Brad wrote:
Hi,
My brother gave me his "dead" Compaq Armada 4210T laptop to
repair.
I normally service TVs and other stuff. With fully charged battery,
when I turn it on (push power button), almost nothing (no hard disk
spin or floppy disk drive noise (with floppy in drive), no "beeps" or
lights, no display (even with external monitor)) happens when you
turn it on except 4 (power, caps lock, scroll lock, numb lock) of 5
LEDs light up.
I removed the battery, but the same thing happens using only the
external power source.

With the room totally quite, if I put a floppy disk in the drive, I
can hear a faint noise when I turn on the power (but floppy drive
doesn't run). If I remove the floppy disk, it isn't there.

I measured +5 volts (after power turned on) at one of the pin
connectors for external keyboard, which tells me that the internal DC
to DC inverter
is "running".

This failure wasn't the result of a power surge, as in a storm. No
advance warning of any kind and the laptop wasn't dropped or abused.
I thought possibly a static discharge from his body after walking
across a carpet, but he said, he doesn't recall that event?

I opened the unit and found a tiny 5A fuse, but that tested good
(not open). I examined circuits for bad solder joints. Also
checked for loose connections of any kind.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/su...02_rev2_us.pdf