Laptop power light ok, but not running

[zmanthao]

Usually when you turn on a laptop, there are distinct continual sounds to indicate it is going to run ok.

My compaq laptop's, a PII-266, power light came on fine, but it is not doing anything beyond that. Usually you here the hard drive running and then a beep to indicate the bios have catch on. Other then the power light on, the display is blank. It almost appears that something beyond the operating hardware is not catching on thus the computer is not responding to the ON button other then the power light.

For you experts out there, what do you think is the cause of this? (Don't tell me is the motherboard. :-( )

 

[mridle]

Remove the battery and try booting with just the AC power cord attached. If no go, then try just the battery. If no go, remove ram (careful with this as some laptops require ram to be inserted before a "power on" can be obtained), hdd, cdrom/floppy, battery, and any pcmcia cards. Attach the power cord and see what happens. If still nothing, you will need to replace hardware.