I have run into a similar issue with the compaq laptops, when the wifi card starts to fail, then boot is interupted it is related the the GPU, if I am not mistaken the GPU is held down with a Ball Grid Array that uses lead free solder, the first issue that arises typically is the wifi card malfuntioning then the system refusing to boot at all, I would reccomend a reflow of the GPU while the board is bare, then boot the unit on AC and battery with no peripheral attached. Just RAM and CPU with either an external monitor via the VGA port or the LCD your choice.
Presario CQ62 laptop instant shut off during BIOS splash screen (video included)
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mcsmackton
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any further update?
i have a compaq CQ62-220US and it decided one day to do the exact same thing as the OP. in my case it was reported the day before that a usb webcam wasn't working. I was going to take a look at it but the next day it was reported that the computer would not boot up.
I did all the same things as the OP. tore it down, looking for any issues with fan or battery. hoping that i could get it to bar bones and get it to boot. no luck. with only ac power, display and keyboard attached it would still shut down about 1 second into the boot process. i even pulled the heatsink and replaced the mess of thermal goop with some decent stuff.
like the OP once I had disconnected things like keyboard or wireless it would stop and prompt me to hit enter to continue. I also tried holding down windows+b , which causes it to try and recover bios .. screen would blank for 30 seconds or then flash a message like hit esc to stop boot or somthing and then shut down. I was even able to replace/upgrade the bios from a usb stick. the bios upgrader started, did the complete upgrade. said it would reboot, instead shut down. starting back up it said it recognized the bios had been upgraded, then shut down. after putting machine back together we are back to, boot, red compaq splash screen screen comes up for a second, shut down.
so I'm pretty sure the mobo is screw up somehow. was thinking it could also be the cpu? but would the bios upgrade utility even work without a cpu? esentially I've been trying to see if anyone has ever fixed this and if so what was replaced. a used mobo costs around us$100 which wouldnt be too bad to get a 2yr old laptop back. however with decent new laptops available for us$300 it wouldn't be worth much more .. which is sad.
so if anyone has thoughts or if the OP ever got his working, I'd love to know.
i have a compaq CQ62-220US and it decided one day to do the exact same thing as the OP. in my case it was reported the day before that a usb webcam wasn't working. I was going to take a look at it but the next day it was reported that the computer would not boot up.
I did all the same things as the OP. tore it down, looking for any issues with fan or battery. hoping that i could get it to bar bones and get it to boot. no luck. with only ac power, display and keyboard attached it would still shut down about 1 second into the boot process. i even pulled the heatsink and replaced the mess of thermal goop with some decent stuff.
like the OP once I had disconnected things like keyboard or wireless it would stop and prompt me to hit enter to continue. I also tried holding down windows+b , which causes it to try and recover bios .. screen would blank for 30 seconds or then flash a message like hit esc to stop boot or somthing and then shut down. I was even able to replace/upgrade the bios from a usb stick. the bios upgrader started, did the complete upgrade. said it would reboot, instead shut down. starting back up it said it recognized the bios had been upgraded, then shut down. after putting machine back together we are back to, boot, red compaq splash screen screen comes up for a second, shut down.
so I'm pretty sure the mobo is screw up somehow. was thinking it could also be the cpu? but would the bios upgrade utility even work without a cpu? esentially I've been trying to see if anyone has ever fixed this and if so what was replaced. a used mobo costs around us$100 which wouldnt be too bad to get a 2yr old laptop back. however with decent new laptops available for us$300 it wouldn't be worth much more .. which is sad.
so if anyone has thoughts or if the OP ever got his working, I'd love to know.
NYJimbo
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In many cases when a southbridge is starting to go you will lose some component like DVD, usb port, wifi, camera, etc, sometimes more than one and then the next thing is boot failures. Could be your problem. But also check the USB ports themselves for any physical damage. A shorted USB port can produce weird booting issues or a total failure to boot.
mcsmackton
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yeah when i had it apart the usb ports were all disconnected, and it would still shut down immediately. i'll probably end up gambling on a used motherboard.
A fix maybe?
I have a CQ62 with the same issue. It's been sitting around for almost a year since the failure since I couldn't find a cheap replacment board. I found motherboards for $60 to 100 on ebay today, but before ordering one I decided to have another go at the machine. I read the forum and was about ready to try windows-key+B at power on, but I think I stumbled onto the fix.
It was shutting down maybe half a second after the red Compaq splash screen came up. Not remembering HP/Compaq CMOS setup keys, I watched a few times and caught "Press the ESC key for Startup Menu", so I started pounding ESC as soon as I hit the power button. (I later discovered that as soon as the splash screen comes up, you can hit pause to stop it, but that was after I stumbled onto the fix).
The Startup Menu came up
F1 System Information
F2 System Diagnostics
F9 Boot Device Options
F10 BIOS Setup (not sure if that one was there before the fix, don't think it was)
F11 System Recovery
ENTER - Continue Setup (This may have been ESC instead of ENTER before the fix).
I ran system diagnostics:
F1 System Information
F2 Start-up Test
F3 Run-In Test
F4 Hard Disk Test
F11 Error Log
ESC Exit
I ran the startup test. It tested memory (100% passed), then the hard drive which also passed (surprising because since I'd given up on this machine, I swapped with its replacement when it started reporting hard drive errors - I had reformatted that drive with the Hitachi DFT utility which did find bad sectors. It seemed to be working at first, but then Windows started taking 15 minutes to boot, looking like the drive was failing again) - I had forgotten I put the failed drive in. The tests completed and I pressed ESC to exit.
It rebooted and I pressed ESC to get into startup menu again. I didn't see anything else that looked useful so I hit enter to continue boot, fully expecting it to shut down. The next thing I knew, I got "Starting Windows"...I expected it to fail at any point, since the image on the drive was from an ASUS laptop but Windows 7 actually booted up using generic video drivers.
I played around in Windows a little, and it worked. I shut it down, expecting that to be the last time I got this board to boot, but when I powered it back on, it booted normally, and has done so about ten times since.
So I guess the answer is to hit ESC as soon as you power on, and run startup test. No idea why this worked but it did. I'm curious if it will work for anyone else. The only difference I see is my CQ62 did not have any BIOS, WIFI or any other errors show up before it died.
I have a CQ62 with the same issue. It's been sitting around for almost a year since the failure since I couldn't find a cheap replacment board. I found motherboards for $60 to 100 on ebay today, but before ordering one I decided to have another go at the machine. I read the forum and was about ready to try windows-key+B at power on, but I think I stumbled onto the fix.
It was shutting down maybe half a second after the red Compaq splash screen came up. Not remembering HP/Compaq CMOS setup keys, I watched a few times and caught "Press the ESC key for Startup Menu", so I started pounding ESC as soon as I hit the power button. (I later discovered that as soon as the splash screen comes up, you can hit pause to stop it, but that was after I stumbled onto the fix).
The Startup Menu came up
F1 System Information
F2 System Diagnostics
F9 Boot Device Options
F10 BIOS Setup (not sure if that one was there before the fix, don't think it was)
F11 System Recovery
ENTER - Continue Setup (This may have been ESC instead of ENTER before the fix).
I ran system diagnostics:
F1 System Information
F2 Start-up Test
F3 Run-In Test
F4 Hard Disk Test
F11 Error Log
ESC Exit
I ran the startup test. It tested memory (100% passed), then the hard drive which also passed (surprising because since I'd given up on this machine, I swapped with its replacement when it started reporting hard drive errors - I had reformatted that drive with the Hitachi DFT utility which did find bad sectors. It seemed to be working at first, but then Windows started taking 15 minutes to boot, looking like the drive was failing again) - I had forgotten I put the failed drive in. The tests completed and I pressed ESC to exit.
It rebooted and I pressed ESC to get into startup menu again. I didn't see anything else that looked useful so I hit enter to continue boot, fully expecting it to shut down. The next thing I knew, I got "Starting Windows"...I expected it to fail at any point, since the image on the drive was from an ASUS laptop but Windows 7 actually booted up using generic video drivers.
I played around in Windows a little, and it worked. I shut it down, expecting that to be the last time I got this board to boot, but when I powered it back on, it booted normally, and has done so about ten times since.
So I guess the answer is to hit ESC as soon as you power on, and run startup test. No idea why this worked but it did. I'm curious if it will work for anyone else. The only difference I see is my CQ62 did not have any BIOS, WIFI or any other errors show up before it died.
