# Problem with Compaq Presario CQ50



## Lone Ninja (May 10, 2009)

Hello, all. I'm back again.

I have recently gotten a new Laptop, an HP Compaq Presario CQ50. Up until recently, it has been working perfectly.

However, a few days ago, it started acting weird. It was getting very hot, and actually shut itself down a few times. So, I went out and bought a cooling pad, and for a while, all seemed well.

Well, today, my laptop decided that it wanted to shut off, and not turn back on. I have tried everything I can think of, and even did some research.

I have unplugged the power supply and removed it from the laptop, taken the battery out, then plugged the power supply back in, and it didn't work.

Someone told me to take out the power supply, then the battery, wait a few minutes, but the battery back in, then plug the power supply back in. That didn't work, either.

When I hit the power button when the battery is out with the power supply in, no lights blink. There are three lights in the bottom left of the laptop.

When I press the power button while both the battery and the power supply is in, the middle light blinks white 3 times, and the computer doesn't boot up.

You guys did an amazing job helping me last time, hopefully you can do the same again


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

First thing I would do is to test your ac adapter with a volt meter, make sure its putting out the proper amount.

or another way is to use another ac adapter, but make sure the adapter is the same voltage as what the laptop needs, and that the amps are the same or higher than the laptop.

you can find out what the laptop needs by looking at the bottom, it will look like 19v 3.95a, or 24v 6.84a. The same thing will be on ac adapters on the sticker.


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## Lone Ninja (May 10, 2009)

Unfortunately, I have no volt meter nor a separate AC Adapter, which I think may be the problem. haha

Is there anything else you would recommend for me to try in the mean time?


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

which light is blinking? is it the one that looks like a bolt of lightning?

or is it the caps lock or num lock LED's?

also whats the exact model nubmer of the laptop? there are alot of cq50's


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## Lone Ninja (May 10, 2009)

Yes, it's the one that looks like a bolt of lightning. It flashes three times when I hit the power button with the cord plugged in and the battery in.

It's a CQ50-108NR


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## Madcatz (Apr 15, 2008)

ok, Three flashes of the lightning bolt means the computer isn't seeing the memory, or bad memory. Reseat the memory and try again, if you have two sticks of memory, take one out and try it, swap slots and try it again, take it out and put the other stick in and do the same thing. Hopefully one of those will work for you, if one stick works and not the other, then you can replace the one that doesn't work. If neither work, then try and see if you can get a stick of memory that does work or a new one.


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

I have pretty much the same problem with my presario cq50 I don't even use the battery anymore cuz it over heats in like a minute and the speakers get so hot so quickly plus it's so load as well like the fans and stuff I haven't gotten a cooling pad yet but I might it's so ridiculous


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

my cq-50 works perfectly. for over a year now
That must have made a bad batch of mobo's or something like that.


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

i've had mine for about 2 and a half years and it jus started acting up does anyone have any suggestions on how to make it cooler or anything?


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

sounds like it is giving the wrong voltage to the battery causing it to heat up. Try another charger?


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

i dont have a spare AC adaptor but i have the hp advisor program and when my battery is plugged in it says its in poor condition...i dont know how long it has been in poor condition and i havent had my battery plugged in for quite some time so its always plugged into the wall on or off and same when the battery was in always plugged into the wall...and also like i've said before it heats up very quickly and also the left speaker gets hot as well. do u think i shud get a cooling pad?


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

definantly get a cooler. They are cheap.
Sounds like there is something wrong with your power input. It has put the wrong voltage in the laptop, and the battery has suffered from it. A new power cable might solve the problem, or borrow one if a local shop has one.
A new battery should be purchased to test it out also, or borrowed.
Check local shops.


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

this is my second AC adaptor that i've had, my 1st one the original that came with my laptop my cat chewed the cable so it was no good so i purchased a new one. batteries are very expensive a simple 6 cell or 8 cell cost about 130 dollars i can find one on ebay for about half that but i dont kno if its a good idea. i'll definitely look into buying a cooling pad but its jus ridiculous some days my laptop doesnt make load sounds like the fan or anything but other days its soooo noisy!!! i duno


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

It sounds like your 2nd charger may be the wrong voltage.
I would expect a dog to chew up a cord haha. Who would think a cat would?


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

cat's are messed man lol. so i jus bought a cooling pad and my laptop is sitting on it right now so hopefully this will make a difference in the performance and CPU temp. so fingers crossed thanks for your help crucial


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

i also have another problem, i downgraded to xp at one point, but im back to vista and i couldnt get any of my drivers installed or anything so i had HP help me with installing new things to hopefully have XP recognize my wireless card but then they told me to disconnect the card from my MOBO on my laptop and i managed to drop one of the screws inside the computer so i duno if i hook up the battery to my laptop if it'll cause more of a heat up and im kind of afraid to jus open up my laptop and take the screw out..(if i can find it lol)


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

Unplug everything, take batt out, and remove the ram slot, and wireless card slot, then try tipping the computer around to see of the screw can fall out.
Down shake it hard, just gently and let gravity try to take the screw down.
Thats all that I can think to do.
AND try a different charger for sure. I'll post a pic of the label on my charger. See if yours matches it.


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

is your charger only a 65W? mine is a 90W! lol so i shudnt take the the whole bottom panel off and jus try to take the screw out? also when i take the ram and wireless card slots out u mean the actual hardware itself correct? not jus the door?


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

also is that charger of urs the original that came with ur laptop? is ur laptop HP or compaq?


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

You can try just the doors at first, or if you are not comfortable taking out the ram and wireless cards.
That is the original that came with my laptop.
It is the compaq cq50-139wm. Got it for a sweet deal at walmart alittle over a year ago for 299$

The specs are probly lower then yours. I have...
2ghz celeron processor
2gb 667mhz ram
160gig hdd
vista home basic
15.4 inch screen
intel gma 4500mhd graphic card.


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## diet coke101 (Jan 12, 2010)

ya mines the presario cq50 i got it for $497 at bestbuy with a $20 printer and the laptop was regular 700

my specs are:
AMD athlon dual core ql-60 1.90 ghz
2 gb ram 250 hdd vista home premium
15.4 inch screen
nvidia geforce 8200M G


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

I would think that power cords would be the same though. 
Try looking on the manufacurer website and see if you can see the watts and output voltages.


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## TenneyThe2nd (Jan 23, 2010)

Hey everyone! First post here, but I'm having the exact same problem. The lightning bolt light flashes 3 times. I have a multimeter, but I've never tested a power supply with one before. How would I do that? Also, there seems to be a little light next to the plug on the computer case that isn't lit. I'm not sure that it's even a light, it almost looks like a little paperclip reset button, but it could be a light. I don't remember if there was one there or not before I started having this issue.

I already tried the hard reset and nothing changed. I haven't tried using one stick of memory yet.


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## Island_Umpire (Feb 5, 2010)

I purchased a Presario CQ50-139WM from Walmart a couple of years ago for my daughter. My daughter tends to operate it with the power supply continuously plugged in. The 1st power supply lasted roughly 9 months. I was able to replace that power supply with the same part number from Best Buy. That power supply lasted only a few months. Best Buy stopped carrying the HP part number and now only offers a universal power supply (Targus Universal Wall Power Adapter for Laptops)
Specs
Input 100-240V, 2.4A 50-60Hz
Output 15-24V 90W max
We have gone through at least 2 of these power supplies.
FYI: Between the original power supply and the 1st replacement, we moved to another house and I had all of the outlets in my daughters room replaced (it was a color thing). I've had an electrician check the voltages of the outlet and he seems to think that its OK.

Is it possible that there could be something wrong with the laptop which is overdriving the power supply and causing it to fail?


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## crucial09 (Jan 7, 2010)

Could be the laptop.
You should always plug all of your computers into some type of good quality surge protector.
I have the cq50-139wm, and my girlfriend does too, for over a year now and we use the frequently. Out power supplies have never gone out.
So it very well could be your laptop.


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## Island_Umpire (Feb 5, 2010)

Thanks for your quick response. I'm currently chatting with the HP Support for some guideance too.


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## mssvspain (Apr 15, 2010)

I have the CQ50 139WM which I bought at Wal-Mart in Nov. 2008. I have recently had problems with the wifi and sent it to be fixed. While at HP my motherboard had to be replaced. I got my computer back in Jan. and since then I have had problems with the screen going black after opening it from sleep mode. Now I can't get it to start at all. The little lightening bolt was lit for a few minutes before it went out and the little light beside where the power chord plugs in is lit up. What could this be?


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## zorromir (Apr 30, 2010)

I have a problem with Presario CQ50. The battery is inserted and fully charged, but the moment I unplug the charger, the computer just shuts down immediately. I don't see that anyone else has posted this problem, so can someone please help me?
We changed the battery on a different computer, it works fine, we tried the adapter on a different computer, it works. Running out of ideas...


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## JamesTubby (Mar 18, 2011)

My mother got a Compaq laptop.
Presano CQ50-139WM.
Its a Windows Vista Basic. (nothing fancy)
she took it to work one day. and couldnt get online right away.
so she messed with the internet options.... (so she says...)
now the Internet Explorer Dosnt work.
It says theres a problem with the connection.
But It says its got a good connection. 
AIM still works fine.
but if you click on something that opens up an internet browser window,
the window still says no conection. (as I am AIMing my friends...)
IDK what to do. I think my computer is on more drugs then I am...
I turned off the fire wall. so its not that.
i cant restart it from scrach becuase of coarse my mother threw away everything. (CD) 
and I cant do a restore point cuz they are too new....
Can anyone help me befor I send this thing to hell. (Loading my gun as we speak...)


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## fatherof2 (Apr 20, 2011)

zorromir said:


> I have a problem with Presario CQ50. The battery is inserted and fully charged, but the moment I unplug the charger, the computer just shuts down immediately.


I just started having the same problem, it started last week. I know my battery was getting to point of needing to be replaced but for it go from about a 30 minutes down to zero in one day it not right. I did replace my battery though and it now it still operates when I have a full charge. Now it just shutdown whenever it feels like it. So the battery did have something to do with it but. However now when it shut off I think the battery is almost drained - It acts like something is shorting out.

It is not the fan it spins just fine and there is nothing obstructing it. I have been inside this mahcine about 3 times and I don't see any visable problems. 

Any suggestions please?


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