AHHHH Help!

[dj_2004]

Hey, im most likely buying a laptop off of a guy. Its a Compaq Presario 1700.
Will list specs at the end of the post. Anyways the problem is it reboots when it doesnt have an os loaded on it. He says a friend of his dropped it and its been like this ever since. He put Knoppix and it runs fine. But like I said, it only reboots when an os is not installed on it. I find this strange, anyone know why it would do this and is there any fixes other than buying a new one? Also he said it rebooted when he plugged in the cat5 cable in but NOT when he uses a pcmcia card. I know nothing about laptops except that they are smaller than pc's so any help is appreciated! :) And here are the specs of the lappy (if more info is needed just ask):
presario 1700
P3 800 coppermine
128mb pc100 sdram (can hold 512 via 2 slots of 256)
3gb hdd (changed out from the original 20gb)
Not sure what vid card/chipset they use

Thanks!

[diggingforgold]

I don't think I'm understanding the problem. "it only reboots when an os is not installed on it".

So what happens if, say, you were to install 2000?

[Captain Slug]

Yeah, that's no big deal. Just install the operating system from a bootable CD.

[anothermbdusted]

that or try to run a image on to it from like norton ghost or something like that.....

[ozzlo]

it prolly something compaq programmed into the bios that it reboots if it finds no os you should not worry much. i've dropped my lappy several times, even made it freez whn i dropped it but mine still works without any glitches.

[dj_2004]

Sorry, didnt explain enough. It reboots about 5mins after its turned on. So there seems to be no way to install an os other than knoppix which doesnt really install.

[Arkaine23]

Have you tried installing Knoppix to the HDD to see if it behaves the same as windows? If it doesn't then maybe its got something to do with ACPI. Ultimately this sounds like a hardware issue- overheating or damaged motherboard. But maybe linux can run where windows can't...

[dj_2004]

Yes thats what we think it is... an ACPI problem. Will tell him to try installing knoppix. The mobo is probably damaged since his friend dropped it. Only way is to buy a new mobo (if thats what it even is)?

[Arkaine23]

And mobo's for laptops are hard to come by... might as well buy a whole new laptop if you have to replace a mobo out of warranty.

[ozzlo]

install dos!!!! dos 6 to be exact! from there you could install xp. what i've made out of it is that if there is an os installed it stays on? do you have hardware monitor in the bios? if so watch your temps in the bios and see if they rise to abnormal levels.

[four4875]

mine will go into a rebooting cycle when i have the hard drive out and no bootable cd, it says somethin g about OS not foudn and then restarts, and loops. its a compaq presario 700 / evo N115 and you might be able to fid a used mobo for it on ebay, even tho in my opinion its a massive pain in the arse to take out the mobo.

[Arkaine23]

Another thing about an overheating issue- Knopppix probably doesn't enable power management so fans would run at top speed.

[dj_2004]

Not overheating, boots to Windows Me (its *partially* installed on hdd) and reboots when it goes into the hardware detection bit. He thinks its something to do with the power managment. "the bios power management turns it off before windows can take over", thats what he thinks it is. Thanks for the help so far guys! :)