Compaq S5000nx won't boot

Ok so i was trying to fix a friends computer and here is the situation.
When you try and boot up the computer it will start to boot and as it starts to power up it restarts. It keeps doing this and wont stop. The configuration of the machine hasn't changed it just started doing it one day. My first guess was the power supply was going so i replaced it but it continued to do it. My next thought is that it the motherboard but i dont know so i figured that i would let u guys give a crack at it. Thank you for your input in advance.

My other thought is that the outlet is being overloaded but it never had a problem before.

Ok...does it get to windows loading....or just restarts before that???

What is the OS??

MLF

It wont even boot into bios. Its running windows XP home i think. I haven't got it to boot so not positive.

No beeps????

So you cant get into the bios at all????


MLF

nope. you hear the hum of the fans and then it restarts. It is on for probalby a total of 15 seconds.

Doesnt sound good....you could try and swap memory and\or video...if that doesnt do it...I would say the boards flucked....

you could try and reset the bios by removing the battery on the board or resetting a jumper...Compaq should have some info on the site on how to do this....

If you need data off the drive...slave the harddrive into another machine and pull the data???

How old is the machine???

MLF

I think the machine is about 2 years old or so but im not sure. She has been having work done on her home namely painting and general remodeling. I'm thinking that a large amount of paint dust got in the machine but when I opened it it wasn't all that dusty.

Hi, I would check that the processor fan is spinning. The symptoms sound like the CPU could be overheating to me.

Also make sure that the fan sensor is properly connected. In older boxes this is part of a single plug that also supplies the power; but I have seen separate connectors. I am guessing that if the system does not detect the fan it may well switch itself off?

I'll second Nihil's suggestions.

Also failing that you should strip out everything from the motherboard and put it back piece by piece. It should boot to bios (with errors) without anything on the motherboard (tho you wan't see anything unless your gfx is onboard). It should beep out error codes for no memory etc.

Could also be fans like Nihils says
Could be memory
Could be pci card
Could be power supply
Could be mobo

You need to swop some things around to try to narrow it down.

has the laptop being dropped or recieved a sudden jolt etc recently.?

I'm guessing that the mother board has received some damage of somesort..

Hmmm,

If it is the model I am thinking of it is a mini tower format desktop. Very "budget" kit that came out around the last quarter of 2003.

Typically, it has a 2.5GHz Celeron and 128Mb of RAM.

I have only heard of performance issues, as it also has 32Mb shared video which doesn't leave enough to run Win XP smoothly.

If it is the MoBo then I don't honestly think that there is much you can do economically. You would have to get a Compaq one, as you don't have a full Windows XP CD............and Compaq parts are rather expensive.

:(