PC problem

Can anyone help me out here?

Have an oldish Compaq deskpro, tried to switch it on and all I get is one long and three short beeps, followed by the caps lock light flashing.

Have checked inside and nothing appears to be loose.

Any ideas?

Ta.

 

1 short beep - Normal POST - system is OK
2 short beeps - POST error - error code shown on screen
No beep - Power supply or system board problem
Continuous beep - Power supply, system board, or keyboard problem
Repeating short beeps - Power supply or system board problem
1 long, 1 short beep - System board problem
1 long, 2 short beeps - Display adapter problem (MDA, CGA)
1 long, 3 short beeps - Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)
3 long beeps - 3270 keyboard card

Peter

 

Found another set of codes

1 Short Beep One beep is good! Everything is ok, that is if you see things on the screen. If you don't see anything, check your monitor and video card first. Is everything connected? If they seem fine, your motherboard has some bad chips on it. First reset the SIMM's and reboot. If it does the same thing, one of the memory chips on the motherboard are bad, and you most likely need to get another motherboard since these chips are soldered on.
2 Short Beeps Your computer has memory problems. First check video. If video is working, you'll see an error message. If not, you have a parity error in your first 64K of memory. First check your SIMM's. Reseat them and reboot. If this doesn't do it, the memory chips may be bad. You can try switching the first and second banks memory chips. First banks are the memory banks that your CPU finds its first 64K of base memory in. You'll need to consult your manual to see which bank is first. If all your memory tests good, you probably need to buy another motherboard.
3 Short Beeps Basically the same thing as 2 beeps. Follow that diagnosis above.
4 Short Beeps Basically the same thing as 2 beeps. Follow that diagnosis above. It could also be a bad timer
5 Short Beeps Your motherboard is complaining. Try reseating the memory and rebooting. If that doesn't help, you should consider another motherboard. You could probably get away with just replacing the CPU, but that's not too cost-effective. Its just time to upgrade!
6 Short Beeps The chip on your motherboard that controls your keyboard (A20 gate) isn't working. First try another keyboard. If it doesn't help, reseat the chip that controls the keyboard, if it isn't soldered in. If it still beeps, replace the chip if possible. Replace the motherboard if it is soldered in.
7 Short Beeps Your CPU broke overnight. Its no good. Either replace the CPU, or buy another motherboard.
8 Short Beeps Your video card isn't working. Make sure it is seated well in the bus. If it still beeps, either the whole card is bad or the memory on it is. Best bet is to install another video card.
9 Short Beeps Your BIOS is bad. Reseat or Replace the BIOS.
10 Short Beeps Your problem lies deep inside the CMOS. All chips associated with the CMOS will likely have to be replaced. Your best bet is to get a new motherboard.
11 Short Beeps Your problem is in the Cache Memory chips on the motherboard. Reseat or Replace these chips.
1 Long, 3 Short Beeps You've probably just added memory to the motherboard since this is a conventional or extended memory failure. Generally this is caused by a memory chip that is not seated properly. Reseat the memory chips.
1 Long, 8 Short Beeps Display / retrace test failed. Reseat the video card.


Good luck, sounds like you may need it

Peter

 

Thanks for that.

Don't think it's a memory problem 'cos I haven't added anything and nothing seems loose. So that leaves EGA.

Does that mean I need a new video card? How much are they?

Thanks for your help.

 

You could try taking the card oput and putting it back again.

Peter

 

One long and three short? You mean -... ?

-... = Bravo = "I am taking on or discharging dangerous goods"

I think it's trying to warn you 8O

:wink:

 

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep = dead.

I've seen it on Casualty

 

Depends on a number of factors; not hugely expensive if you're not planning to play Elder Scrolls:Oblivion or similar, although I would suggest it's probably not worth spending money if it's >5yrs old.

A potential problem might be the age of the computer - you say 'oldish' - but it may well be that a replacement video card (or the drivers to support it) is unavailable - shouldn't be too much of a problem provided the motherboard has an AGP slot; probably will be if not, in which case, may I suggest this?

(You may also want to try Rapid Computers in Childwall, or the wee Computer shop in Wavertree High St - have experience of Rapid & they're pretty good. But not PC World, as they are evil)

Right. I shall take the geek hat off now...

APN

 

Maybe somehow the BIOS things you have an EGA card rather than a VGA card (it's 99.999% certain you have the latter).

I would suggest resetting the BIOS, the easiest way to do this is to unplug the machine from the mains, remove the battery (there should be a little watch battery inside the machine - if not let me know) and leave the machine to sit for an hour or two. Then put the battery back in and switch on. Might help.

 

Hey shippers, you think that you have problems. Suck back sideways hinny. I had a piece of shit which had a 2.8 Gb CPU, 1024 Mb RAM, 250Gb hard disk, so on and so forth, blah, blah and the turkey can't even get up in the morning.

Take a serious tip from me, I unplugged my kit and threw it in the sky because I was SOOOOO fuckin angry. I then stomped the twat and killed it fuckin dead. After that, I helved the ******.

I was a lot of money out of pocket and felt like a dick when I had sobered up the following morning, but hey man. I sat down and listened to Cream, Deep Purple and the like. Talk about a calming influence. The PC shit definately dead, but hey man my life was still ahead of me. Stomp the bastard and give it my regards. Especially that shit called hardware, the septic shit. :evil:

 

If you really want to get excited and try to fix your kit, .......... then don't listen to the Hives while your trying to reconcile your life with your PC. You may find out that there are better things out there in life. Like music, drink, women and other such likes.

 

I found a PC used to last me about 2-3 years before it conked out on me - or to be more precise I probably buggered it up by experimenting with the OS (fascinating if you grew up with the things). Have gone for the Apple iMac and never looked back - completely idiot proof - ideal for people like me. They are initially expensive but they do not drive you round the bend the way PCs do. Having probs - just turn it off and start again - nice and simple. If you want to add or remove software - just move the icon into the Applications (Programs in PC speak) icon or out of it into the Trash Can. I could never go back to PCs. I only cope with PCs at work because whenever anything goes wrong I can get someone out to fix it for me whilst I go for a tea break!

What happened to my old PC - I thoroughly enjoyed dismantling it. I still can't believe that the hard disk which holds all that data is the tiny thing I took apart, it looked incapable of storing half-an-hour's music on it!