[mdlug] Linux box won't boot

[Carl T. Miller]

David Lee Lambert wrote:
> Now when I turn the power on, the screen goes backlit but black. After
> about 20 seconds, it flashes briefly red "COMPAQ" on a green background,
> then shows the GRUB boot menu.  If I push any key on the keyboard, it
> immediately goes backlit but black again, and nothing else happens.  The
> fan is running. Num Lock is lit but unresponsive, no HDD activity.  If I
> hit the power button, it turns off immediately.
>
> Stranger still,  if I try to boot from a Linux CD (tried Ubuntu J and
> Ubunutu 5.10 so far), I get similar behavior.  Screen is black but
> blacklit
> for about thirty seconds after power-on.  I push any key on the keyboard,
> it flashes back to that state,  and no HDD activity.

I was all set to say it's a problem with grub stage two until
I read the second paragraph.  This sounds like a hardware problem,
The very first thing I would do is open it up and blow out the
dust, followed by reseating the memory and each of the cards.  If
you're lucky this might get it working again.

c