Duncan on 4/7/2008 at 03:51
Mum has been having pc troubles and like the good son that i am, i have the joyous task of fixing it once again. This time though things are not looking good. So i turn to you dear readers to see if you can give me any further help before i pull the plug in the old girl (the pc, not my mum).
Here's the run down...
It all started with the occasion lockup or sudden reboot. I gave the hard drive a good scanning for errors, bad sectors, and any malicious software. All good. Ran a memory diagnostic using memtest86. No errors found. All fans are working (replaced the cpu fan not long ago). I then cleaned up the drivers and made sure everything was up to date. Things went fine for a about 24 hrs. Today, she complained that it would not start and just kept beeping at her. So i took another look, and sure enough, 8 short beeps. Reseated the graphics card, no joy. Replaced the graphics card with another agp, as well as an old pci card, same problem (8 beeps). Figured i'd check the memory modules. Took them all out and tried one at a time. Same error beeps. Though with one particular stick, i suddenly received 3 long beeps. Checked that out to find something about keyboards. So i tried a different keyboard as well as a usb keyboard. Same problem. Put all the ram back in and went back to 8 beeps.
So, yeah, i'm not sure what else to check. Could this be the end of The Beast? It must be at least an 8 year old pc. Any ideas?
Duncan on 4/7/2008 at 07:31
I have tried 3 different cards (2 agp, 1 pci).
Microwave Oven on 4/7/2008 at 19:01
One thing I would try, given the age of the system (8 years old, right?), is to clear the CMOS and replace the battery. This has sometimes cleared up mystery problems for me before.
theBlackman on 4/7/2008 at 22:08
Good idea. Write down all your BIOS settings first. If your TIME has been getting off the correct time now and then, then it probably is the CMOS.
Check with the Mfg of the MOBO, or read the manual, if you have one, to see how to clear the CMOS settings. Usually it's a jumper pin to ground out the EPROM that holds the settings.
PS: The CMOS battery is usually a 2032
Duncan on 5/7/2008 at 01:23
I can't get at the BIOS settings due to the POST error. But that is no biggie. I am comfortable working under the hood. I'll give the CMOS a shot. I'm thinking i may have to pick up a few upgrades and rebuild it anyway. This thing has been falling apart for a while now. Thanks for the tips guys.
kodan50 on 24/7/2008 at 18:00
No POST? Yucky.
Last time I had this problem, I had to start with a base and work my way up. If you have some ESD equipment, you can take the mobo out and clean it, then try turning it on with the absolute basics. If you are poor like me and don't have an ESD setup, then you might just want to ground yourself for a few minutes on the frame and just work within the tower itself.
Usually I would start with yanking all cables, and plug in only the basics. one ram module, the CPU, plug in the power cable to the mobo and fire up. See if you still get the same 8 beeps. It sounds like you tried fiddling with the memory. I remember once my laptop reported 64 megs of memory, unless I swiched the memory modules around, then I only got 48. Infinately fun stuff.
I would say that if you have only basic stuff and you are getting the same issue, no POST, and angry beeps, then you might just have to replace the board. A new (very decent) system should only cost about 300 or so. It depends on how much of the parts you have are reusable, or if you would even want to...
Duncan on 25/7/2008 at 22:36
Yeah i done all that before posting. Depending on what i have installed, it switches between error codes. With one ram module (regardless one which module i use) in it'll report a keyboard controller problem. With more than one module it'll report a video problem. But like i said, this thing is so old that it just isn't worth my time. I've shelved the whole thing for parts and ordered in some new stuff.
CaptSyn on 23/8/2008 at 15:26
Did you check the motherboard manual for the beep codes? Beep codes vary greatly between makes and even models of the same make. There is no universal standard. Also, some older boards have leds you have to watch.
If the mobo is dying, you really can't trust the beep or led codes anyway.
Either buy a decent budget system off the shelf or build her one. Complete systems can be had for $400. Even less if you go with a barebones kit and use some existing hardware.
I spent about $600 earlier this year on new Q6600 build and all I bought was a Gigabyte G33M-S2L mobo, cpu, 2x1 gig dual channel Corsair ram, WD 80gig sata2 HD, a Lite-On sata2 burner, and an 8400GS pcie vidcard and it runs Crysis very well. I'm still using my old IDE hard drives as well, so I have plenty of storage.
Just to give you an idea on some price ranges, I paid almost $300 for my Q6600, but it's now less than $250. Ram is still dirt cheap, I paid $32 for my Corsair PC6400 ram. Large hard drives are going for about 20 cents per gig, which is awesome. Medium to high end video cards can be had for $150 or less, and I'm talking 8800 series. I paid $30 for my MSI 8400GS 256meg DDR2, brand new from Newegg.
Of course I doubt your mother is a gamer, but she could easily have a nice rig to last many years without upgrades for cheap.
You should also be aware that there's a lot of bad hardware on the market these days, far more than I've ever seen and I've been doing this for many years. So you might want to look at an OEM machine for your mom, rather than deal with all the BS of returning hardware.
I went through 4 mobos, different makes and models, while trying to build my current rig, before I got one that worked. This is why I had my mom get a Dell.
My mom recently bought a sweet Dell Inspiron 530 desktop for less than $800, and she got 3 gigs ram, 500gig HD, Core2Duo 2.6ghz, 22inch widescreen monitor. There's no way I could've built the same rig for less, plus the warranty.
All she does is surf the net and play games on Pogo, but she won't have to upgrade anything for many years.
