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

p4girl

THREE HOURS on the phone! Had to phone HP support on two different numbers - each number I called THREE TIMES! - everyone I spoke to kept referring me to the other number, saying that Compaq wasn't part of HP, saying they couldn't help as it was a business unit. (it a laptop bought for personal use, but serial no. says otherwise...)

Also made three calls to Misco, who I have to say were very nice. I finally have a courier coming to pick up the unit on Monday, because they now admit I might be telling the truth and there's a problem and it'll need a new motherboard.

RESULT! But HP support is not for the faint hearted!

macman

p4girl wrote: »

THREE HOURS on the phone! Had to phone HP support on two different numbers - each number I called THREE TIMES! - everyone I spoke to kept referring me to the other number, saying that Compaq wasn't part of HP, saying they couldn't help as it was a business unit. (it a laptop bought for personal use, but serial no. says otherwise...)

Also made three calls to Misco, who I have to say were very nice. I finally have a courier coming to pick up the unit on Monday, because they now admit I might be telling the truth and there's a problem and it'll need a new motherboard.

RESULT! But HP support is not for the faint hearted!

Please ensure you back uo your data before they collect it, as with a new mobo you may well find that do a clean install as well, whether necessary or not!

p4girl

How? Computer won't switch on, so backing anything up seems impossible. (Although luckily, I think it's used for Facebook much more than Uni work...!)

GunJack

glad you got a result - it is a pain sometimes convincing support line staff there is a problem, but well done you It was too coincidental not to have been a genuine fault...

macman

p4girl wrote: »

How? Computer won't switch on, so backing anything up seems impossible. (Although luckily, I think it's used for Facebook much more than Uni work...!)

Remove the hard drive, place in a £10 USB hard drive caddy, plug into another PC and copy over the data you need.

p4girl

Computer was picked up on Monday, HP website says it's been fixed and is on its way back!

The repair solution code says "Power /DC PCA" - does that mean it wasn't the motherboard? It sounds more like some sort of power jack failure to me...?

GunJack

nah, not power jack, it'll be the power supply board/chips on the mobo...the charger supplies voltage at, say, 19volts, but most electronics will need 12v, 5v, and poss one or two others - more likely your faulty parts will be the bits that convert the 19v input to the other required voltages

p4girl

Thanks for that!

:beer: