Hi, my old compaq presario 1500 wont boot up and no display but has power light and checks cd rom - no hdd indercator light, tryed plugging a monitor in and nothing???

Either the motherboard is "dead" or the power-supply is "dead".
It's easiest to FIRST try a different power-supply.

1. Check if your battery is fully charge or if there is power in your Compaq Presario 900.
2. Check for defect in your power switch.

Hi, my name is ArmyMason, hate to tell you this, but it sounds as if you have a bad Processor. Did you recently experience a bad storm with lightning? Was their a lot of dust on the fan? Lightning could have struck the computer and killed the processor or excessive overheating of the processor could have also been the case. If it was a lightning strike I would contact the insurance agency and have them replace your computer. Reason I think its the processor is because you don't recieve any post and the fan spins for a second and then shuts off.

Boot into Setup and run the TOOLS / PRIMARY HDD TEST / SHORT TEST.

If it fails, try another HDD.

If OK, verify Boot Order is Floppy, CD-ROM, HDD. Exit Setup.

Print Table 1 Low Level Format instructions from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/106419

Boot with a DOS disk that contains Debug. Run the Table 1 script. Turn V5000 Off.

Boot with the HP Operating System CD. XP install should now proceed normally.

Good luck.

Larnold..Sounding like you need to check the LCD Power Inverter Circuit board.. this is located inside the screen a long rectangular circuit board that sends power to the screen backlight & Display Panel.. Could also be a Bad Backlight.. Try Booting it.. Hold it up to a light and look closely at the screen.. If you see a faint image but no light, it is the Backlight, if Just Black No Activity then its most likely the Power Inverter, OR a Bad Video Card.. You can test the VIDEO by Connecting the laptop to a Computer Monitor or similar with the laptops VGA Serial port.. then Use your function Key and Switch to 2nd Display.....(one of your F keys.. ).. If it Shows up on another screen, Its a Display problem and not the video card... Hope This Helps alittle.. Cheers

Leave the battery out and try booting up on ac power only.

You obviously have power, as lights and at least some text means power is connected ok, as you said. It may be a booting issue then. What OS is running on it when it did run???

Have you tried a new power supply ?

you could try booting on battery instead of mains and see what happens, also could the screen be switched off ? If you have access to another monitor, you could try plugging it in to see if the video output is ok. ( some laptops have a facility to switch off the screen display for security etc )

Most laptops have a video connector that you can use to connect you laptop to an external monitor. connect an external monitor to your laptop and see if anythig comes up on the external monitor.Your laptop has a key to switch between it's own screen and the external monitor.When you use the external monitor ,you'll have to use this key to switch to the monitor.Your battery should'nt matter if the laptop is running on AC.Let me know what happens and we'll go from there.