long beep after POST beeps? (and not ram related?)

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PuluPulu

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I am having trouble helping someone to fix a computer. Right now I can't identify what is the beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep (1 long continuous non-stop beep) after POST mean. The PC can boot up to check ram, enter cmos etc, but as soon as it try to get past POST, this beep happen, leaving the screen with pure black with a blinking "_".

I was able to get the PC to boot up with a different hard drive. (replacing ONLY the hard drive)

I also took the hard drive out to run scandisk (windows), chkdsk (command prompt), seagate's seatool test (all test except advance test). No problem detected. (the PC with the problem can also identify the HD)

I plan to go out later to buy some spare DDR3 (have none currently), to test if it really is the RAM; but, it doesn't make sense that I can boot up 100% fine with this same ram with a different hard drive.

It is a gateway sx2800-01
Gateway SX2800-01 Desktop Computer - 2.33 GHz - Slim Tower - product summary - Bing Shopping
 
To clarify what the beep sound like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBb7Z7RzHTM

It sounds similar to that. Long continuous beep.

It will boot up with the normal beep like everything is ok, until booting hard drive. Also can't boot from usb storage and unable to get to the menu to choose what drive to boot.
 
An update.

I posted the same problem on anandtech forums and someone gave me a short tip about possible SATA issue.

After I switched the SATA cable, I was able to identify hard drive's problem with the hard drive beeping (not PC beeping). It is weird that the old SATA cable was not able to get the HD to beep.

Luckily I was able to make this hard drive work with an USB hard drive seater, so no lost of important data.

Thanks to all who read and spend some time on this.
 
Older sata cables are usually covered in rubber the newer ones use plastic or silicon in towers I am not sure about laptops but the newer ones are not easily damaged whereas rubber can melt maybe even damaging the wires in the process so be careful. (Silicon cables are VERY expensive but the plastic are cheap)
 
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