Computer help forum: Compaq f700 Won't Turn On

I wonder if the laptop power jack has failed. Its a failure I see far too often. Owners always tell me they were careful or it can't be that but your symptom as described would have me checking that.

Google LAPTOP JACK to discover an army of companies to work this.
Bob

You can find drive cases and adapters to add the old laptop drive to the next machine at newegg.com and geeks.com for under 20 bucks. Usually that's all it takes.
Bob

I am sure the real root of the problem is still there, however I was able to get mine back. Here are the details:
First--My computer had frozen and there were twisted lines across the screen. The only thing I could do was to HARD boot it off. But when I attempted to start it back up, it would come on - go off - over and over again all by itself, unless I pushed in the power button and held it, or if I unplugged it and removed the battery. I was able to get it to stop recycling by immediately pressing the esc key at start up. However, nothing appeared on the display. It was completely black and other than hearing the fan, nothing else seemed to be happening. I could not get an external display to work either. I had tried all the tips about taking out the battery and unplugging it and holding down the power button for 20 seconds and plugging it back in-- none of this helped. I had read that it may have something to do with over heating etc. I agree that mine was running very hot the day it froze. At first I let it continue to loop over and over thinking it would or could eventually catch and come back--after an hour, I gave up as it seemed it was getting hot again and possibly harming my data. (If there was any left!) So I let it sit an hour and thought MAYBE I could hit that esc key and let it sit at that spot a while. But again, an hour later and nothing--plus it was heating up slightly. Finally--I decided to see why it was heating up. I went to the garage and turned on my air compressor and blew it into all the air vents etc. I never opened up the case, because I don't know anything about the insides of a laptop and would surely destroy it! I blew it over the keys too on the keyboard. Then I let it sit about 3 hours. It was completely cool. I plugged it in and attempted to start it and NOTHING--it was right back to what it was doing before. Finally--I decided to LET it get hot again--so I turned it on and pressed the esc key--I let it sit about 45 minutes--the fan was running and although not super hot, it was heated up a bit. I turned it off and flipped it upside down. I then tapped lightly all around the bottom surface of the case. I used a heavy flat book. I DID not BANG it or WACK it, just light taps and such. I did this for about a minute. I then turned it over very gently--and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I came back knowing nothing had changed, but tried one last time--and it came back! It logged right into Windows as if nothing had ever happened. Everything was there and it has been running smoothly for over a week. I notices the fan does not come on or run as fast as it had been. I wondered if I had blew out dust and possibly dislodged something that had been blocking air etc. I also thought maybe when I let it heat up and flipped it over and tapped it, maybe it allowed something to fall back into place. Then when I let it cool, it may have logged itself correctly. For whatever reason it came back--and I have made a BACKUP of all my files JUST in case this is a dream! I just felt the need to come and let others know that this may help you with yours too. Please note that I know very little about the hardware in a laptop and do not attempt what I did unless you are willing to accept any further damage. I am sure the real techies here will tell you I shouldn't have done this, but I had given up hope and had nothing to lose as I had no money to try to repair it. Good Luck! Lori

i am have the same problem as sondrahayes. Blue lights start up but shut rite off. We was also told it was the power supply so i go buy the most expensive power supply i could and it did'nt help. Now my laptop doesnt do anything,,,,
Some one PLS help

I found the answer on another tech board and I was one click from buying another laptop. Here's what you do: Do a "hard reset" (turn power off, take out battery, take AC plug out of laptop,hold power button for 30 seconds), then replace battery, and AC cord and then press "power button" on. The unit should then power-up as normal. Hope it helps you as it did me!

This is a generic reset that has helped many (laptops too.)
Bob

This worked great for me! Thanks for the awesome advice!

What problem was the BIOS FLASH going to fix ?

VAPCMD

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.

My buddy brought me his F700 with the same issues,
..The battery will not charge..
however the battery and the charger both work just fine with my other HP laptop.

..The computer will not turn on with a fully charged battery, or absent a battery and just plugged in..

The power jack light turns on, and the front power light turns on, but the thing will not boot up! I can't hear the HDD running, but the fan turns on and off.

Is this a problem with a specific component that I can replace? Or does this thing need a whole new MB?

So, you're thinking the power switch itself may be bad? I guess it would make sense... How about the power jack, I heard those go bad frequently.
And yeah, a fresh CMOS battery would never hurt, but would that cause any issues like this?

The problem occurs whether there is a battery in and the AC off or the battery removed and the AD on. I'm not talking about the CMOS battery, but the power battery.

I think the following are all possibilities:
1. That the physical design of the system does not provide quite enough power. So that if any item (most like the fan) needs extra juice to start moving, then another item, like the harddrive does not get enough juice to start spinning and communicate with the system. I'm don't really know the engineering and physics aspect of it, but I do know it takes more energy to get something moving than to keep it moving. And I do know from both careful listening and from checking the lights that the harddrive is not engaged.
2. So, if it's the power supply being too light, then possibility the harddrive has deteriorated over time sufficiently that it can't spin enough to be recognized.
3. It could be that the energy is wasted on checking the CD drive or linking up the modem.
4. Or it could be some total combination of these possibilities.

The issue is with the Nvidia chipset overheating causing the solder to loosen. The chipset then raises a little off the board. There is a fix for this and I have done it on about 20 (HP and Compaq)laptops over the last few months. I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you are completely comfortable with taking the laptop apart to get the motherboard out to apply the fix. I am not sure of the rules of the forums here but I can tell you how to fix it if you are interested. There are also tutorials and Youtube videos on how to fix this.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=reflow+nvidia+chip+on+laptop

Hello. I am looking at a friends Compaq F700. When the power button is pressed, LED lights will illuminate for a few seconds and then shut off. The screen never does display anything. This occurs with battery of ac power. Hence, I was just wanting to further confirm that the "Nvidia chipset solder issue" is likely my problem before opening it up to perform the fix referenced here. Many thanks.