Compaq Evo N115 Questions

[70JUDGE]

I have Compaq Evo N115,and need a little help with it.When I first got it,I was told that it needed a new motherboard.I plugged it in to see what it did,and the battery light blinked a few times,then went to a solid orange.I tried turning it on,and to my surprise it booted to the Compaq logo,and said something about press F? to do something,and F? to do something else.Right after I pressed one of them,the plug fell out of the wall.It still boots to the logo,but now it doesn't give me those choices anymore,and the battery light blinks non stop.It doesn't have a hard drive in it,but everything else.Could that be the problem?Bad battery?I tried charging it for awhile,and unplugging the cord,but it just shuts right off.What make,and model hard drive did this originally come with from the factory?Mine is model 470035-737 Series CM2130.Also,do they have restore disks you can buy for this machine?I also need to know if I can get the Microsoft Windows key for this too.Any help is greatly appreciated.Thank You very much!
Tyler

[glc]

It sounds like it needs a new motherboard. You need to get the restore disks and Windows key from the previous owner or buy a new copy of Windows. Is the entire hard drive tray missing, or just the hard drive? Any notebook hard drive will work in there, but you have to have the tray to put it in.

I'll be blunt. It will be cheaper for you to buy a refurbished Dell laptop from their outlet than it will be to repair that thing, it will be a better laptop, and will have a legal load of XP Home already on it.

[70JUDGE]

Does the hard drive have to be grounded to the frame through the caddy to work?I found a hard drive I tried to test it with,and right now it's just plugged into the socket,and insulated from the frame.One time it says it's there on bootup,but when I go to format it,it's not there.Other times it doesn't even show up.It also doesn't save the date,and time either.I would go into the setup,and set everything,unplug the big battery,and after a few minutes plug in the A/C power,and the date,and time would be reset.Bad motherboard battery?Any help is greatly appreciated!Thank You very much!

Tyler

[rjfvillarosa]

The date and time being lost like that is certainly indicative of a bad motherbaord battery, as for the harddrive case to be grounded I wouldn't think so, I regularly check hard drives sitting on the bench next to me not even in contact with the actual machine other than the power and data cable.

[70JUDGE]

Is that the same for laptop hard drives?As mine only has one connector,unlike desktop computers.It also has a metal plate under where the hard drive goes,as to ground the drive? Would a bad motherboard battery cause the battery charging light to blink non stop like it does,or not to see the hard drive?Or is the blinking because the main battery isn't any good, and maybe a sign the motherboard is bad too?Thank You very much!

Tyler

[rjfvillarosa]

I really don't see that a harddrive, laptop or desktop would rely on the casing for a ground, the only reasons I can think of, would be for holding the hardrive stable and for a common static earth point.
A bad motherboard battery is not very likely to cause the battery charging light to flash unless it is also a rechargeable battery and it is recharged in the same way as the main battery,the motherboard battery in a laptop is usually different to a normal motherboard battery so maybe it could be a rechargeable.
I don't see your connection that any of these faults could be the cause of a bad motherboard, maybe one of the peripheral boards that constitute the charging circuit for the battery could be doing this.

[70JUDGE]

I have another question.In the online service manual it says that the heat spreader thermal pad should be replaced every time the processor is replaced.What if I'm just removing the heat spreader,and not the CPU?Or is that what they are talking about?If either one is removed,it should be replaced?Where is the pad?On the heat spreader,or CPU?Do I have to replace it with another thermal pad,or would Arctic Silver work?Which is better?Thank You very much!

Tyler

[glc]

Yes, if you are removing the heat spreader, you need to replace the thermal interface material unless it's a "dry" pad and NONE of is stuck to the CPU. Either a pad or AS would work, but you have to prepare the surfaces and apply it correctly.