no post on (old) compaq pc

[smeezekitty]

i have a compaq presario 4540
it was freezing up more and more
untill one day turn it on...no video
i tried reseat cmos battery
no beep codes
and by the way i cant swap the ram
because i cannot remove hdd (in the way)
and i have always worked inside with power off(duh)

[smeezekitty]

update:
i reseated the ram and now it goes to the COMPAQ logo and hangs
by the way the hdd is disconnected and it only has 1 ram slot

[Quantos]

Will it let you get into the BIOS?

[smeezekitty]

i can get to bios at most once out of 10 restarts
i thinking ram or mother board
what  do you think

[patio]

PSU.

[smeezekitty]

i thought that too but can bad ram cause this?
ram is cheaper so i will try that first
also can a bad cmos battery cause it?
----edit----
the powersupply is 80 watts

[Quantos]

i thought that too but can bad ram cause this?
ram is cheaper so i will try that first
also can a bad cmos battery cause it?
----edit----
the powersupply is 80 watts

Yes, a bad CMOS battery can cause all kinds of problems, it can lose the HDD that you have, system time, other settings that may be crucial to booting.

[patio]

the powersupply is 80 watts

This raises a Red flag...haven't seen one since the 80's...

[Quantos]

Neither have I.  I still have some old 300 watts kicking around, but I threw all that really old stuff out long ago.

[smeezekitty]

its not that old it has
16 mb ram  
233 mhz processor
maybe windows 95
where do you find a new cmos battery? (round shiny)
also there is some dust inside that should be removed
i hope i did not double post this

[Quantos]

The first thing I would do is try a different PSU.  If you can locate one with the appropriate connectors, otherwise I would suggest taking it into a local Mom 'n Pop store to get it checked.

[patio]

And the part # for the CMOS battery is CR2032...available pretty much anywhere...including Wally World.

[Allan]

Why are you posting in haiku?

[Quantos]

Why are you posting in haiku?

Wha?

[Allan]

A little too abstruse?