Compaq R4000 won't boot! Faulty hard drive?

[jjduffy]

I need some advice and find out whether anyone else out there has had this same problem. I have had a Compaq R4000 for about 2 1/2 yrs and was recently deployed. While overseas my Compaq would not boot up. When I turned the power on the fan and all lights would start but screen was blank like it wasn't accessing the hard drive. Sometimes if I waited a while with the power switch on then turned if off and then quickly turned it back on again it would boot. Kinda like it worked if it warmed up. Soon I was fed up with it and mailed the laptop back to my wife to take it in for warranty. It ended up getting sent into Compaq and they said it was a faulty hard drive that caused the problem. Compaq replaced the hard drive at no cost and the laptop worked fine for a little while then the same problem came back. The only thing that I have added was 1gb of RAM replacing the 512 that came with it. I did read in a different thread that faulty RAM could cause issues with the hard drive. Does anyone think that this is the case? Now I can't even get it to boot at all and was considering buying a new motherboard or hard drive/RAM since it's not under warranty any more. Any advice would be great.

 

[Que]

Download memtest86+, it makes a bootable cd to test your memory. Let it run it's tests, if you see it counting failures during the test, stop the test and replace the memory.
I would rather expect bad memory to be cause of your posting/booting troubles, since your screen stays black, than the harddisk, which is not involved in the posting.
A bad hard disk would prevent booting, or at best a hang at the end of the post process, but it would not lead to your screen staying blank.
Faulty ram can lead to harddisk troubles, read/write errors, but I don't think it will kill a disk.

 

[presarior3000]

try removing the ram that you installed after the computer will not boot. if it boots correctly, its the ram. if not, it could be the motherboard.

 

[Guest]

I don't think so... mine does the same thing, but if you wait, sometimes you can hear sounds as if it logged into windows... the only problem is the screen never turns on... the only way I get mine to work is by turning it off and on, taking out the battery while its on and then sooner or later it will turn on. I am afraid to turn off my laptop because I'm never sure if it will turn back on. Last night though I noticed the laptop wasnt going to sleep like it usually does when I closed the screen. No matter how many times I closed the screen it wouldnt go to sleep, so I just turned it off. This morning I needed to turn it on, and yet again, the screen wouldnt turn on but the hard drive and fan and every thing goes on, for all i know perfect boot up except no visual. Keep in mind I am using the laptop right now so I got it working after like 20 tries.. Its def not my video card, i didnt replace the ram, I have absolutely no other problems. Blah.

 

[BroDave]

Are you sure it is not the connection to the display?
Compaq's are notorious for this. Especially if they are roughly handled by the screen.
Always a no no! After it has finished all of the noises of boot try pressing all around the bezel and in the area where the video cable connects. it is a couple inches down and to the left of the top center of the dispaly. If the video comes on when you do that you will need to disassemble the display and put some sort of flexible shim behind the display connection. I used insulation tape with adhesive on one side. has worked ok for a year or so.
Good luck...........