As you are obviously aware, Compaq went out of their way to make the BIOS
setup for their systems especially difficult.  From what you are describing,
it sounds like something might have happened to that special little
partition at the front of the drive that loads the settings into the system.
  I would try booting the computer WITHOUT the hard drive attached.  Just
try to boot straight to a floppy.

If you still get te same results, then you need to start looking at things
like memory, the CPU, video, etc.  Which is going to mean replacing those
items, one at a time, with known good parts.  Ain't it a pain?  Good luck!

Kyle


>Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Presario 9546  Boot Failure
>Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1999 10:11:32 -0400
>
>A friend has brought her old Compaq Presario 9546 over to see if I could
>get
>it running.  It had been fine at the time (2 months ago) she bought a new
>PC
>to replace it - I personally used a direct cable connection to copy some of
>her old docs onto the new machine. . . the Presario was running fine.
>Since
>we copied the files, she has had the Presario stored away.
>
>She recently  got a second monitor and decided to use her old Presario for
>a
>second
>computer for her kids.
>
>BUT...
>
>On power on, the memory counts up then leaves her at
>a blinking cursor ... that's it.  Attempting to boot from the A drive
>results in the SAME blinking cursor under the memory count, right after the
>drive lights and I hear it being queried (read from).
>
>Note: On power on, I  briefly hear the hard drive, see all drive LEDs
>light,
>but don't get to any beeps.
>
>There is no ability to get to setup, just the blinking cursor after the
>memory count. I can download a setup from Compaq to run off diskette, but
>obviously
>this is useless without the ability to boot from the A drive.   :(
>
>Any advise would be most welcome!  Another helpful person has suggested
>corrosion as the cause,  and that I remove and reseat all adapter boards
>and
>cables, then remove RAM and clean the contacts with an eraser.  (Fast Page
>with tinned contacts, as specified for this model, are installed.)


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                     http://nospin.com/pc/files.html