I have a compaq presario 2100 laptop that is a little over a year old. Today I went to turn it on, and it wouldn't turn on. I plugged in the power cord, and it is not showing that it is charging, and the battery says it is dead. I always have it plugged in, so I don't know what the problem is. I have taken the battery out and re-plugged the the power plug. It just won't turn on or show any sign of life. I have nothing saved on disks, so I would be losing A LOT!! any help would be appreciated. If you need more info to solve this puzzle, let me know! Thanks

See this. ____________________________ The greatest risk is not taking one

Stupid question. Are you sure that the outlet you plugged into is working?

When troubleshooting, do not assume anything. The outlet could be "dead," meaning blown fuse/breaker, or if a power strip, the switch could be off, or breaker tripped. The outlet could have a problem, broken/loose wire, etc. IF the laptop supply has a removeable power cord, there could be a bad connection at the powersupply/wall cord connector. The wall cord itself could have developed an open The power supply could have just plain failed. The cable from the supply to the laptop could have developed an open, probably right at the laptop connector or right at the powr supply. The battery could be stone dead/failed The laptop itself could have developed a failure. What you need to do, is find someone with at least minimal experience with a multimeter, and take a few measurements. Take a multimeter, and with the power supply plugged into a KNOWN GOOD outlet, measure the output. If the supply says, for example, 15vdc, it should put out AT LEAST that much, and maybe more. (Some of these are not regulated with no load, and may show a volt or two more than the label.) If you are SURE this reading is ok, try powering up the machine with the battery removed. If that does not work, try measuring the voltage at the battery terminals. It may help to let the battery "sit" awhile REMOVED from the laptop. If none of the above works, time to either repair or replace. Recover your data? You are not lost, go downtown (so to speak) and buy a cable adaptor that will allow you to hook your laptop hd into your desktop computer. Some laptops have the hd mounted in a housing/cassette/caddy, and some of these have an adaptor inside which connects the hd connector to a "special" proprietory connector that mates with the laptop. In this case, you'll have to remove the hd itself from the caddy. Most new laptops do not do this. You can then slave the laptop hd into your desktop, and copy what you want out of there.