compaq 615 won't start up - but what does the amber flashing light mean?!

p4girl

Ok, thought I'd ask before phoning Misco...

Son's computer (four months old) won't start up, but when you press the power button, I notice that a tiny amber light flashes six or seven times - it's on the side, right beside where the ac adaptor plugs in.

Any ideas?!

lucylucky

No power/flat battery?

Is it a desktop or laptop?

The_Grandmaster

Maybe needs charging (running out of battery) or in sleep mode type thing.

Try conncting ac adapter to laptop and hold down the power button for a few seconds.
Works on my Sony laptop!

p4girl

It's a laptop. I've tried changing the fuse in the plug, and tried to boot it via the mains charger -no luck!

It pretty much just sits on son's desk, always plugged in...

The weather's much too nice to be getting hot under the collar over this, but at £400 I thought it'd last a bit longer!

lucylucky

Is the mains adapter working?

Any chance the battery has become dislodged?

p4girl

Beginning to wonder about the mains adaptor -it's not remotely hot. May have to nip to PC world and ask them to test it!

p4girl

I gave up and phoned tech support. After a lengthy conversation, they've said they'll send me another mains adaptor -we'll see if that does the trick!

p4girl

HP tech helpline very good - they sent me a new charger and hey presto - computer now working!

Thanks for the support! :T

lucylucky

p4girl wrote: »

HP tech helpline very good - they sent me a new charger and hey presto - computer now working!

Thanks for the support! :T

Always nice to hear it was something simple and that it got resolved.

p4girl

Thought I'd continue this thread instead of starting a new one...

November, we're now on the 3rd charger for son's laptop! Same thing is happening, when you switch computer on, all you get is amber flashing light.

Take the battery off, and the unit is completely dead. No flashing light, nothing.

Latest charger has green light on it which is lit up ok, it's only three weeks old so pretty sure it's working. But can't guarantee it!

Starting to think it may be something wrong with the computer...

Anyone got any ideas?

GunJack

get back onto compaq and demand a full repair or replacement - either they have a bad batch of chargers, or it's an inherent fault on the lappy that's blowing them