Hp Presario A900 no power?

This laptop is missing battery and memory, what I'd like to know is, should this laptop power up even if it has no memory or battery please?

 

nope, you need the memory to power it up.

 

Just for the knowledge, is this the case with ALL laptops or just this one? Thanks.

 

It's the case with ALL computers. A computer needs memory to power on. At best you'll get beeps telling you the memory is missing or failed, at worst, it simply will not power on at all.

 

Reason I'm asking is, I could swear I have come across computers in the past which came with a little built-in memory like 32mb or so if I can remember correctly? So I am thinking that little bit of memory came with the laptop only to power on the unit or am I mistaken here?

 

I know there were machines many many many... many.. years ago that included ram soldered into the motherboard, but it was actual main system ram. I had an old old old Pentium laptop that had 64mb of system ram built in to it and one extra SO-SIMM slot to upgrade with.

Pretty much no modern (<8 yr old) laptop is going to come with system ram built in to it, except maybe some very obscure, tiny and foreign manufacturers.

 

ok, appreciate all the info!!

 

No problem.... you wouldn't be interested in selling that A900 really really really cheap, wouldya?

 

The laptop was brought to me by a friend of mine who purchased it as-is from someone else, my friend asked me to check out the laptop for him, we're assuming it's not powering up due to the missing ram so I told him to get a stick of pc ddr 2700 and then we'll know what the deal is, when we check it out if it's not the ram then he'll have to consider reselling to get his money back, I'll let you know first before posting on ebay, BTW, is there any chance it could be a "battery" issue since the battery is missing?

 

I don't think a missing battery is the issue*. My mom has an A900 that powers on fine without the battery. A900s use DDR2, so the DDR 2700 isn't even going to fit.


*Edit: Unless there's something wrong in the power circuitry that causes it to not power on without a battery. Do you get no power at all, or do the lights/fans at least come on?

 

No power at all, regarding the RAM it says here at Crucial that it uses ddr 2700 and NOT ddr2?

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Presario 900 Series

 

Thats the older 900 series Compaq not the A900 series. Crucial doesnt list the A900 but it should be using 200 pin DDR2 SODIMM's.

 

Thanks a million guys, I just called up my friend and told him to get a stick of pc2700 DDR2, will let you know what happens.

 

No problem, mike. Hope the ram is all that's wrong with it!

 

Don't know what the hell is going on here guys, just called up a local pc supplies store and the guy said this notebook does NOT take DDR2, I just checked the manual online and it says:

1024-MB (PC2-5300, 667-MHz, DDR2) 462330-001
512-MB (PC2-5300, 667-MHz, DDR2) 462329-001

So then is it pc2700 DDR2 or PC2-5300 DDR2?

 

PC2700 is a DDR spec. PC2-5300 is a DDR2 spec. The Compaq A900 uses DDR2 5300.

 

Thanks for clearing this up! Everything about this laptop suggests to me that the mobo is shot which is why the guy sold it to my friend without Memory, HDD and Battery, what do you think?

 

It's entirely possible. I could test for you, but my mom won't get off her computer long enough for me to pull the ram and see what it does!

How much did he pay for it?

 

He said he paid $70 for it. I just plugged it in again and there are 4 tiny icons on the bottom left corner of both the cover and base, I figure that at least one of those lights should show if there was any juice on the mobo?

 

The four icons are Power, Battery, HDD and Wifi. Power won't light up without it being on, Battery will only light if a battery is installed and charging. The other two, well, that should be obvious ;P

 

Not sure I understand this part, my Hp laptop lights up when plugged in without powering up the notebook?

 

I guess yours is different.

On the A900, where you plug in the power adapter, there should be a blue ring that lights up, even without a battery.

I just tested my mom's A900. Pulled the ram, pulled the battery, plugged it in. Held down the power button for about 5 seconds and the power button lit up. The power light and wifi light were on (blue and orange, respectively). The Wifi light lit up, and the fan came on. The laptop did not boot, did not post and the display never came on.

If none of that happens, the motherboard is probably bad.

Oh, did you check to see if it has a CPU installed? I don't know what it would do without a CPU. I'd think that if the laptop was good, though, even without a CPU, the ring around the power plug should light up.


Maybe the power supply and cord assembly is bad?

 

Did all of what you wrote but same deal, power cord lights so that should be fine, guess it's the mobo, really appreciate all of the help!

 

Was it sold with a CPU installed?

Edit: The power plug lights up, but if you hold down the power button, what I described doesn't happen?

 

I don't know if the cpu is there, didn't want to bother opening up the laptop. He said he's going to take the laptop to someone who does mobo repairs.

 

ok, good luck with it. itll be a nice machine if he can get it running cheaply

 

Thanks but the parts will cost him a bundle, the battery alone is around $125 for example.