PC wont POST... will just sit there and beep.

Hello!
I have the following:
Athlon 2700+ XP
Biostar M7nCD Pro mainboard
512MB RAM DIMMs PC2700 (I believe) x2 (two sticks) (Kingston and Crucial)
Two WD HDDs (250GB each)
Sony DVD+/-R DL burner
WinXP Professional
450w PSU
GeForce 4400ti vid card

I usually leave my PC on for long lengths of time (2-4 weeks at a time), and last night I awoke to my PC making long beeping noises, so when I got up and checked on it it acted like it was shutdown (no lights on case, and monitor light was amber/yellow), but the beeps were still going on... so I shut down the power going to the case and went back to bed. Later today when I got home from work I flipped on my PC and before the monitor even popped on I heard the beep again.. so I waited .. another beep... and no POST... and the beeping continued... (long beep over and over)

So I yanked my master HDD (along with my burner and my video card) out of it and put it into my wife's PC (where I am now), so I could come and ask you all what you thought it was, but before running straight here I stopped by Biostar's site and various other motherboard sites to see what the beeping could mean.
I read that a series of siren-like beeps (hi/low beeps) meant there was something wrong with my heatsink/CPU, and a long beep over and over means that RAM is bad (I guess that is what I read), so here is what I did...

For good measure: I first removed the CMOS jumper from 1-2 and put it on 2-3 for 5 seconds (Biostar said this would reset CMOS) and then put the jumper back on 1-2, and then I took off the fan/heatsink and reapplied thermal compound and reinstalled the fan/heatsink. Turned the PC back on... same long beep... over and over...
So then I thought it might be my RAM... so I took one DIMM out and turned on the PC... same long beep over and over. Turned PC off... put that DIMM back in... took other DIMM out... same thing...
So I figured I would just take out both DIMMs and see what it would do... and of course it did the same beep... now.. I am not sure if it would beep anyway if both DIMMs were out... so I am at a lost here.
I put both DIMMs back in but in opposite spots, and still a beeping noise... (all of this time I do not have my Master HDD/video card/dvd drive in it)

I read somewhere that resetting the CMOS might actually take longer than 5sec, so right now the CMOS battery is out and has been for awhile.

Could it be my PSU? The fan is running but I know that doesnt really matter if the PSU is fried or sending out too low of power.

At this time, the only thing I havent tried is putting the RAM into this PC to see if it works, and I am not even sure if the same RAM can fit into this PC since it is a little bit older mainboard (ASUS A7N8X), and I could also try to put the PSU nto this one, but the less work I do.. the less of a chance I have to screw something else up...

I dont like my wife's PC, so I want mine back...

Help me.... please...

 

to start out, its not the PSU. A dead PSU will give you nothing at all, at least in my experience.

You're correct in thinking that 5 seconds is short to clear CMOS, i usually put the jumper in clear position and remove the battery for at least 30 seconds-- but it seems you've tried that too.

Have you tried with only 1 stick of RAM (alternate, in case one is the culprit)? Can you get your hands on another stick of DDR RAM that will fit just for testing purposes?

I wouldnt imagine it was a fried CPU, though you might want to pull the heatsink off to check.

Lets keep troubleshooting so we can try to fix this, but keep in mind that Biostar has not had a great name for a number of years now, and I have heard quite a few stories of their Motherboards crappin out.

 

The CMOS battery has been out for over an hour now.

When I took off the fan/heatsink and reapplied the compound the CPU looked like it was brand new, and I also had to clean the old compound off of the chip and it seemed like it was ok.

I believe the PC I am using now has DDR RAM in it, so I can try the one DIMM I have here in it, but I am not 100% sure which slot is the main slot in my other PC, so I will see what I can do.

Also... if I was to put a 'good' piece of RAM into the PC and boot it up... would not having a master HDD in it make it beep or something?

I will now go and try to see if this RAM in this machine is DDR and try that out.

 

there is no 'main' RAM slot, if either DIMM is bad you will get the beeping, use 1 DIMM only to narrow it down.

there should be no beeping in the absence of a hard drive, it would simply not do anything after POST (unless it was booting from another device)

let me know how things go

 

Still might be your PSU. Remember you have 12volts, 5volts & 3.3 volts. They all have to be there>

 

Put the DIMM from this [good] machine into the [bad] PC with no other DIMMs in slots... still beeps.

So a bad PSU will cause the PC to make the beeping noise that is normally associated with bad RAM? I really have no clue.

I think I might have it narrowed down to two items... the PSU or the motherboard itself... although there are other peripherals that I have yet to disconnect from the mB, but I doubt any of them would cause this to occur.

For future reference... If I was looking for a Socket A board... what would be a good model (or manufacturer) to look at? I dont really want to update to a newer board than a Socket A yet... I just bought a house so I dont want to spend too much on updating the PC at this time.

So trying to fix this one with the least amount of money spent would be a great thing.

 

hmm, well the best board IMO is an Asus A7N8X Deluxe, but those are nearly impossible to track down now. here are a few that were always highly acclaimed.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=241151
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123221

you definetly want the nForce2 ultra chipset, and stick with a well known company like Asus, Abit, MSI, Epox, or Gigabyte are what come to mind right now as the socket A kings.

 

You've tried taking both RAM chips out and you still get the same beep sequence. I couldn't spot whether you had tried removing the video card and seeing what effect that had.

 

Yeah, took both RAM sticks out and it still made the same beeping sound, and I tried it each stick individually (by themselves) and it still beeped at me. The only thing with the RAM that I didnt try was to try each stick in each of the 3 RAM slots to see if one of the slots were bad, but I did have both sticks in different slots (the same two slots) at different times.

I have had the video card, one HDD, and the DVD burner out of the PC since I started this thread, since I put them into the PC that I am using to type this.

I am getting ready to shut this PC down to try this PC's PSU in the messed up PC, to narrow it down more.

I am guessing if it still beeps after I try the new PSU in it.. then I would figure it is the motherboard.. and I will look into getting a new one... UNLESS one of you out there think it might be something else.

side note: I also have a Dish Network receiver that went down within the last two days (satellite switch has gone bad in the receiver from what I understand), so I am actually thinking it might have been a power surge or something during a storm we had two nights ago that took them both out. Yes... I do have surge protectors (two seperate ones) on both the PC and receiver. The PC one is a huge platform type of surge protector from Interex, the one on the receiver is just a $20ish one from Wal-Mart.

Let me know your opinions!

 

Ok...

I plugged the new PSU (new = known good) into the other PC. I then unplugged everything I saw from the beeping motherboard. So the only items that I had on the motherboard was the RAM, CPU, some fans, and the PSU going into it.

It didnt beep, but it didnt act like it was booting up either, so I hit the small reset button and then the beep started again...

So I "think" the problem might be narrowed down to the motherboard, but I am not 100% sure, because there are still variables on the board that I am unsure of being completely ruled out. Like the RAM (even though I have tried messing with it), the CPU (which looked fine to me when I applied the new thermal compound), and for some reason I am not sure I did the PSU test correctly.
The only thing from the known good PSU that I plugged into that motherboard was the main connector (by the RAM and IDEs)... nothing else.. is this the right way to test it?

From what I have been doing do you think it is the motherboard?

BTW.. I had a chance to look at what PSU I had in the not working PC... Antec True 430 (430w).

thanks for all the help!

 

To really check out the PSU you need to check out the individual voltage outputs. You will need a Volt Meter of some description and be willing to poke around into the sockets while the thing is powered up.

I'll let you know what everything should be if you can tell me that you are able to do this and if you can confirm whether your mobo is ATX which I'm fairly sure it will be.

 

I do not own a volt meter or I would do it. I might be able to borrow one from a friend if I can find one, but I dont really know if anyone has one, and my wife would let me get a new mobo, but I am not sure about a new mobo and a volt meter and then a PSU too.. no matter what the cost is... (yes... she is strange)

Motherboard is ATX.

Since I did plug the good PSU into the culprit motherboard and it still beeped (while using the PSU from this PC), wouldnt it be safe to say that we know that the motherboard is messed up in some way... (since you know... the PSU I used is good enough to run this machine)

The only sure fire way to rule out the other PSU (or just to see if it is messed up along with the mobo) would be me putting the PSU into the machine I am on and checking...

I am sure I will be getting a new mobo, but it wont be for a week or so...

 

Well assuming the surrogate PSU was working properly (Which I think we must). Then it does start to point toward the Mobo. When you tried the other PSU did you have everything such as CD writers, DVD players etc unplugged with only the bare minimum of the HD (or just a floppy drive if you tried booting from there) plugged in? I ask just in case one of these is dragging down the power too much for the thing to boot and it finally killed the original PSU.

 

I had everything disconnected from the mobo, except the RAM, CPU, and some case fans. I didnt even have the floppy plugged in.