Compaq Presario CQ50 wont start

[Paulino]

Hello there, I have recently bought an Compaq Presario CQ850 which is installed with Windows XP operating system. The laptop was working fine and I was enjoying the feel of it but now the Compaq Presario CQ50 wont start. I was doing some work on my laptop when it suddenly shut it self down. I tried to start the laptop again but it did not work. Same thing happened twice before, the laptop would shut itself down and then would only start after some time but this time it is not starting. When the power button is pressed the LED with a lightning bolt blinks thrice and then nothing happens. Is this some hardware problem? or the operating system of the laptop has failed? Please help.

[Bon-Z]

I think the battery of the laptop has drained out completely. As the laptop shut itself down while you were using it, it is possible that the battery is out of charge and hence the laptop is not starting. Connect the laptop to the external power source and then let the laptop to charge for sometime. After charging the battery for sometime, disconnect the AC adapter and then try to start the laptop. It will start if the battery has charged.

[Gonzo]

The AC adapter of the laptop may be faulty and hence it is not able to provide enough power to the laptop to charge or to start. Take a digital multimeter and then check the o/p voltage of the A/C adapter. The value should be near to the value which is specified on the charger. If the value is much less than the specified value then adapter is faulty and needs to be replaced. Meanwhile you can check if the laptop is working by connecting some other charger to it. When using some other charger, check the ratings of the laptop first as connecting the adapter with incompatible ratings will damage the circuitry of the laptop.

[Pugsly]

In laptops the residual charge gets stored near the system RAM chips. This residual charge stored near the system RAM chips sometimes make the RAM chips inaccessible to the system. This happens due to capacitive effect of the residual charge on the RAM. Therefore it is necessary to clear this residual charge on the laptop. To clear the residual charge of the laptop, follow the steps below :-
1. Shut down the laptop.
2. Disconnect from AC source.
3. Remove the battery.
4. Press the power button and hold it for 30 seconds.
5. Release the button after 30 seconds and then connect the battery again.
Now try starting the laptop.

[Regina]

I was also facing the same problem with my Compaq CQ50 laptop. It shut itself down and then it wont start for sometime. This continued for long time and then one day the laptop did not start at all. I took the laptop to HP service center as it was still under warranty. The technicians checked the laptop and informed me that the motherboard of the laptop is faulty and needs to be replaced. After replacing the motherboard now the laptop works just fine. Hence I would suggest that you take the laptop to the HP service center and get it checked before the warranty expires.

[Simond]

The Bolt shaped LED blinking is the indication that the laptop is not able to access the RAM of the system. Whenever the system is not able to access the RAM of the system it will not be able to boot as all the files which are to be executed are stored in the RAM first. If you can open the laptop, open it and take out the RAM chips and clean the connecting terminals and then connect them again in the slot. If you have multiple RAM chips then try to boot the system using one RAM chip at a time and see if the system boots. If for a particular RAM chip if the system does not boot then RAM chip is faulty and discard it.