Crackling laptop on startup

[juliaatpcgp]

I have an old Compaq Armada E500 laptop.

Every time you start it up, it emits a loud crackling sound for a few seconds.

I don't know whether it's connected or not, but the internal modem doesn't work (nothing at all happens) and I cannot get a USB plug in one to work either (there's a lot of noisy tones but no connection).

The battery doesn't charge anymore, but taking it out and running it on the mains doesn't cure the noise. The laptop usually runs on the mains as it's does go on the road.

Can you tell me what could be causing this ? Do I need to worry about it ?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Jay

 

[ski]

If it works ok, then just run it until it dies. There's no sense to spending any time and $ trying to solve some startup noise on a dinosaur.

 

[juliaatpcgp]

Thanks - but do you have any clue what is causing it ?

Can you indicate whether what's causing the noise is also affecting the working of the built in modem ?

.... and possibly also the plug in USB modem ?

 

[ski]

Anything is possible with computers. But unless you're experienced with working on a laptop, then it's probably going to cost more to fix those problems than what the computer is worth.