Need help with an old Compaq Armada Laptop
Instrument-Mechanic
SF Bay Area
The short: I had a working Laptop, I took it apart following a guide, dusted it off, reassembled it, truned it on, and now it doesn't work.
The Long: I wanted to clean this thing out and check it out inside. This is an old laptop that was given to me, and I had it working fine. It is a Armada M700, PIII, 700MHz, 64+128+256Mb Ram (yes it has a fixed to MB Ram Module). I installed XP Pro, installed a netgear wifi card, and I was happy. I noticed it was getting hot and the fan was not working whenI thought it should, so I went in for a look. Wasn't too dusty, so I put it back together. In the process the CMOS battery was disconnected, as was the main battery.
The machine turned on, I could hear it check the CD/DVD drive, the light for the CPU flashed, and the Compaq splash screen came on and it counted the RAM in KBs. It then beeped twice and an error 162 System options not set quickly flashed on screen, and then the screen turns off, and it just hangs in imbo. The cpu gets hot, and the fan kicks on. It responds to the keyboard and beeps, and it will sleep if I press the sleep hard button. I can even see a slight flicker to the screen (very minor). It will stay this way untill I reset it, or hit ctrl+alt+del. I have check the 162 error, and it leads to many talking about password problems, and it says to "Run computer setup" I dont know what that means, and I cant do anything with this thing including entering the bios. I have reduced the computer back down to the mother board, rechecked all connections, made sure all screws are tight, and pulled the main battery out while the CMOS battery was out. When I did that I got the 162 error, without that procedure, I get a splash and nothing. I also tried connecting the outboard floppy drive, and it checks that drive at start up, but it will start reading a disk, then quit untill I hit esc or return. I dont have any disk to try other than a bios update, and a windows XP rescue disk from another desktop, niether of which do anything, just read and quit.
I checked the CMOS battery, got 2.7Vdc on my Fluke, so I replaced that, now things are a little different. Now the computer turns on to Splash Compaq, no counting of RAM, no error codes, it just blanks out the screen, but the netgear Pcmcia WiFi card, locates and logs on to my router, WTF? :(
I will post the pictures of my mess. If anyone has a clue as to what I can do, please let me know. This is an old laptop, that was given to me, so it is not a huge deal, just my pride that I usually fix problems not cause them. It would be nice to fix this thing as a secondary laptop for the house, and for the sake of "What the hell did I do!" I am willing to try anything at this point, maybe even candles and dancing
Please Help.....
The Long: I wanted to clean this thing out and check it out inside. This is an old laptop that was given to me, and I had it working fine. It is a Armada M700, PIII, 700MHz, 64+128+256Mb Ram (yes it has a fixed to MB Ram Module). I installed XP Pro, installed a netgear wifi card, and I was happy. I noticed it was getting hot and the fan was not working whenI thought it should, so I went in for a look. Wasn't too dusty, so I put it back together. In the process the CMOS battery was disconnected, as was the main battery.
The machine turned on, I could hear it check the CD/DVD drive, the light for the CPU flashed, and the Compaq splash screen came on and it counted the RAM in KBs. It then beeped twice and an error 162 System options not set quickly flashed on screen, and then the screen turns off, and it just hangs in imbo. The cpu gets hot, and the fan kicks on. It responds to the keyboard and beeps, and it will sleep if I press the sleep hard button. I can even see a slight flicker to the screen (very minor). It will stay this way untill I reset it, or hit ctrl+alt+del. I have check the 162 error, and it leads to many talking about password problems, and it says to "Run computer setup" I dont know what that means, and I cant do anything with this thing including entering the bios. I have reduced the computer back down to the mother board, rechecked all connections, made sure all screws are tight, and pulled the main battery out while the CMOS battery was out. When I did that I got the 162 error, without that procedure, I get a splash and nothing. I also tried connecting the outboard floppy drive, and it checks that drive at start up, but it will start reading a disk, then quit untill I hit esc or return. I dont have any disk to try other than a bios update, and a windows XP rescue disk from another desktop, niether of which do anything, just read and quit.
I checked the CMOS battery, got 2.7Vdc on my Fluke, so I replaced that, now things are a little different. Now the computer turns on to Splash Compaq, no counting of RAM, no error codes, it just blanks out the screen, but the netgear Pcmcia WiFi card, locates and logs on to my router, WTF? :(
I will post the pictures of my mess. If anyone has a clue as to what I can do, please let me know. This is an old laptop, that was given to me, so it is not a huge deal, just my pride that I usually fix problems not cause them. It would be nice to fix this thing as a secondary laptop for the house, and for the sake of "What the hell did I do!" I am willing to try anything at this point, maybe even candles and dancing
Please Help.....
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Comments
Thanks for the tip, I will report back asap, and please keep it coming!
THANKS A BUNCH!
Verify that the LCD's connection is seated properly <i>and</i> grounded. It's easy to miss one or the other, especially the grounding which is little more than a tiny screw locking down a metal loop no bigger than a washer.
Yes the LCD worked fine before. I will take it apart again, as I am getting used to that now, and check for grounding. Maybe I fried something, that would suck, but again, why does it work temporarily, then quit. Very strange, also when its plugged in to my desk top monitor, is sees that as the primary monitor, and it only flickers when I hit Fn+F4 which is the monitor switch control.
Is there another way to switch monitors? Also thanks again, I posted this on another forum, and I got blasted for asking dumb questions, and was told that I must have put it back together wrong... losers!
Please keep 'em coming!