Problem: Laptops Post , Won't Boot

[alexmack]

I hate to sound stupid but I just got an old 486 laptop that would not boot past the POST (it starts to sometimes - from floppy or hd but never does completely) I took one of the add-on memory modules (older-style SODIMMS) out of it and put it in another old lappy (these are both 486-class) and now that laptop is doing the same thing. It worked fine before Both machines recognize all drives - I have 3 different known good hard drives that I have tried in the first lappy , each time - same result. The hard drive in the second lappy (the one that worked fine before) is a very slim one so the other three drives dont' fit in the slot for it. I tried removing the add-on memory from both machines (they both have a bit of on-board memory) but I get the same result. I hate to toss out the two machines - I need just one of them to work okay - their displays and batteries both still work real well. Any ideas?

 

[SemperFi]

Well I have never worked on a laptop but if this was a desktop I would suggest clearing the cmos.
I would imagine that a laptop has this also.

Hope this helps.

Semper Fi

 

[alexmack]

I tried that but to no avail.

 

[jschuk]

You say (3) known good HDD, but are they known to work in a 486 laptop. A lot of laptops from that vintage had a BIOS limitation of 524MB (some could go to 2.1GB with a BIOS update). I assume you are plugging them in so they have good power. Do they power off before finishing POST or do they just get stuck? Try removing everything but the FDD and boot to a boot disk, does that work? Make sure the HDD's have an OS (even if it is MSDOS) loaded on them. Also, if it seems power related, try powering them on without the battery present. I have seen old laptops have problems booting when they can't detect the keyboard, try plugging in an external kybd.

 

[alexmack]

Thanks for the suggestions - I have already tried all but booting without a battery and with an external keyboard - I'll give those two a whack.