System: Compaq Presario 722US with Windows XP (SP1)
Operating System was recently reinstalled with Recovery CDs, and all software reloaded.
Initially this afternoon PC would do nothing when power button is pushed except light come on indicating power button pressed. Computer would not power-up at all (no fan or hardrive noise). Only lights on were AC or battery lights (attempted powering up on AC w/ battery removed, on AT w/ battery installed, and on battery power) and the power light. During this time I checked everything I could think of (reconnected battery numerous times, checked spare ram to ensure it was secured, checked harddrive to ensure it was secured, opened cover to inspect AMD chip for visual signs of a problem) and computer would do NOTHING.
Two hours later I went back to computer (pulled it back out of case) to try it again. On third attempt to start up on battery power the battery light flashed a couple of times and then all lights out. Connected to AC and attempted to reboot and could hear fan start, screen flashed to COMPAQ all light flashed (except harddrive light) then black and recieved following indication “unable to detect operating system”. Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delet and power-down/power-up resulted in same. Attempted to use emergency boot floppies but after final disk inserted, the computer turned off.
Is this an indication that I have (1) a motherboard failing, (2) a bad harddrive, (3) processor going bad, or (4) all of the above?