Laptop doesn't turn on/charge anymore

Presario CQ50
Compaq CQ-104ca

Hello, this Presario CQ50 you're talking about, should have it's own DC-jack in board as well as it's own cable connected further linking to the motherboard. IF your AC-adapter should work, then there should be a small light emitting diode - lighting up beside on your DC-jack in on the bottom case while your AC-adaptor is connected to the laptop.

If it's lighting up then I would suggest that it was the motherboard.

If it's not then I would suggest to get a multimeter if available to check the AC-adapter outsource, I guess you're using a 19,5V DC adapter, so look at the value when measuring, if it's in between 19~20V it should be Okay. If the AC-adapter is Okay then It's most probably the DC-jack cable and especially the motherboard, as it is the most common problem for this model for not being able to start up.

tbernstein said:

This happened to one of ours, recently.
I thought it might just be the connector.
No luck. It was a short on the mobo. And that would cost almost as much as a new lappy to sort out.
New lappy.

What do you mean? It should be a 2 years standard warranty inside EU.
As far as I know this computer was released on 07/13/2008 So you still have the warranty right to change the motherboard. unless you bought it outside of europe.

I managed to guess you're from U.K since you got that UK/EU flag under your avatar

Edit: In another thought, I guess you're able to buy without warranty for cheaper price in U.K as far as I can remember... If that's so then I'm sorry for the useless post.

Vino Rosso said:

With the battery removed and the power adapter connected... all being well, the laptop would have booted. As it didn't, clearly there's something wrong internally. The motherboard being faulty is a possibility but so is something like an internal fuse from the DC input. Unfortunately, unless you have skills in disassembling a laptop and the relevant tools to investigate the problem, you'll need to seek a repair agent.

Being said, I bet the laptop is dead. A friend of mine tried to look for it, without sucess neither. Too bad I only had 1 year guarantee which expired a few months ago . By the way any tips what I could do with that laptop? Sell some parts separately?

Vino Rosso said:

With the battery removed and the power adapter connected... all being well, the laptop would have booted. As it didn't, clearly there's something wrong internally. The motherboard being faulty is a possibility but so is something like an internal fuse from the DC input. Unfortunately, unless you have skills in disassembling a laptop and the relevant tools to investigate the problem, you'll need to seek a repair agent.

Jonathan_King said:

I don't think you could get much for a dead laptop, but I bet you if you sold a used hard drive, DVD drive, and RAM, you could certainly get something. Just make sure to securely wipe your hard drive before sending it out: Eraser

Good luck!
~Jonathan

Thanks, one last thing, I'm ac tually looking for a netbook for my next purchase do you have some advices to make it avoid the same issue I just met?

what ever you buy stay away from HP/Compaq they score very poorly in reliability studies