cpu boot up problems

i have a hp502n which i gave to my sis because she had some win95 cpu. well anyways for like 2 years ive been goin thro one problem thts a pain in the a$$. sometimes when i turn on the cpu the Hp screen comes up then it goes to a black screen with a white blinkin thing in the upper left hand corner. now its not the power suppy cause i changed it. i also do not think its the Hd cause its the second hd i had in it and its done it with both of them.. now if i kick the side of it, and restart it, it usually works. does any1 kno wht could be the prob?

Sounds like a loose connection or a bad cable.

My initial guess would be the HDD cable, if that's loose or damaged the system can wait a long time expecting the drive to respond before even giving an error message. That could well be what's happening when you see the cursor flashing in the top left.

Also, it's a fairly easy item to replace to test another cable, and cheap if you need to replace it. Don't keep kicking it, you'll only do more damage.

HAHA ok thanks every1 who has given input on other sites havent said anything about the ide cable,, i will try tht. thanks

Just curious have you let it sit at this screen for any length of time to see if it continues with the boot process..My old compaq would have a small white square flash in the upper left then right hand corner when booting...This was to give you the correct time to hit the proper key to get into the bios...White square = hit the proper function key to enter bios.....I'm thinking maybe its hanging on the post or bios detection ...maybe having trouble detecting a device....Lynx suggest is a good one...you could also try booting with just your master hardrive and no other drives to see if it helps.....

it doesnt do this all the time, only like 50% of the time . but when i go to there tongiht ill try. but its not a white square its just a flashin cursor

Well here is a link that mentions the "cursor"...But like it may not be what your talking about...http://kb.iu.edu/data/acbq.html
The part that makes me laugh is they mention newer compaqs (my compaq is about 7 yrs old and it does the flashing cursor thing)

Well this may be more along the lines of what you mentioned I'll quote another site
"Congrates !

Had ruffley the same problem, in bios saw everything ok and would not boot (about 3 years after I bought my HP). Also could not reformat due to it would post but would go to a black screen with flashing cursor in the upper left corner, and 12 hours later no change or error message. Unplugged everything except the floppy (all ribbon cables) and put a bootable floppy in, it booted. Adding one device at a time found out the only thing the bios could not "talk too" was the Hard Drive, appeared it was broadcasting but not responding to commands from the bios. 1 Year later (with a new HD) same thing happened this time I replaced the CDRW. I still have the original DVD in this PC.

Basically you need to systematically troubleshoot the system to determine exactly where the problem is, if not the HD then you could get it running within 1/2 hour. Minus the defective part. If the HD will not boot alone, use the restore disk in the CD and if it boots you need a new HD.

Appears the system "sees" the HD but can not communicate with it or is being inhibited by another device."


If this helps I take no credit beyond doing a little googling. :)

I'v seen this problem too on a older compaq drove me nuts . Your trying to fix a friends computer and its taking forever .

I started by clearing Cmos and went from there , still don't know what fixed tho . Why one should always keep some older working parts to test out , even an old 9.gb HDD , memory strips , Psu etc. whould do the trick .