My nephew has a Compaq Presario SR1426nx running Windows XP home which he asked me to look at. About a week ago the mouse stopped working and now when you start the green light on the PSU goes on, the PSU fan runs, the cooling fan above the cpu runs, the disk drive light goes on about 2 seconds than nothing. The monitor is good because I'm using it now on my computer to write this post. I put the HD in a external enclosure and it appears to be fine. The monitor goes right to energy saver and that's it. I tried adding a separate video card but still same result. If I unplug the monitor cable I get a no signal message but when I plug it back in it goes right to energy saver. Without video I can't check BIO or anything else.
It's an 7 year old computer so I don't want to spend too much replacing parts that it doesn't need but it is good enough for my 10 year old nephew.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Swap psu with known good one.Even though the PSU runs the fans it could still be NG? I'll try to find a compatible power supply and swap it out. ThanksYes...that's very possible...it takes nothing to run the fan compared to what else it does.Changed the PSU with new one, still acting the same. The computer power goes on with fans, the HD  and optical drive lights for about 2 seconds and the monitor goes into power saver. If I remove the VGA cable it shows no signal but when I plug it back in, power saver again.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My nephew is lost without his computer and DRIVING me crazy.
Thanks
Given the vintage of the computer is it possible the CMOS BATTERY is still the original? If so it is getting quite long in the tooth. A DYING battery can cause a myriad of strange occurrences with a computer. They are cheap and easily obtainable also easy to remove and install. For the small expenditure involved you might want to give that a try.truenorthThe first thing I did was change the CMOS battery before I bought and installed the new PSU, still NG. If the computer is in power saver MODE is there a way to get it out blind, can't see anything on the monitor. I'm pretty sure it's a Win XP home OS.So you did try another Monitor ? ?My nephew had this problem connected to his monitor and that's how I got stuck trying to fix it. I know my monitor works because I'm looking at it now. He also tried his sister's monitor with it and same result. I'm hoping as a last resort that the bio has the computer in power saver mode. Now I have to figure out how to get it out of power saver without seeing the bio with a monitor. It's a catch 22. Worst case the motherboard is shot and will have to find a new computer. Because of the age of this unit it not worth spending about $100 for a replacement MB.
Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Quote from: chas638 on November 09, 2011, 04:51:42 PM

The first thing I did was change the CMOS battery before I bought and installed the new PSU, still NG. If the computer is in power saver mode is there a way to get it out blind, can't see anything on the monitor. I'm pretty sure it's a Win XP home OS.

Remove battery & reset BIOS by use of shorting jumper on motherboard.  There should be a jumper block with 3 pins, Normal is 1-2, Reset is 2-3.  If not labeled, Normal is current position.  Removing battery alone is not always enough to reset BIOS; current draw is micro-amps, takes a long time to run down on it's own.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=228&product=465651&sw_lang=&

Does monitor power button stays orange while computer boots? Does numlock on keyboard lights up/stays or gets response when turning on numlock?