okay HI, I have a Compaq presario 5000 series that's been sitting in a closet for quite sometime now. It was working fine the day I stored it away. Okay anyways, I wanted to give it to my Brother to use. So I hooked up everything and started the computer. It started up normally, no unusual sounds, But the screen just stays on the Compaq logo screen with a blinking light on the top right hand corner. I don't know what to do as of now. I have the recovery CD and everything, i just cant boot it because the computer wont start up that far.

Its been on the Compaq screen for at least 30Min's now.

Can someone please help me? Did the post run before the compaq screen came on? I'm not really familar with this series of machine but if it didn't go into the bios and disable quick boot or quite boot.It wont let me go into the bios. Once I press power, the screen warms up and then goes to the Compaq screen. Theres no press f-whatever to go to biosThats normal on some systems, as that is a quite or quick boot. Most laptops have this by default and desktop systems like this.

When hit the power button start tapping either delete, F1 or F2 these are the usual buttons to get into the bios.

To me it sounds like the OS is either not being found or there is an issue with the hard drive, try reseating it.

Why the POST helps is that it will tell you if it is either the ram that is not being passed or hdd not being detected etc.

But yeah sounds like the OS is not being found.

Alright ill try that.

If the OS cannot be found, then what now? If i can can get to the bios and have it boot from the cd with the Recover CD TAKE care of all that?Well it depends if the HDD has gone, or not, or if something has came lose like the ATA cable that connects from the Mobo to the HD or power to the hard drive.

But basically the first thing is to atleast see the post so you know whats going on because that compaq screen is really not much to go on other than your on board graphics is ok and that your mother board/cpu is ok, your ram or hard drive is the likely problem imo.hmm, ill double check everything inside.

I happen to FIND the manuel that came with the computer.
it says for entering bis press F-10 when the cursor is blinking on the top right hand corner of the screen with the compaq logo. and thats what I did.
It DIDNT do anything. Still on the same screen.Do you have any led's on the board such as Cap lock, num lock ect? Do they come on maybe the keyboard is not responding or getting power, is it usb or ps/2? I find ps/2 plug pins bend really easily. If the lights are not comming on check that the plug is in and the pins are fine.

Some other things you can try is booting up with a boot disc and seeing if you can get in that way.