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  • #1

    Compaq question

    My sister has Compaq PC and sometimes when she boots up it sticks on the Compaq splash screen but the word Compaq is like cut in half and repeated over and over.

    She has done a reformat and that fixed it for a while but last night it started doing it again. She has to actually unplug the PC and replug it in to get it to try and start again.

    Also it seems the CD drive has never worked, its not even listed as being connected/seen by windows. Not on Device Manager or on My Computer.

    She just told me all of this last night. Could it be the"bad" CD drive thats making it hang on the splash screen?
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  • #2
    Might be possible. Especially if the BIOS is somehow listed as a primary boot device. Couldn't hurt to swap it out and see if that fixes it.
    Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

    http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

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    • #3
      Quoth VenomX View Post
      My sister has Compaq PC and sometimes when she boots up it sticks on the Compaq splash screen but the word Compaq is like cut in half and repeated over and over.

      She has done a reformat and that fixed it for a while but last night it started doing it again. She has to actually unplug the PC and replug it in to get it to try and start again.

      Also it seems the CD drive has never worked, its not even listed as being connected/seen by windows. Not on Device Manager or on My Computer.

      She just told me all of this last night. Could it be the"bad" CD drive thats making it hang on the splash screen?
      Not sure why the reformatting would have solved this issue for any period of time, in the first place. The splash screen occurs before the NTLDR is bootstrapped so the problem is with either some hardware or the BIOS. If you say your CD-Rom drive is not working then that is most likely the culprit. Even if your CD-Rom device isn't set as the first boot option it causes a hang in the system when it goes through its POST routine. This is because the BIOS will send out a request to all devices connected to the IDE/SATA controller to identify the devices. When the request hits the faulty drive there is a delay because the drive is not responding back normally. This is most likely what is going on with your system. Simply unplugging it should confirm this.

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      • #4
        Reformat might have solved it for a time because during the reformat, the CD drive wasn't detected, and therefore not checked for during POST. Probably what happened is the case got jiggled enough to shake the wire, and then it realized there was something connected.

        Still, solution is: remove offending drive.
        Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

        http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

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        • #5
          Unless she has a problem with her CD drive that's different than the problem with MY CD drive, I can't see it causing the problem, because other than my heart attack causing event last weekend, I've never had problems with boot up.

          But, you know, since my CD drive died, I wonder if we have the same model.
          SC: “Yeah, Bob’s Company. I'm Bob. It's my company.” - GK
          SuperHotelWorker made my Avi!!

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          • #6
            Have you tried reseating all of the cards and cables? Including the memory? A little bit of corrosion can cause all sorts of weird things....
            There's no such thing as a stupid question... just stupid people.

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            • #7
              Sounds like a failing piece of hardware to me. I would put money on it being either motherboard based or memory based. If you are able to unplug everything except for memory and harddrive and try booting it up then see how that works. If that works then keep trying to re-add a different item and re-booting it up and see if that works.

              I've had tons of CD drives go out on me without affecting the computer at all (only when you go to use it and it doesn't want to fire off the disc). The computer is failing the post prior to booting into windows. Usually simple easter egging can figure out which component is bad/going bad here.

              A few questions would be, has anything been added to the computer. Any new hardware (video card, more memory, more drives, etc) anything that could be drawing more power and making fail the post on voltage now?
              My Karma ran over your dogma.

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              • #8
                Quoth digilight View Post
                A few questions would be, has anything been added to the computer. Any new hardware (video card, more memory, more drives, etc) anything that could be drawing more power and making fail the post on voltage now?
                Nope nothing new has been added. I need to find the time to go and do what all was suggested in this thread. Just seems like all I do is work, sleep, work, sleep.....

                Last night I worked 4pm to 7am

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