I have a compaq pre 7360 the screen won't go past the logo ,when I try the advice from the manu the screen then says operating system not found on any devices ,I removed the cable from the hard drive and plugged it back in and rebooted but got the same response ,any help would be great

If the battery has run down the settings in the BIOS will have gone,
reboot computer go into the bios (Del Key or F2 key) auto detect hard drive save and exit it the computer boots into windows the the battery is dead and you will need a new one.

post back if this dont work.

I have a desktop model it doesn't have a battery but thanks anyway

All computers and laptops have them, when you turn off the power then back on after a few days the clock has the right time.

The CMOS chip is powered by the battery which keeps the settings for the hard drive. When the battery is flat the CMOS Chip has lost the settings, You can Auto dectect the drives, but when you turn off the computer you loose the settings again hence the need for a battery.

Switch on and go into the bios press the DEL Key or F2. If you are not sure which key to use when you startup it will tell you on the screen.

Look for auto dectect hard drives,

If you want some screen dumps you can email me at

pwlgt@aol.com

Hopefully Peter is right and the BIOS has simply forgotten how to talk to your hard disk. I've seen this before on Compaqs but ---

A more ominous possibility is that a virus has scrambled your hard disk. If you find nothing wrong in the BIOS and yet your operating system has mysteriously vanished then you need to find out why. You will presumably have to boot from a floppy disk, in which case WRITE-PROTECT it. As an added precaution, get it checked for viruses on a computer known to be clean. There's no point reloading your operating system if you initially booted from an infected floppy.

And if you do find it was a virus, and you get it all cleaned up, PLEASE get a virus checker. AVG for Windows is free from www.grisoft.com.