Compaq Presario F500 notebook won't turn on

[markiezzi]

Hello,

I have a Compaq Presario F500 sitting here for a client that won't power on. When I press the power button all the lights light up for a few seconds then it shuts back off. I have removed ram, hard drive, dvd drive, battery. Still no change. Can not even get it to make a post beep or anything. Fan won't run just sits there quite with the power lights on then shuts off and retrys to start again. Checked HP sight about the Nvidia card recall but the model number doesnt apply.

Anyone have this problem?

Thanks
Mark

 

[MrMille]

Bad mobo?
have you tried different batteries, power supplies?

 

[markiezzi]

Hello,

ok, here is an update on the problem. I blew out a ton of dust from the vents. I can now get the fan to turn on for a second or two if I tap on the bottom of the laptop. Still can't get the screen to even flicker. I am gonna try hooking up external monitor and see what happens. I am leaning toward overheated CPU and motherboard.

Let me know if you would agree.

Mark

 

[Azz]

Hello,

ok, here is an update on the problem. I blew out a ton of dust from the vents. I can now get the fan to turn on for a second or two if I tap on the bottom of the laptop. Still can't get the screen to even flicker. I am gonna try hooking up external monitor and see what happens. I am leaning toward overheated CPU and motherboard.

Let me know if you would agree.

Mark

That's a possibility. The problem with laptops is you need the same motherboard to test it, unlike a desktop where you just get another one the same socket.

Something that has worked for me in the past is taking the CPU out, cleaning it and applying new thermal paste, worth a try.

Aaron

 

[Romaniac]

If the fan cannot spin that might be a major problem.

You mentioned that you already blew a bunch of dust outta there - well I willing to bet there's plenty left allover the place.

Overheating seems like a reasonable guess.

 

[usacvlr]

Usually if the system powers up and shuts back off within a second or two then the board is toast. It's shutting down because the regulation is crappy.

 

[socr_15]

Solution to your problem

I just looked at an F500 with that same problem. HP offers a free repair if your serial number is one that is affected. This site won't let me post a URL to the site so just go to HP.com and search for it. This is the heading on the article:

Compaq Presario F500 Series Notebook PCs - HP Limited Warranty Service Enhancement

 

[dan2620]

Tanks alot

The website for the HP limited warranty service enhancement helped a lot! I tried everything and was getting ready to buy a whole new laptop. They are going to try to repair it for free. I recommend any one having this same problem to go to hp.com and enter this:Compaq Presario F500 Series Notebook PCs - HP Limited Warranty Service Enhancement............ in the search engine.

 

[l337]

physically take the laptop apart and check/clean any dust and lint from the heatsinks

 

[schwags]

this may be a bit extreme, but I had a toshiba laptop in once that had a loose power regulator chip. I believe the name on the chip was 'maxim'. turmned out it just needed to be resoldered to the mobo. Now, mind you the pins were microscopic, but a friend with a hot-air rework station resoldered the pins and it was fine...

 

[basic]

If overheating was an issue, the laptop wouldn't shut itself off that quickly; it needs time to actually heat up and cross the threshold for operating temperatures. If there really was that much dust...then most likely the dust caused the overheating which, in turn, damaged the motherboard and/or the processor.

 

[cmnetworx]

Compaq f500 not powering up correctly

Not sure if you are still dealing with this problem or not, but I just ran across one of these laptops with the same problem. It seems to be that the processor for the video card doesn't cool correctly and eventually fails. The eu never mentioned anything about fatal errors, so I am not sure if it showed signs of the problem or not, just one day it didn't post. There is the possibility that it could be just the motherboard also, but I am leaning towards the video card based on the system lights and fans turning on. Usually a bad main board the pc won't turn on at all from my experience.. Also the heat sink./cooling apparatus goes across the video card after the cpu..

Even on the model that I worked on I noticed that the New motherboard there is still a gap between the heat sink and video card processor (about 1/8 of an inch) this may be the root of the problem.. The heat dissipation thing they had was like doublesided sticky tape.. not impressed..

If you don't think it is the video card or mboard, you could try pointing a flashlight at the screen to check if your display is functioning. Maybe the back lights or the back light power inverter thingy has failed?

After replacing the main board the laptop now powers up and works fine on ac power, but not whatsoever on the battery. I would think it was just a bad battery, but windows says the battery is at 78% and if I unplug the laptop it immediately shuts off., no shut down process, just like you pulled the plug on your desktop...

Any ideas?

 

[radarhero]

Hi I found the solution to this problem purely by accident

I had a compaq f500 that was not booting, no signal beep nothing on the screen only the power button, the power LED and the mouse pad light was on and would occasionally go off and back to look as though it was restarting. i stripped it all into parts and put together and still nothing. everything was reseated and jiggled. the whole board was checked for burned micros but still it did not boot. just the lights.

I was playing around with the battery and just out of curiosity i wanted to see if the machine would light up when i took the battery out and just run it straight of the power supply. I did it and the lights just came on. i turned to my wifes laptop to read some more information on this forum and when i turned back it was booting through windows vista OS. i was happy to say the least.

That was my solution to my problem. it might or might not work with yours but please let me know if it does so that we can all save some stress and money.

 

[joeyd]

F500 notebook wont turn on

I have the same issue as stated in this thread. When I push the power button, the cpu and disk lights flash briefly but no bootup occurs. I tried some of the posted solutions to no avail.

My warranty ran out in July of 2008 but I went to the HP website (enhanced warranty page) and saw my part number listed. I then went to chat mode with support. After trying a few things to no avail, support notified me that even though it is out of warranty (and has been for a while), they will authorize a "one time repair" of the problem.

Thanks to those who originally found the webpage. It is obviously going to save me a lot of grief and money. Thanks again.

Joe

 

[Dhog]

I have the same problem with my laptop, and is unfortunately outside of the extended warranty period, how did you manage to persuade them to repair it as a free one off?

I've spoken to their online support and they want to charge me ~£160

 

[joeyd]

Apparently, I did not persuade them well enough.

They never sent the box to return the notebook for repair.

When I questioned the delay, they told me I was not eligible and therefore, no return box will be sent.

The first tech said I was eligible, the next tech said the program expired September 1st and now the case manager has just stated the program ended September 30th.

Obviously, they are making things up as they go along. Web site does not have any date associated with the program. Others have had their laptops repaired after the year extension so I guess it is hit and miss. Will let you know via this forum if anything changes.

 

[btc2530]

I know this is an old thread, & it would appear that most people have been able to get theirs replaced by HP but I am one of the unlucky ones who's model didnt get covered in the replacement plan. So for the best part of 6 months I have had a dead or crippled lappy..................that was until yesterday!!!

What I did goes against everything I have been taught about PC's. Some people may call me stupid but I can tell you that this worked. I was looking on some other forums for a similar problem with a HP TX1000 lappy, issue was it was taking anything up to 25 times of turning the power button on until it would boot. So after hours of reading forums etc, a common theme became apparrent. The kept saying that the lappy needed to be overheated! YES I HEAR YOU SAY, IT HAS TO BE OVERHEATED!!!!!!!! so after following some quite simple instructions it would appear that this simple solution works for my F500 as well. U simply remove the battery and power cable. Get a hairdryer and blow it into the vents so that it warms up. Then u need to put the battery back in and try and boot. U will still get the flashing HHD light up and the fan will spin for about 3 secs. Dont switch off. Wrap it in a towel and make it warm up. After about 45 minutes remove from the towel and leave to cool completly. Then plug back in to the power socket and try and boot. Now i am being trully serious regarding this it did really work. I was totally shocked. I had been told by many PC repair guys to throw it away and get another as it would be cheaper. I have been shutting down and rebooting for the past day and a half, and so far not issues.

I'm not saying to you guys who's lappy isnt covered by HP but mine was in a cupboard not being able to be used so I gave it a shot, as I have tried everything but lobb it away. I'm saying it worked for me, why not try it if all else has failed.

But please let me know if you have tried it and it worked or if it didnt.

 

[Eddie]

I'm working on something similar atm and found this. That towel trick sounds like the exact same thing that was used for the Xbox 360's RROD.