Question Old Compaq won't boot ?

[fritzone]

Dear all,

My ancient Compaq LTE 5250 stopped booting. It turns on, I can enter the BIOS, all looks as expected, the memory test completes, and then the computer freezes at the screen where it shows the processor type. As usual, this has happened overnight.

I have changed the hard disk, thinking it aged too much, but that did not help either (the other hard disk boots in a different machine). The other hard disk is detected in the BIOS.

I don't know whether it can boot from a floppy, because it haven't got a floppy drive, just a CD.

Is there anyone who has experience with this specific issue?

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks a lot, f.

Some images: The BIOS finds the 2GB hard disk

Then it won't go further from this step:

 

[helpstar]

maybe replacing the cmos battery can help

 

[fritzone]

Umm... well, the battery in this is anything, but standard... can't really find them online anywhere

it is https://www.microbattery.com/pub/media/tech-specs/energyplus/energyplus-cmos-battery-034-2015.pdf

 

[COLGeek]

You tried here?

Compaq LTE 5000 4.8 Volt NiCad Battery BB-000133

Compaq LTE 5000 4.8 Volt NiCad Battery BB-000133 BB-000133 18.68 New Replacement is designed to meet or exceed the original manufacturer's specifications All Batteries have 1 year warranty

batterykings.com

 

[fritzone]

Oh vow, that was fast! Thanks a lot, will try! Will keep updated the thread if any changes in the status will happen.

 

[COLGeek]

I had a very similar model to your Compaq MANY years ago. Work device. At the time, it was one of the best available. Cool to see one still in use.

 

[fritzone]

I had a very similar model to your Compaq MANY years ago. Work device. At the time, it was one of the best available. Cool to see one still in use.

Couldn't agree more It has the best keyboard I experienced on a laptop ever (for me it even beats the famous old Thinkpad keyboards, but this is just a personal opinion )... And I'm struggling to get it back in work. I plan to get a battery from ebay, because batterykings does not ship to Norway

 

[COLGeek]

Couldn't agree more It has the best keyboard I experienced on a laptop ever (for me it even beats the famous old Thinkpad keyboards, but this is just a personal opinion )... And I'm struggling to get it back in work. I plan to get a battery from ebay, because batterykings does not ship to Norway

Agreed on the keyboard. I, too, remember it as exceptional.

Understood on battery. Let us know how this project evolves.

 

[fritzone]

Status update. It was just a misbehaving hard disk. After getting my hand on a boot floppy, I actually had to re-format the entire hard drive, but not too much very precious was lost there, so now I have a working machine (and still waiting for the CMOS battery )

The formatting itself:

the booted system:

Thanks everyone for their help and support!

 

[COLGeek]

Good job!

 

[fritzone]

Good job!

Thanks! Now's the time to have some fun