Installing windows XP... complete failure...

Ok, I have a Compaq Presario 5000 Series, Model 5WV270. I purchased it in 2000 with Windows ME and had no problem installing Windows XP Pro on it. Thinking I was good at it I volunteered to update my friend's Presario with XP. Her computer is also a Compaq Presario 5000 Series, though her model number is the misteryous 5BW. I found a thread in this Forum you can see why this model of presarios is so mysterious. Initially i was just unable to install XP on it, it would tell me that certain files were corrupted or missing. Today, I tried again without any success. I removed the Bios battery for about two minutes to reset the bios settings, and this is where I got an even bigger problem. I replaced the bios battery, connected the hard drive on the pc, and turned on the pc. Now, it won't do anything!! The red COMPAQ logo won't show up, and the monitor screen is just blank... there's nothing going on! Can anyone please help me? I have no idea what I did. Did I wipe out the Bios, or why wont the pc boot up at all?

thanks for your time,
Fernando

 

Yes, pull out and reseat the connections.

Leave the battery out for at least 5 minutes (30 minutes would be better) or read the motherboard manual about using the Clear CMOS jumper.

The information in the forum link you posted says that something like this can happen if the hard disk drive is not in the correct location on the IDE ribbon cable. You may need to experiment with changing the cable connections for the HDD (reconnect it to the other ribbon cable connector).

If the HDD is set as Master, you could try setting it to CS (Cable Select), but it will need to be connected to the end of the ribbon cable to run as master.
You could also try disconnecting the HDD completely and see if it will start and take you to the BIOS settings.

Matt

 

Early Compaqs were strange beasts that had the bios setup utility actually on the hard drive. I’m not sure about the Presario but a quick look on the Compaq site seems to show that the special bios tool for this kind of setup (RomPaq) is one of the downloads for the Presario. I only done this once 5-6 years ago and can’t remember much about it so can’t help with the details.

Not sure why clearing the cmos would make the system completely unbootable, but something nagging in my brain says that Compaqs are different here as well and don’t automatically reload default settings.

The RomPaq comes as a small .exe file that will build a floppy (or maybe two) for you, with which you boot the computer from and reset and/or update the bios. They also I believe can restore the info on the hard drive if this has been deleted or a new hard drive has been fitted. It’s all rather hazy and I can’t be sure if I’m completely off the track with your problem here, or even if the Rompaq is the thing you want.

If you go here and select the full model number of the 5BW you will get a new page that will lead you to support and downloads for that model. Best to do your own research on this. However this seems to be the RomPaq for all models of the Presario 5BW.