Dead Compaq Armada 4210T Laptop (more details)

Hi,
My brother gave me his "dead" Compaq Armada 4210T laptop to repair.
I normally service TVs and other stuff. With fully charged battery, when
I turn it on (push power button), almost nothing (no hard disk spin or floppy
disk drive noise (with floppy in drive), no "beeps" or lights, no display
(even with external monitor)) happens when you turn it on except 4
(power, caps lock, scroll lock, numb lock) of 5 LEDs light up.
I removed the battery, but the same thing happens using only the external
power source.

With the room totally quite, if I put a floppy disk in the drive, I can
hear a faint noise when I turn on the power (but floppy drive doesn't run).
If I remove the floppy disk, it isn't there.

I measured +5 volts (after power turned on) at one of the pin connectors for
external keyboard, which tells me that the internal DC to DC inverter
is "running".

This failure wasn't the result of a power surge, as in a storm. No advance
warning of any kind and the laptop wasn't dropped or abused. I thought
possibly a static discharge from his body after walking across a carpet, but
he said, he doesn't recall that event?

I opened the unit and found a tiny 5A fuse, but that tested good
(not open). I examined circuits for bad solder joints. Also checked for
loose connections of any kind.

If you ever had this experience, please tell me what you did to fix it.

Thanks in advance, Brad

Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.

On Feb 16, 5:58 am, bpet...@verizon.net (Brad) wrote:
> Hi,
> My brother gave me his "dead" Compaq Armada 4210T laptop to repair.
> I normally service TVs and other stuff. With fully charged battery, when
> I turn it on (push power button), almost nothing (no hard disk spin or floppy
> disk drive noise (with floppy in drive), no "beeps" or lights, no display
> (even with external monitor)) happens when you turn it on except 4
> (power, caps lock, scroll lock, numb lock) of 5 LEDs light up.
> I removed the battery, but the same thing happens using only the external
> power source.
>
> With the room totally quite, if I put a floppy disk in the drive, I can
> hear a faint noise when I turn on the power (but floppy drive doesn't run).
> If I remove the floppy disk, it isn't there.
>
> I measured +5 volts (after power turned on) at one of the pin connectors for
> external keyboard, which tells me that the internal DC to DC inverter
> is "running".
>
> This failure wasn't the result of a power surge, as in a storm. No advance
> warning of any kind and the laptop wasn't dropped or abused. I thought
> possibly a static discharge from his body after walking across a carpet, but
> he said, he doesn't recall that event?
>
> I opened the unit and found a tiny 5A fuse, but that tested good
> (not open). I examined circuits for bad solder joints. Also checked for
> loose connections of any kind.
>
> If you ever had this experience, please tell me what you did to fix it.
>
> Thanks in advance, Brad
>
> Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
> be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.

Can you still toggle the numlock or capslock leds?

Anyway, one (or more) of the following things need to be replaced

RAM
Motherboard
Processor


You can test the ram in another machine, as long as it uses the same
type. On some laptops, the processor is integrated into the
motherboard, and can't be removed.

Also, you want to strip the laptop to bare essentials. Remove the hard
disk and cdrom, floppy, keyboard, touchpad. And see if you get any
life.

Brad <bpetria@verizon.net> wrote:
> Hi,
> My brother gave me his "dead" Compaq Armada 4210T laptop to
> repair.
> I normally service TVs and other stuff. With fully charged battery,
> when I turn it on (push power button), almost nothing (no hard disk
> spin or floppy disk drive noise (with floppy in drive), no "beeps" or
> lights, no display (even with external monitor)) happens when you
> turn it on except 4 (power, caps lock, scroll lock, numb lock) of 5
> LEDs light up.
> I removed the battery, but the same thing happens using only the
> external power source.
>
> With the room totally quite, if I put a floppy disk in the drive, I
> can hear a faint noise when I turn on the power (but floppy drive
> doesn't run). If I remove the floppy disk, it isn't there.
>
> I measured +5 volts (after power turned on) at one of the pin
> connectors for external keyboard, which tells me that the internal DC
> to DC inverter
> is "running".
>
> This failure wasn't the result of a power surge, as in a storm. No
> advance warning of any kind and the laptop wasn't dropped or abused.
> I thought possibly a static discharge from his body after walking
> across a carpet, but he said, he doesn't recall that event?
>
> I opened the unit and found a tiny 5A fuse, but that tested good
> (not open). I examined circuits for bad solder joints. Also
> checked for loose connections of any kind.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/su...02_rev2_us.pdf