Compaq Presario 4784 strange problems...

[ragingbaboon38]

I have a Compaq Presario 4784 MS-DOS/Windows PC, with the accompanying Presario 1585 CRT monitor.
The specs are as follows:
CPU: Intel Pentium with MMX @ 133 MHz
RAM: 32 MB
HDD: 4 GB Quantum Bigfoot IDE
GPU: Onboard S3 ViRGE chipset
Sound: Onboard ESS 1888 Plug and Play AudioDrive (missing drivers)
OS: MS-DOS 7.10 CDU and Windows 98 SE

I've taken the system apart several times, usually to diagnose an issue or to clean it. Strangely, it's put together with Torx screws. I've always put everything back as I had it before using the system again. When I received the computer about a year ago, it had Windows 95 on it. I formatted the hard drive and installed DOS 7.10 and Windows 98 Second Edition. This proved to be a mistake, as I lost all the Compaq OEM stuff, which included drivers. So it was a massive pain to get all the drivers back, and I can't seem to get any working for the ESS audio device. Other than no sound, the computer works fine. I should note that Windows does not start on bootup, I have to type "win" into the DOS prompt to start it.

The computer has been acting strange recently. The CD-ROM drive doesn't spin up discs anymore, and the fancy little MS-DOS 7.10 bootscreen sometimes has really messed up colors. However, now for some reason when I turn it on, it does nothing! The monitor will show a barely visible dull brown color as soon as the system is turned on, but nothing else will happen. The hard drive will be accessed briefly, the drives will do their thing, but nothing else will happen. There's no PC speaker beep, no display, nothing. Just to make sure it wasn't just a display issue, I typed "win" into the keyboard, to see if it would access the hard disk to start Windows. However, there was no response. Strangely enough, turning off the system will cause the dull brown color to remain on the screen until it is turned off.

Can anyone help me?

[ragingbaboon38]

EDIT: Made a small mistake and I don't know how to edit (or if I can at all, lol.) The monitor is a Presario 1525, not a 1585.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi I suspect the problem is a dead CMOS battery which on your motherboard is soldered on. I have included a picture of the motherboard with the battery circled in read if you have a volt meter it should read 3 V with the power turned off.

Also check the AT power connector for the output voltages of the power supply particularly the orange wire to pin 1 that this is at 5 V  (Power Good, +5 VDC when all voltages have stabilized.)

Also check the capacitors circled in orange these should be flat across the top not bulged.

When you get the computer back booting then you could load these drivers from Dell for the ESS 1888 https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-si/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=r18791

You say the ESS 1888 is plug and play in the Compaq, when I look around the internet there is config.sys and Autoexec.bat with drivers loading for the sound card.

[ragingbaboon38]

I don't have a voltmeter to test the battery, unfortunately. I checked the capacitors, they look fine. Also, I hate to argue with someone who likely knows way more than I do, but wouldn't a dead CMOS battery still allow the computer to boot properly? In my experience, a dead CMOS battery will cause the computer to lose the BIOS settings and date/time, however the computer still boots up fine. Maybe this Compaq works differently, it's a strange computer so that wouldn't surprise me.

[Lisa_maree]

You are correct, in most cases a flat CMOS battery would cause a cmos checksum error display. Some computers will not post and there fore not display anything without a charged CMOS battery.
Have you tried the computer with the onboard VGA adapter, if you have a PCI video adapter you would need to remove it ?
If it works with the on board then it is still likely to be the cmos battery. As the bios has a setting for which VGA adapter is used.