[VR6Kirk]

A friend I work with son's laptop (Presario F700) is not working so he gave it to me since I atleast have some knowledge about computers. I tried to turn on the laptop and the power button flashes blue for a second and then nothing. Yes the battery is charged. I also have it connected to external power. If you try this a few times it will actually stay on for about 30 seconds. The power button will remain luminated and the power and charging light will come on but the HDD light will not light. You can hear it spinning and the fans kick on but after about 30 seconds it shuts off. Nothing comes up on the display. The screen stays black. I know it is not the screen because the first thing I did was try to connect it to an external monitor. Nothing is happening.

Is this definitely the HDD or could it be something else. Please let me know if you could I would really appreciate any help I can get.

By the way... I read on many forums that if you unplug the power and remove the battery and hold down the power button for 30 to 60 seconds then reconnect the power supply and try to turn it on it will work. I tried this method which has apparently worked for other people with the same problems with no luck.

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Take the hard drive out.
If this fails it's more likely a board problem so the unit would be scrap realistically at that point.

[Neil Jones]

Take the hard drive out.
If this fails it's more likely a board problem so the unit would be scrap realistically at that point.

[VR6Kirk]

I took the hard drive out and tried my hard drive from my HP laptop and it still reacted the same and didn't start up. I also tried the RAM because a few people have told me that could also be it. So what else could it be? Or should I tell the guy it's shot.

[mijcar]

I have just got a Presario f700 with the same problem. I've done some googling and found out that the problem is widespread.

First the symptoms:
power on
get the right sounds
nothing happens on screen
power turns off then on again
same thing over and over again

Things that don't work and have nothing to do with the problem:
1. boot order does not change the problem even when you have a bootable CD in the computer and you have chosen boot with CD first.
2. updates are irrelevant; this happens with both a grossly under-updated machine and a fully updated machine.
3. BIOS are irrelevant
4. Power cord and power source are irrelevant. Happens when plugged in and happens when using a fully charged battery.
5. According to other testers, RAM is irrelevant. They have tried replacing all RAM and it makes no difference.
6. Operating System is irrelevant. This is pre-boot state and Windows is invoked yet. Suggestions to boot into most recent workable configuration are a useless waster of time (because, see my workaround).
7. Fan and heat are irrelevant. Fan works and this happens with both hot and cold computer (also see my workaround below)

Workaround: For my client's computer this proved a barely-tolerable-but-reliable workaround:

The moment you power-up, start tapping the ESC key. This forces the system to mount.

By the way, you cannot make this work during a reboot. You must physically power-off the computer (and I suggest wait 3 or 4 seconds) before you power it back on and start pressing the escape key.

What do I think is happening? I think there is some sort of check going on in the background and there is the equivalent of a time-out happening too fast. The ESC key seems to force the computer to engage and delay long enough for whatever info needs to be collected.

Or it's something else not even related. :-)

If you've tried this and it works or doesn't work for you, please let us know.

[rshaffer61]

mijcar I would suggest starting a new topic since this one has not had a reply since June. I highly doubt you will get any assistance here.

[furiah]

please help me with the same problem.. i dont know what to do

[rshaffer61]

Direct to: furiah

Please start your own topic
Although your issue may seem similar there can be other factors that may need to be resolved.
By bumping on someone's topic it makes it confusing for the tech to understand who they are helping. This can in turn cause the wrong support to be given and can cause instability or worse to happen to your system.
Thank you for your cooperation.