Hi,
I'm also a new poster, hope I get it right. I have a Compaq Presario S5100nx with Windows XP pro and 1Gb of RAM. I have some external digital drives (Wolverines) which i purchased for a video camera. I have found out the hard way that unless the Wolverine is fully charged and plugged in to AC, that it overdrives the USB slot. Unfortunately, now my computer won't boot since I sucked the power out. It gets past the bios and has the F1 for set up at the bottom, however pressing F1 or anything other than the off switch is useless. I've removed everything from the PCI slots, pulled the power on all drives except hard drive. I also replaced the power supply. No joy. Beeps are 1 short and 1 continous beep screaming for help. Any ideas on how to diagnose? Have I burned up the board?

Hello again Spice...

First thing I would try is reset the BIOS. Second thing is pull all RAM out and just plug in 1 at a time...

Im a bit doubtful to point at the mobo at the moment as you are still getting a beep code.