everything in the chain but the MB. What do you think?