CF-51 Not booting??? randomly

Sorry everyone I 1st put this post in the wrong place.
For the last 3 weeks or so my CF-51 has started randomly not booting. It is a cf51kbrdcbm mk 2. with a 2 gig stick of ddr2 533mhz ram a 320gig western digital HD. I have had it over a year it is my field service/road warrior PC.
When it does boot up it works fine?????? Some times it boots some times not!
When it fails to boot the power light comes on & the "A" light(LED) on the left blinks on then off. Then the power light stay on. no beeps nothing on the screen. No sign of POST. The power light stays on until I remove all power or hold the power button down for 10-20 seconds. took i It to 2 small town pc repair shop. They said it was memory so I swaped ram, got a gig stick(new DDR2 533mhz) worked fine for a day or so. Now doing the same thing.
So last week i bought a replacement same model but it has 1 gig ram, 60gig hd & wireless. I have switched parts between the two all parts & ram work on the replacement pc.
Thanks

 

I just checked on my CF-51; this is exactly the same behavior I see with no RAM in it. I'm thinking creeping crud in the RAM slots or Memory Controller Failure or maybe bad solder joints at the RAM slots, especially after you saying that it worked for a bit after replacing the RAM.

I'm assuming you've already pulled EVERYTHING (HDD, Battery, CDROM, PCMCIA & USB accessories, etc) except one stick of RAM to test, and tried the one stick in both slots.

On this model you can clearly see inside the RAM slots with a flashlight; look for corrosion or detritus around the contact fingers. Try blowing the slots out with canned air.

If you don't find anything, take some heavy white card stock (NOT GLOSSY) and cut a strip about 1/2" wide by oh, 4" long, and one about 1/4" wide the same length. Fold them both over double and flatten gently, then dip the loop end in alcohol, just enough to wet both sides of the loop end, not enough to drip. Use this to clean the contact fingers by swiping gently from side to side in the slots; use the 1/4" one for the shorter half of the slot. Be careful; if you have to press any harder than just enough to squeeze the loop end flat to get the cleaner in the slots, your card stock is too thick. If done right, you should feel slight drag as you move the cleaner from side to side, but it should never bind. The card stock is very slightly abrasive with a fibrous surface; if you are careful, it will leave no lint behind.

Afterwards, blow the slots out with canned air just in case, and try again. You can also use these cleaners to clean the contacts on the RAM as well.

If this doesn't resolve your issue, I fear it is probably going to require a new MB to fix.

Hope this helps,

mnem
Thanks Driller.