Computer Wont Boot

[cruzin101]

A friend of mine gave me his old comp as a hand-me-down 2 days ago, and I wanted to get a new large hd and some more ram before setting everything up. So I start it up with my old HD from my current computer just to see if it will start, everything loads up just fine. Next day I install an extra 512 stick of RAM bringing me up to 1gb and the new hard drive.

I power everything up and I have no signal from the monitor, I then removed the new HD and the stick of RAM, replugged my old HD just like the day before and.. no signal and now it's started to making beeping sounds.

I've tried a bunch of things, resetting cmos, pulling out certain hardware while powering up and eliminating them as the cause. All the while each time I start up the computer starts making beeping sounds, I hear that this indicates either a RAM problem, or a power supply problem. The beeps are 1 second long and come at 2.5 or so second intervals, and I stopped counting after about 11 so I'm sure they would have kept going.

I've stuck the RAM into each slot in various configurations and that doesn't do anything, and all the fans fire up as do the lights. I assume that because the computer is beeping to tell me something is wrong, that the motherboard works.

If I haven't provided enough information then let me know and I'll try to help.

Some specs of this comp:

Abit NF7-S 2000+
Radeon 9700 Pro
LG 16x DVD-Rom 48x CD-Rom
Enermax EG465P-VE 460W Power Supply
2x Samsung 512MB PC3200 DDR400 184PIN OEM (One came with the comp, one I bought)

The new HD is a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 120GB 7200RPM ATA133 9MS 8MB OEM, both the RAM stick and this HD I bought from NCIX.

Some other things to note, my friend was using the comp just fine before he gave it to me, all he did was take out his HD and it looks really dirty/dusty inside.

If you need more info just ask, but if anyone could help me out with this, I would appreciate it.

 

[tylerdrude]

checked the power source?

 

[Elbatrop1]

It kinda sounds like you might have tried this, but I'll say it anyways:

Did you try booting up with all of the original hardware? With the old HD and the old RAM?

 

[cruzin101]

ya i put everything back to the original state from when it was working, and i go to turn on the comp and there is my problem all over again, it doesnt make sense because before i got it to boot from my old hard drive and now it wont even do that anymore. Also all the fans start up so that would mean my power supply is working, but u know that power harnest maybe for some strange reason there is a broken wire in it and thats causing the problem because i've already tried every ram configuration possible, even removing all the ram.

 

[Elbatrop1]

Do you remember who makes the BIOS for you computer? If so you could probably Google some beep codes for it.

Check everything over in your case and your motherboard to make sure that none of the exposed wires on the circuit boards are touching anything else (shorting out).

Some other things to try:
Swap the PSU and vid card for some known good ones (hopefully you have extras)

Hope that gives you somewhere to start

 

[cruzin101]

ya i think i will try my old video card in it and see if that does anything, i looked up the beep codes for my mother board NF7-S Abit, and it says that its either a ram malfunction or a power supply. But you have a good point the tiniest particle making a connection even in the ram channels could throw the entire thing off.

 

[cruzin101]

Yea its just like one tone ever 2 seconds doesnt change. I even tried taking the entire mother board out laying it on a piece of carboard no ram no video card, no hard drive nothing but the power supply connected to it and that little speaker and turned the thing on and there is that beep x(.Then i kept on trying different configurations of ram even ram from my other comptuer and still nothing. I tried using a air can to blow off every single part of the mother board even used contact cleaner. Gone as far as getting the exact specs for all the pin outs on the power supply and tested every single voltage on the power harnest, the power supply is in perfect condition. I know it cant be ram now the funny part is that it worked before with that ram then all of the sudden i put the new stuff in and nothing works then i took the new stuff out and put the computer back to the original condition it still beeped. Im guessing its the cpu or the mother board but if it was the cpu it would make that two tone police car siren which it doesnt so im stumped. Maybe some static charge fried some ic on the mother board who knows, but i dont remember anything like that ever happening. And if the mother board was fried why would it completely power up with all the fans spinning video card on hard drive on dvd rom on, even the front usb ports light up my optical mouse but the computer just beeps and doesnt attempt to load or do anything other than that, so i have no way of getting into any bios menus. You know what im going to record it for you guys to hear lol.

there u guys go
i recorded it
www.geocities.com/ptbc2/Theexactbeeps.MP3

oh and some more interesting facts. When i first turn on the computer there is two lights on at the front of the case, a green power light and looks to be a red hard drive light at least i think thats what it is. After 7 beeps the red light goes out but the beeps dont stop. I got pictures to show you guys. You know what i was thinking after that 7th beep it sounded kinda short and then the red light went out and it started beeping all over again, maybe 7 beeps is one full cycle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v674/ptbc2/redandgreen.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v674/ptbc2/steadygreen.jpg

and yea i tried it with the floppy out. lol

and here is a pic of my mother board for the heck of it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v674/ptbc2/boardshot.jpg

 

[joshshift]

i have had a power supply go bad a still had all my lights fans etc work. try a new psu.