Troubleshooting PCs and the Beeping Noises...

[Mr. tech]

I'm doing some troubleshooting on a heap of old PCs and need a bit fo help with the Beeping process when you boot the PC.

The one I'm working on now, when I boot it, I get a long Beep that lasts for atleast 3 seconds. Nothing is displayed on the monitor. It waits another 3 seconds, silently and then Beeps for 3 seconds again and so on.

What woudl the problem be? I've pulled out all cards, unplugged the HD and CD amd Floppy and tried a new power supply.

Is there any online guides to these beeps just incase I run into anymore? Also if there are any troubleshooting guids please send them my way. I'll do a bit of searching now

Cheers

 

[SHAWN]

RAM, Chip and mobo is whats left so either one of those are the problem. try a known good stick of ram. if that doesnt do it, then you have a board or cpu issue

 

[Alex81388]

Long beep(s) is usually a memory error.

 

[Mr. tech]

Thanks, will look into it.

Any websites that tell yuo what the different types of beeps mean?

Cheers

 

[SHAWN]

the make of that particular motherboard. Some errors are generic whereas others are based on what type of board it is

 

[Mr. tech]

It looks like it was the ram, thanks.

I got a 40 Gig hardrive I was going to use but when I Boot the PC it says something like:

IDE Primary Master ... [Press ALT+F4 to skip]

I also tried a 10 Gig harddrive and it worked and botoed into Windows. SI the 40 Gig corrupt or is there soemthing i can do?

Cheers

 

[Mr. tech]

BTW I pressed ALT+F4 and nothing happend

 

[Alex81388]

HA! I called the ram...

I doubt it is ruined, you may have to reformat it though.

 

[Mr. tech]

Everyone says reformat... Is that jsut fdisking it?

If so, how do I get it to boot so I can fdisk it and reinstall windows?

 

[Nubius]

http://bioscentral.com/beepcodes/awardbeep.htm

Award BIOS beep codes right there. On the left you'll find links for every other BIOS maker for a list of their beep codes.

PC doesn't need to boot to format it, only POST.

If your computer POSTS and you can get into the BIOS and whatnot you can format it.

If you're using WinXP you simply pop in the CD and follow the instructions, easy peasy